Re: Sirba

[Sandra Layman <sandralayman...>]

Ah, interesting question.

Sure, the sarba (sa^rba~ or si^rba~; current Romanian orthography spells it
with the "a^") is named after the Serbs. But what does this mean? The Greeks
call a medium to fast 2/4 dance a "hasaposerviko" (literally, a butcher's
Serbian [dance]) or simply "serviko" -- also named after the Serbs, but a
different dance.

Now, here's an interesting little definition, which I'm translating from a
Romanian music dictionary (Dictionar de termeni muzicali, 1984) entry
written by dance scholar Constantin Costea:

    sirba - Romanian folk dance, with a binary rhythm, found throughout
    the whole country with diverse variants and names ("in trei ciocane"
    [in three hammers], "la bataie" [by/on the beat], etc.). It is also
known
    among the Bulgarians and the Serbs, who call it "Romanian dance."
    The sirba is danced in a semicircle formation, with arms on shoulders.
    It goes at a lively and fast clip, snaking around or danced in place,
    with springing and crossing-over [crossed] steps.

So the Serbs pass the buck and call it Romanian.

BTW, why is a bulgar called a bulgar? It doesn't sound very Bulgarian to
me... ;-) Has anyone come up with a definitive answer

Sandra

Sandra Layman


----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul M. Gifford" <PGIFFORD (at) flint(dot)umich(dot)edu>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2001 2:33 PM
Subject: Re: Sirba


> Helen Winkler" <winklerh (at) hotmail(dot)com> wrote:
>
> >Just got word back from my Romanian dancing friend that she has never
> >come across a documented dance connection between Serbians and the
> >Romanian dance "sirba."  She has posed this same question to the
> >various Romanian dance instructors from Romania that she has worked
> >with and none of them are aware of a connection.
>
> Of course I meant that the word came from Serbia, or rather that the
> word indicated a Serb origin, not that the dance came from that
> region.  In the 16th century in Moldavia and Galicia, musicians played
> what they called a "Serb" fiddle (_serbska_) at dances and banquets.
> Who knows? Maybe the name of the dance could have come from the
> instrument (which was none other than the Byzantine lira).
>
> Paul Gifford
>
>
>

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