Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

n music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

is closely related to that of its neighbour and cultural kin, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. Moldovan folk is known for swift, complex rhythms (a characteristic shared with many Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

an traditions), musical improvisation

Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

, syncopation

Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...

 and much melodic

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

 ornamentation

Ornament (music)

In music, ornaments or embellishments are musical flourishes that are not necessary to carry the overall line of the melody , but serve instead to decorate or "ornament" that line. Many ornaments are performed as "fast notes" around a central note...

. Pop, hip hop, rock and other modern genres have their own fans in Moldova as well. Modern pop stars include O-Zone

O-Zone

O-Zone was a Romania/Moldovan pop music trio that was active from 1998 to 2005 and consisted of Dan Bălan, Radu Sîrbu, and Arsenie Todiraş. The group gained global popularity with their song "Dragostea din tei" and their subsequent album DiscO-Zone....

, a Romanian and Moldovan band whose "Dragostea din tei

Dragostea din tei

"Dragostea din tei" , also informally known as "The Numa Numa Song" , is the most successful single by the Moldovan pop group O-Zone, sung in Romanian. It shot to the number one spot on the Eurochart Hot 100, where it remained for 12 weeks between June and early September 2004...

" was a major 2004 European hit, guitarist and songwriter Vladimir Pogrebniuc, Natalia Barbu

Natalia Barbu

Natalia Barbu is a Moldovan singer.- Music career :Throughout her career, Natalia has worked with a group of musicians called Trigon on an alternative jazz-folk experiment...

, who is well known in Germany, Romania and Ukraine, and Nelly Ciobanu

Nelly Ciobanu

Nelly Ciobanu is a Moldovan singer. Ciobanu graduated from music college of the city of Tiraspol. Nelly made her debut on stage in 1993, with her brother as part of duo "Master Dinamit"...

. The band Flacai became well known in the 1970s across Moldova, turning their hometown of Cahul

Cahul

-Demographics:According to the last Moldovan census from 2004 there were 35,488 people living within the city of Cahul and 1,317 people within Cotihana....

 into an important center of music.

Folk music

During the Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 era, Moldovan folk culture flourished, and was strongly promoted by the government. However, many elements were altered to obscure the shared history of Romania and Moldova, because the Soviet Union wanted to discourage secession.

The Mioriţa

Miorita

Mioriţa is an old Romanian pastoral ballad and considered one of the most important pieces of Romanian folklore. It has several, quite different in content versions, one of which was selected by Vasile Alecsandri to the form the textbook reference.-Content:The setting is a simple one: three...

is ancient ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 that is a very important part of Moldovan folk culture.

Popular Moldovan musicians

• Arkady Luxemburg
  Arkady Luxemburg
  Arkady Luxemburg is one of the most prolific and renowned living Moldovan composers. He received a Master of Arts degree in 1964 at the Academy of Music in Kishinev, Moldova in the former Soviet Union, where he received degrees in piano performance, composition, and music theory...
  
  
• Alternosfera
  Alternosfera
  Alternosfera is an alternative rock band from Chişinău, The Republic of Moldova.The history of post-Soviet rock in the Republic of Moldova is a concise one. Since 1991, only a few bands , managed to occupy solid positions on the show-business arena of the Republic of Moldova and abroad.Alternosfera...
  
  
• Arsenium
• Dan Balan
  Dan Balan
  Dan Mihai Bălan is a Moldavian singer, songwriter, and producer. He was born to Mihai Bălan and Ludmila Bălan, a TV presenter. Dan Bălan has performed eurodance and commercially pop music...
  
  
• Flacai
• Sofia Rotaru
  Sofia Rotaru
  Sofia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru known as Sofia Rotaru is a Soviet and Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian/Moldavian heritage....
  
  
• Natalia Barbu
  Natalia Barbu
  Natalia Barbu is a Moldovan singer.- Music career :Throughout her career, Natalia has worked with a group of musicians called Trigon on an alternative jazz-folk experiment...
  
