Gypsy Music

The Balkans and Beyond

Alan Ashton-Smith

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781780238654
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Gypsies have for centuries been simultaneously vilified and romanticized—associated with criminality and dirt, but at the same time with color, magic, and music. Gypsy music is popular around the world and often performed with gusto at major events, including at weddings in Bulgaria, jazz bars in Paris, and festivals in the United States.In Gypsy Music, Alan Ashton-Smith explores why this music has such wide appeal, surveying the varied styles that are considered to be gypsy music and asking what links them together. The book begins in the Balkans, home to the world's largest Romani populations and a major site of gypsy music production. But just as the traditionally nomadic Roma have traveled globally, so has their music. Gypsy music styles have roots and associations outside of the Balkans, including Russian Romani guitar music, flamenco and gypsy jazz, and the more recent forms of gypsy punk and Balkan beats.Covering the thirteenth century to the present day, and with a geographical scope that ranges from rural Romania to New York by way of Budapest, Moscow, and Andalusia, Gypsy Music reveals the remarkable diversity of this exuberant art form.

1	THE ORIGINS OF BALKAN GYPSY MUSIC

It is important to distinguish between the words ‘gypsy’ and ‘Roma’. Although the two are often used interchangeably, they have very different connotations, and for my purposes in attempting to define gypsy music they have quite different meanings. Gypsy is considered by many to be a derogatory term – despite the fact that many Roma self-identify as such – and it is associated with wandering, criminality and the other stereotypes that we have already discussed. Roma is a less loaded term and its use helps to avoid the perpetuation of stereotyping.

As I continue to consider what gypsy music is, I will use the words ‘Roma’ and ‘Romani’ when referring to the Romani people, and the word ‘gypsy’ to signify the mythologized, exoticized construction of the Roma that often appears in non-Romani representation. I will refer to Romani music when describing the music played by Romani musicians, but the question at the heart of this book concerns gypsy music, and I will continue to use this term so as to acknowledge that this music has also in many cases been the product of exoticism and reconstruction by outsiders. As we shall see, some music can be described as both Romani music and gypsy music, but gypsy music is not always played by Romani people.

However, our investigation into gypsy music begins with the history of the Roma, which will illuminate how the Romani people became so strongly connected to and associated with music. It is generally agreed, based on linguistic and genetic evidence, that the origins of the Roma lie in Rajasthan, in northwestern India, and that they gradually migrated westwards and became dispersed. The motive for their initial migration from India is uncertain, but numerous suggestions have been made. Romani scholar Ian Hancock has posited that the Roma were a warrior caste, who were engaged in fighting the Muslim Ghaznavid Empire, which repeatedly invaded India during the eleventh century.¹ He believes that they began as an assembly of non-Aryans, who were considered by the Aryan castes to be expendable in battle, and accordingly were sent to the front line. As this army fought the invaders, they gradually took a westerly trajectory, and commenced their migration in this way. Ronald Lee dates the beginning of the diaspora to the same period, but goes a step further. His theory is that some of the Indian troops defeated by the Muslims were incorporated into the Ghaznavid army, and then became involved in raids in regions further east, such as Armenia. Displaced from India, this group of captive refugees eventually began to take on an identity that differentiated them from both their conquerors and their ancestors.²

However their diaspora began, it is indisputable that having moved gradually west through Persia and the Middle East, many Roma arrived in the Balkans, where large Romani populations continue to live. Hancock dates their first appearance in Europe to the end of the thirteenth century; there were certainly Roma in Europe shortly after this time, many of whom were enslaved.³ This seems to have begun almost as soon as they appeared in the Balkans: Angus Fraser asserts that ‘the first mention of Gypsies in Rumanian archives occurs in a document issued in 1385 . . . [which] . . . confirmed the grant of 40 families of Gypsies,’ while Hancock cites references to Romani slaves that date back to earlier than 1355.⁴ Meanwhile, David Crowe stresses that the widespread slavery of the Roma that occurred for centuries in parts of what is now Romania set the precedent for that country’s particularly poor record of Roma integration, which persists to this day.⁵ Although not all Roma were enslaved, persecution was universal. They were not permitted to lead the nomadic lifestyles that many had adopted, and were often subjected to unfair trials. Although the murder of Roma was not officially permitted, it was rarely punished. Fraser has written,

Had all the anti-Gypsy laws which sprang up been enforced uncompromisingly, even for a few months, the Gypsies would have been eradicated from most of Christian Europe well before the middle of the sixteenth century.⁶

It was not until 1864, shortly after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in the United States, that Romani slaves in the Balkans gained ‘complete legal freedom’.⁷ This period of slavery is a lengthy antecedent to a trend of persecution that continues to the present day. Regarded as savage intruders with unknown origins, the Roma have been reviled and subjected to severe discrimination.

