Historia opowiedziana w pieśniach Lowarów Olaskich
Songs of the Olah Lovara tell a story

Summary/Abstract: The article is an overview of the Olah Romas‘ song folklore and lyrics in the former Czechoslovakia – in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, where until today it has retained its active existence in an unchanged form – in particular among the group Lovari. While the music and folk songs of the Roma are relatively known, the Olah folklore in its authentic form remains rather unknown. It has been transmitted through generations in an uninfluenced form even after these societies were forced to stop being migratory by the power of the communist state in 1959. Their song folklore is differentiated in structure, forms, types and way of performance, and divided into two main groups of songs: Mulatousha, louke djila which are long, slow songs, and Khelimaske djila which are rhythmical songs to be danced to. This article examines the lyrics and content of these songs and also focuses on their specific function in the Olah society. The majority of these songs are traditionally without a musical accompaniment which increases the importance of their lyrics. The singer tells through them a story to the community to whom he dedicates the song by the way of a ritual formula – which adds to the atmosphere of the song as far as both content and rhythm are concerned. The author of the article chose ex¬amples of the lyrics from her large collection of original recordings made between the years 1956 and 1990. The texts are transcribed from the recordings in the Olah Roma language and then loosely translated.

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