romanimusic.com · Netherlands
An archive of Romani music
Romani musicians play in many countries. The music is not the same in each one. Flamenco, jazz manouche, Hungarian csárdás, Balkan brass and lăutărească are different traditions, learned in families and played for a paying public.
This site records that difference: styles, family lines, countries, and the names people use for themselves — Roma, Sinti, Manouche, Calé, and others.
Start here
The chronicle
- IOrigins and the long roadAn Indian origin, a westward road, and many musics — each one made in a country that tried to keep them at the edge of the map.
- IIRoma, Sinti and ManoucheTwo self-names, not two spellings of the same people. The café book travelled farther than any surname.
- IIIThe Holland–Hungary connectionIn the 1930s Hungarian Roma, Romanian Roma and Sinti violinists took the restaurant book into Dutch rooms.
- IVHow the music is passed downMost of this music never saw a microphone. The family is the archive. The records are what reached a public.
Styles
The music is not the same in every country.
Each style has a short story on the index, and a larger page for history and key players in year order. A Sinti family playing Hungarian tunes is still listed as Sinti. The setlist can match. The family origin is still Sinti.
- AlabanzasSpain · Portugal · France
- Balkan brass & weddingBalkans
- Finnish Kaale songFinland · Sweden
- FlamencoSpain · southern France
- German Sinti songGermany
- Jazz manoucheFrance · Low Countries
- Holland–Hungary violinNetherlands · Hungary
- CigányzeneHungary
- KalbeliaRajasthan
- LăutăreascăRomania · Moldova
- ManeleRomania
- Reisende visorNorway · Sweden
How this site speaks
Romani, Sinti, Manouche, Calé, Gitano, Roman are self-names. “Gypsy” is kept only where a style or a source still carries it — as in gypsy jazz, or on an old restaurant card — with that history in view.
Every page is written from sources. List of sources used.
Contribute
Send a photo, a source, or a name.
Musicians who want a family page can write here. A page is published only after we record it under a family.
Open contact