The Poetics of Singing Roman

Abstract

This chapter traces a poetics of emergent meaning in sözlü Roman oyun havası from static iconicity drawn from çingene references in kanto songs through musicians’ creative incorporation of improvised poetic mani and shouted hocali forms. While expressing communal reactions to specifically Roman experiences, the inclusion of patricularistic references from mani and hocali inscribed revised social distinctions along gendered, generational, class, and status lines. Through musical analysis and observations of musicians creating new songs, I demonstrate how musicians drew on keriz-style improvisations to expand melodic repertoires for song settings in response to the increased demand for new and relevant dance tunes. Commercial circulation and copyrighting of these songs also increased tensions between artists themselves and studio heads, thus reshaped community-based practices of borrowing and performing. The chapter ends with narrations of three performance events to illustrate the dynamic relationship between an ongoing metaphoricity of sound to a mimesis of enlarged presence and pluralized identities.