Structural Features Present in Laments from Bacău County
Structural Features Present in Laments from Bacău County

Summary/Abstract: Ancient thinking does not consider death as an end of the soul and body, but as a passage followed by another stage of existence. The pathway to heaven begins on earth with the first preparations that are made by the living for the deceased. The funeral repertoire comprises three musical species that have distinctive features both on the functional plane and regarding the themes and style. These are: the lament (funeral song), the ritual-ceremonial song, and the verş (funeral peasant song). Along the multitude of customs present in the funeral ritual, in the Bacău area there is a melodic type of lament, which differs greatly from the other parts of the country given its free form containing lyrics with supernumerary syllables, resulting in metric prose, or even prose proper.

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