Back to the Roots - the Folklore

Sticking to the "good old things" idea, I've been closely pursuing a dear subject of mine, folklore music.
How people sing and play when they've never studied it, only by having it "in their bones"...
If you watch such a song, it does have a basic structure, that makes sense, but how long a phrase lasts, or how many lines a verse has, that's almost always different. Not only from one interpret to another, but also depending on the moment or mood they're in.

Now that's FEELING! That's feeling purity!

The moment one's starting to "learn" music and count bars in his/her head to make sure that every lyric fits in the assigned measure and doesn't go, ups, upbeat by mistake sometimes (although, what a charming mistake...), then the magic is gone.

That's how one can't "learn" to play blues, for example. Because blues is a state of mind, a mirror of somebody's life, who lived in a certain time and certain conditions and experienced certain feelings, not just some vocals studied by heart, or some pentatonic licks, and certainly NOT a 12 bar formula, as they teach in schools (as mentioned above, most of the original works of the genre don't have a fixed form).

And, studying the Romanian folklore, I find it even better.
First, because it's always been a group activity, and, as in any brainstorming, more people come up with more interesting idea than only one.
Second, because it's mostly happy (well except the ballads and doinas which HAVE TO be sad).

In my opinion, one of the main reasons the Romanian folklore has an optimistic way to look at things is because it never mentions the problem of money :D. There is trade, but no money (everytime money comes into discussion, there's trouble - that's why most American blues heroes are so messed up... ;))
And that is because Romanian folklore is older than the extensive use of money.

And because they were working for themselves, for their own wellbeing. Exercising all day on the sunny fields, together with their neighbours, their loved ones and their animals, that's how they fed their families and kept up their optimistic mood.

The best pictures of nature (forests, plants, rivers, wild and domestic animals), rural landscapes, yearly seasons, beautiful girls, weekly village dances are to be found in folklore songs! So pure and full of life like no painter or writer could put it.

And, another important thing, in the Romanian folklore one can find the genuine national traditions. Not the false religious ones that were introduced in time by the church and slowly imposed themselves as "ancient" habits.
It's indeed noteworthy that the folk songs almost never mention church rituals, but they celebrate love, generousity, compassion (and equally hate, gealousy, envy, like any normal human feelings), work, beauty, good weather, wishful thinking, youth or old age, good manners and social morals, without giving them any religious meaning. That's what gives them a detached atmosphere of good mood, without any guilt or uncertainties.

I find it very worthy of admiration how those simple people knew in their heart and brain the way to peace and happiness.