Haiduci of Wallachia - Epic Romanian Music

Arrangement by Farya Faraji, based on folk melodic motifs from southern Romania. The painting is by Mișu Popp, a Romanian painter and muralist of the 19th century. The Haiduci (plural for haiduc; spelled differently in different languages), were a form of irregular infantry from the Balkans that would become freedom fighters against Ottoman occupation from the 16th to the century 19th centuries. They have now acquired a Robin Hood like quality in the folk traditions of Balkan countries, and many individual hajduks have attained the status of national heroes in their respective countries. The music is not my own composition, only my slightly augmented rendition of traditional Wallachian dance music, characterised by this very expressive form of fiddle-instrument playing, the usage of the ubiquitous, pan-Balkan kaval flute, and up until the 20th century, the usage of percussions, still heard in historical reconstructions of Wallachian music like Anton Pann’s, but now mostly gone from modern Rom