Cerbul de Aur – [The Golden Stag], the Intervision Songcontest, held in Brasov, Romania. Steinmetz won this contest in 1970. The first edition was held in 1968 before it was banned by the RSR after the 1971 edition. In 1991 the festival returned, but had to stop due to a lack of funds. In 2018 it returned to stay and still is held yearly in Brasov.
‘Gypsy’ – An exoticized, generalizing depiction of Roma people.
IFB – Institutul de Folclor Bucureşti (Folkloric Institute of Bucharest, IFB). Institutul de Folclor Bucureşti (Folkloric Institute of Bucharest, IFB), is founded in 1928, way before the socialist rule. Until 1949 it was known as the Arhiva de Folkor (Folkloric Archive), and it belonged to the Societății Compozitorilor Români (Romanian Composers Society). In 1949, two years after the start of the socialist rule, it became a state institute and got the new name Institutul de Folclor Bucureşti with Harry Brauner as its first chairman. From 1964 on, the IFB has been renamed several times. Today it still exists and is known as the Institutul de Etnografie și Folklor ‘Constantin Brăiloiu’.
Lăutar/lăutari – Romanian Roma musician/musicians. The ţigani divide themselves in subgroups according to their occupation, for instance: florari—flowersellers; aurari—goldsmiths; ungaritza—blacksmiths; and lăutari—musicians. When this paper addresses the ţigani, it addresses the entire Romanian Romani population. While addressing lăutari, this paper specifically zooms in on the musicians.
Muzica lăutarească – Music from the lăutari.
Muzica populară – New Romanian Folklore, commissioned by the RPR.
Muzica ţiganeasca – Music with lăutari style elements.
Muzica usoară – Romanian light music.
Nai – Romanian Romani panflute. A nai is a Romanian Romani panflute, that, at Luca’s time, mostly existed of 20 tubes, glued together in an arc form. It is a top blown wind instrument, and the tubes are closed at the bottom. To tune the nai, beeswax is used to fill the tubes to achieve the right pitch. The nai has an altered mouthpiece, giving the player the opportunity to create ornamentations based on tone bending. Although it is now known as the Romanian panflute, it is in fact of Iranian origin. The nai, by then known as miskal (شیکل, a Turkish word that literally translates as shekel or sickle, referring to the bend shape of the instrument), travelled with the Persians to the Ottomans and the Ottomans adapted the instrument as a means of entertainment for the soldiers in the mehterân (مهتران, Ottoman army orchestras). During the Ottoman occupation in Romania, the miskal was adopted by lăutari, and in Romanian vernacular it became known as muscal or moscal. Over the years the muscal has gotten another name: nai, after the nay or ney,a Turkish reed flute. Although these are complete different wind instruments, the ney and the nai mix perfectly in sound
Roma – Denotes the global Roma population, without directly insinuating stereotypes and negative connotations. There is no consensus among Romanian Roma people to how they prefer to be addressed. Some prefer to be addressed as Roma, others as ţigani, despite its similar negative connotations as Romani, Romm, or Gypsy.
RPR/RSR – Republica Populară Romînă: the Romanian People’s republic (RPR). From 1947 until 1989, Romania was under socialist rule and basically a Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist state. In the early days it was known as the Republica Populară Romînă: the Romanian People’s republic (RPR). After 1965, it became known as the Republica Socialistă Romînă: the Romanian Socialist Republic (RSR).
Taraf – An ensemble (plural tarafuri) of approximately 5-7 lăutari.
Ţâmbal – Romanian Romani cimbalom (musical instrument).
Ţigan/ţigani – Romanian Romani person/people. Literally translates to ‘Gypsy’. There is no consensus among Romanian Roma people to how they prefer to be addressed. Some prefer to be addressed as Roma, others as ţigani, despite its similar negative connotations as Romani, Romm, or ‘Gypsy’.
