The soundscape of a funeral wake

Abstract

This chapter completes the analysis and interpretation of the Roma funeral ritual. It shows how the wailing of the women and the instrumental tunes performed by the musicians arouse feelings of compassion and empathy (milă) in the participants. Each sonic element of the funeral wake is analyzed separately, relying on textual and musical transcriptions. Drawing on hypotheses coming from both anthropology and the cognitive sciences, it claims that the “icons of crying” (sobs, hiccups, strangled voice, etc.) can be related to the innate process of emotional contagion. Conversely, the enunciative strategies of a lament call for more elaborate empathy processes, because they require a level of understanding of the kinship network described. As for the instrumental music, the chapter suggests that its emotional impact is based on a combination of both the affective qualities attributed to the different genres and the associations that exist between a tune and a person.