This reached its nadir in the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany, a major manifestation of the persecution of the Roma that is often overlooked. Although numerous historians and scholars of Romani studies have begun to comment on the lack of attention that the Holocaust’s Romani victims have received, and attempts to rectify this deficiency have lately been made, the loss of Romani life that occurred is more often than not still treated as a footnote to the mass extermination of the Jews.

While it is impossible to determine how many Roma died in the Holocaust – this is compounded by the unreliable data concerning their population – Hancock estimates that ‘over half of the Romani population in Nazi-occupied Europe’ was killed.⁸ As Barany points out, ‘The extermination of the Gypsies was far less meticulously documented by the Nazis and their collaborators than was the murder of the Jews,’ and the Roma themselves, being largely illiterate, were less able to record their ordeal in writing.⁹ The latter of these problems has persisted long after the end of the Third Reich: while many Jewish survivors have written accounts of the Holocaust, fewer Roma have been able to do so. An attempt towards countering this was made around 1971, when lyrics were composed for the traditional song ‘Djelem Djelem’ and it was adopted as a Romani anthem; these lyrics directly referenced the deaths of Roma in the Holocaust.

Deportation of German Roma, 1940.

Countless versions of ‘Djelem Djelem’ have been recorded, from Šaban Bajramović’s piano ballad interpretation to the version by the Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra, which recalls New Orleans funeral jazz, and the brass rendition of the Kočani Orkestar. But it is the more downbeat interpretations, such as Bajramović’s, and Ljiljana Buttler’s soulful recording, that really capture the spirit of the song’s lyrics and the legacy of the Romani Holocaust. Survivors remain marginalized by governments, receiving substantially fewer reparations than their Jewish counterparts and encountering a resistance towards Romani Holocaust memorials. A programme of compensation for Jewish victims was established, but this was not the case for Romani victims.¹⁰

Systematic extermination of this kind is undoubtedly as severe as persecution of any race or group can be, but the end of the Second World War nonetheless brought a fresh form of oppression for the Roma. With most of Eastern Europe now under communist rule, the Roma who lived there were expected to conform to the expectations of this system. Accordingly, they were required to integrate, and any outward display of their particular culture, including music, was generally forbidden. In many cases being Romani was simply not permitted, and Roma were expected to define themselves as, for example, Bulgarian or Yugoslavian. This forced identity is one reason for a lack of reliable census data by which Romani populations might be measured today. Many Eastern European Roma now pine for the greater stability and socialist public services that they were afforded during the socialist era, and while many were better off in socioeconomic terms, it was at the expense of their distinct identity.

It was not only identity that was revoked; many Roma in Eastern Europe also lost their mobility due to communist policy concerning nomadism.¹¹ This was not a particularly novel practice; almost since their first arrival in Eastern Europe Roma have been encouraged to settle, often in order that they could be taxed or enslaved. Maria Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg Empire from 1740 to 1780, passed a number of decrees aimed at removing the ethnic identity of the Roma so that they might be incorporated into the Hungarian race.¹² Although these were not fully enforced they will have contributed towards bringing the roaming of the Roma to a halt.

This drive towards forcing them into settlement was finalized under communism two hundred years later; attempts were made throughout the communist-controlled countries of Eastern Europe to assimilate the Roma as far as possible. This was often an aggressive process: in Poland, for example, wheels were removed from caravans and horses were shot.¹³ Active initiatives towards assimilation began soon after the end of the Second World War: the majority of Romanian Roma were settled by the early 1950s, and most other countries were not far behind.¹⁴ The levers used to drive settlement varied from offers of accommodation and employment to outright bans on movement. With the traditionally wandering Roma settled, they could be controlled more easily. In addition, animosity towards them meant that there was a desire to present them as being fewer in number than they actually were. Since there is a popular conflation of gypsy culture and nomadic lifestyles, it was their nomadism as much as anything else that marked the Roma out as gypsies, so rescinding this was seen as a way of revoking their identity.