  
• Nelly Ciobanu
  Nelly Ciobanu
  Nelly Ciobanu is a Moldovan singer. Ciobanu graduated from music college of the city of Tiraspol. Nelly made her debut on stage in 1993, with her brother as part of duo "Master Dinamit"...
  
  
• Noroc
  Noroc
  Noroc is a music group from Moldova, created in 1967 by Mihai Dolgan.-History:"Noroc" became very popular in the USSR after the release of their first album in 1968 which included the following songs:...
  
  
• Orizont
• O-Zone
  O-Zone
  O-Zone was a Romania/Moldovan pop music trio that was active from 1998 to 2005 and consisted of Dan Bălan, Radu Sîrbu, and Arsenie Todiraş. The group gained global popularity with their song "Dragostea din tei" and their subsequent album DiscO-Zone....
  
  
• Romanian Verzalube
• Zdob şi Zdub
  Zdob si Zdub
  Zdob şi Zdub is a Moldovan band, based in Chişinău, whose work for the last several years has combined elements of hip-hop , hardcore punk and comical lyrics with traditional Romanian folk music. The name is onomatopoeic for the sound of a drum beat...
  
  
• Radu Sîrbu
• Sun Stroke Project
• Pavel Stratan
  Pavel Stratan
  Pavel Stratan is a Moldovan popular singer born in the village of Nişcani, Raionul Călăraşi, Moldova .In 1977, he played the guitar for the first time on stage, at school...
  
  
• Cleopatra Stratan
  Cleopatra Stratan
  Cleopatra Stratan is the youngest person ever to score commercial success as a singer, with her 2006 album La vârsta de trei ani...
  
  

Musical institutions

Moldova's folk music and dance companies, troupes and orchestras are well-known, especially Jok, an academic dance company; a jok is a celebration that includes dances, as well as the part of a town where the dancing takes place.

The Orchestra of Moldovan Folk Music and Dance was founded in 1949; the orchestra plays Romanian

Music of Romania

Romania is a European country with a multicultural music environment which includes active ethnic music scenes. Romania also has thriving scenes in the fields of pop music, hip hop, heavy metal and rock and roll...

, Russian

Music of Russia

Music of Russia denotes music produced in Russia and/or by the Russians. Russia is a large and culturally diverse country, with many ethnic groups, each with their own locally developed music...

, Ukrainian

Music of Ukraine

Ukraine is a multi-ethnic Eastern European state situated north of the Black Sea, previously part of the Soviet Union. Many of its ethnic groups living within Ukraine have their own unique musical traditions and some have developed specific musical traditions in association with the land in which...

, Polish

Music of Poland

Artists from Poland, including famous composers like Chopin or Lutosławski and traditional, regionalized folk musicians, create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as poezja śpiewana.- Beginning :...

, German music

Music of Germany

Forms of German-language music include Neue Deutsche Welle , Krautrock, Hamburger Schule, Volksmusik, Classical, German hip hop, trance, Schlager, Neue Deutsche Härte and diverse varieties of folk music, such as Waltz and Medieval metal....

.

Music festival

Music festival

A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

s in Moldova include The Faces of Friends, held in the town of Cahul

Cahul

-Demographics:According to the last Moldovan census from 2004 there were 35,488 people living within the city of Cahul and 1,317 people within Cotihana....

; this festival was founded in 1996.

See also

• Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
  Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
  Moldova has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest six times, debuting in 2005. Following the poor result in the 2006 contest, the Moldovan broadcaster, Teleradio-Moldova announced that it would withdraw from participation and did not allocate a budget for the 2007 Contest...
  
  
• clip of Moldovan folk music

External links

Audio clips: Traditional music of Moldova. Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève. Accessed November 25, 2010.

• Moldavan folk music at NorocTV over 500 music videos
• MSN Encarta (Archived 2009-11-01)