Bocet for the Dying Year |

The year 2011 is slowly drawing to an end, so it's metaphorically "dying".

It seems therefore very apt to embed in this post an extract of a video showing a recording of a Romanian bocet (funeral lament).

I filmed it last week at the Institutul de Etnografie si Folclor "Constantin Brăiloiu" (Institute of Ethnography and Folklore – pictured) in Bucharest.

The very knowledgeable and kind director of the Institute, folklorist Sabina Ispas, let me listen to some examples of funeral laments (note: they were actually recorded during funerals, so they are very moving) for a personal research I'm doing inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini and by a book written in the '50s by Italian ethnographer Ernesto De Martino.

I'm sure not many of us will mourn for the death of this year with its disasters, environmental catastrophes and financial crises, but sometimes music is a good way to exorcise our fears and anxieties for the future, deeply harbored in our hearts.

Special thanks to Dr Ispas for her help and to Oana Iordan who managed to arrange for me this visit.

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR – Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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