A musical experience of being inwardly torn apart

This chapter describes what the Roma of Ceuaş experience when they cry along with music, at home with a few friends or during the small parties they held in their neighborhood. The focus is on the various local terms used by the Roma themselves, such as dor (grief), jale (sorrow), and supărare (irritation/sorrow, anger/pain, vexation/regret). Music arouses these feelings by bringing their loved ones to mind at the sound of “their” personal tunes. It is suggested that the tears associated with the supărare cannot simply be understood as an expression of nostalgia, ancestor worship, or a ritual of brotherhood among Roma. It is rather a cathartic practice, associated with the feeling of being psychologically torn apart between two contradictory experiences: a heightened sense of togetherness and a sharp awareness of being separated from loved ones.