10. CARPATHIANS III: THE ROM

Gypsies, or Rom as they are properly called, have been the musical ‘middlemen’ of Europe for hundreds of years. Migrating in nomadic caravans, they regularly crossed political and cultural boundaries, bringing new musical idioms with them. Hungarians thought of Gypsy musicians as indispensable to weddings and large parties. The unusual generosity which Hungarian patrons would sometimes shower upon Rom musicians is a common theme in Carpathian literatures, even among ‘third person’ observers such as the Slovaks. Small Gypsy bands were a common feature of night life in the whole region, from the isolated inns (czarda) of the Pannonian plain to upscale city restaurants. Gypsy music was absorbed so enthusiastically by Hungarian composers that distinctions between the two traditions became blurred. This confusion was so complete that in the early twentieth century a large-scale effort was made to re-educate the public, in order to gain support for studying and preserving true Hungarian folkmusic. It is interesting that in an era when the musical histories of many nations were being rewritten to suit nationalist ideals, the work of those early Hungarian musicologists stands proudly as an example of accuracy and scientific treatment. A great deal of Rom, Slovak, and Rumanian music was defined as part of the same phenomenon. For centuries it was presumed that the non-Western elements of Rom folkmusic were attributable to a Semitic origin (the Hijaz and Hijaskyar scales codified in Islamic music are prominent in Rom and Jewish music). By the late twentieth century, however, it was generally agreed that the Rom originated in India.