The situation of Roma today is a product of this oppression. Throughout Europe, the majority are now sedentary and many live in ghettoized camps in poor conditions. Poverty is ubiquitous and unemployment levels are extremely high. Integration with the wider community is minimal and persecution is rife. In many countries there is no support from governments, and discrimination is widespread. A disproportionate number of Roma are in prison, and this fuels the stereotype that they have a propensity towards criminality; in fact they are often the scapegoats for crime, and are frequently sentenced harshly. Roma have limited access to many public facilities, and have far lower literacy levels than non-Roma: their culture places greater emphasis on the family unit than on formal education, so many young Roma do not attend school. This situation is even more pronounced in Eastern Europe, where those who seek education are often denied it. One recent issue is the Slovakian practice of placing Romani children in schools for the disabled, where the curricula give them fewer opportunities for educational development.¹⁵

Romani community in Moldova nad Bodvou, Slovakia.

In Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia there has been an increase in reports of right-wing groups targeting the Roma in violent attacks that continue with little to impede them.¹⁶ There is also persecution in Western Europe, often from the authorities. In Italy in 2008, for example, the government began to fingerprint Romani people, including children, as part of a census, in an initiative said to be an attempt to reduce crime. Evidently, stereotypes that characterize them as responsible for crime persist.¹⁷ There have also been numerous attacks on the camps where Roma live, often in poor conditions on the outskirts of cities. More recently, the French government began to demolish camps that are considered to be illegal settlements, and many Romani people have been repatriated to Romania and Bulgaria.¹⁸ Repatriations have also occurred from Ireland, where persecution of Roma and Travellers remains widespread.¹⁹ In the UK, the country’s largest Roma and Traveller site, Dale Farm, was declared illegal in 2010 and subsequently cleared, despite high-profile protests.²⁰ Meanwhile, anti-Roma sentiment remains highly visible, in both public policy and the media.²¹ On the same day that the British media reported the planned eviction of Roma living at Dale Farm, the Daily Express ran a front-page article with the headline ‘Gypsy in £3m Benefit Fiddle’.²²

Despite the prevalence of discrimination and persecution there are also increasing instances of Romani activism, and the Roma rights movement that has emerged in the past few decades seeks to raise awareness of the culture and issues surrounding the Roma. Romani organizations have been formed both globally and specifically in Eastern Europe, and the number of these continues to grow.²³ While the development of such groups has been slow, they remain in their infancy, and the recent increase in Romani activism suggests that understanding of the Roma can only be expected to develop. The World Romani Congress has met eight times since 1971, and has sought to promote the rights of Roma and their culture; the International Romani Union was founded at the second congress, in 1978. Meanwhile, the European Roma rights Centre aims to combat racism and human rights abuse against the Roma and supports activism. The Decade of Roma Inclusion, an initiative launched by European governments in 2005, was established with the aim of improving the status of Roma. It emphasized the importance of Roma participation to its success, and strove to engage with Romani organizations. Following the decade’s end in 2015, it was concluded that, although awareness of the situation of European Roma was raised, its ultimate objectives were not achieved.²⁴

Although some obstacles have been overcome, there remains much work to be done in the field of Roma rights. One problem is that stereotyping remains rife, even in academic texts. For example, when discussing the progress that has been made in 1995, Derek Hawes and Barbara Perez wrote:

The very notion of Gypsydom is antipathetic to the creation of a coherent programme of action or campaign for recognition and respect for Gypsies in the modern world. There is no Zionist dream to act as the central unifying nexus like that which sustained the Jews throughout a 2,000 year diaspora. No religious faith or body of literature unites, through time and space, a Romany people; even the common language is a poor fragmented thing, long since degenerated to a crude patois, only of philological interest.²⁵

This passage sums up the difficulties that may be encountered in attempts to engage with the Roma as a single group – and this is the case with different styles of gypsy music too – but it also reveals the extent to which they are thought of as being disconnected and thoroughly separate, not only from non-Roma ...