Abstract

STOICHIţă, Victor A.. Enchanting spaces: echo and reverberation at Romanian popular parties. Etnográfica [online]. 2013, vol.17, n.3, pp.581-603. ISSN 0873-6561.

This contribution describes how Roma professional musicians in Romania use electronic sound processing for live performances in various contexts. It focuses on four techniques - amplification, mixing, reverberation and echo - which are intimately linked in the practice of these musicians. The latter two effects are modeled on natural acoustic phenomena, but are used by the musicians to create sound environments with artificial, impossible or paradoxical properties. The article details how these techniques are used, in relation to the typical interactions between the musicians and their audiences. This leads to the argument that artificial echo and reverberation (building upon amplification and mixing) are used by Roma professional musicians as techniques to “enchant” both the performance places and the social relations which they host.

Keywords : Roma/Gypsies; music; space; enchantment; agency.

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