Romanian Women Play the Bucium (Trâmbiță)
The trâmbiță is a traditional long wooden horn, similar in form and function to the alphorn. It is primarily associated with Romanian and Vlach shepherd culture, especially in the Carpathian Mountains. It is also used in other Carpathian areas within Slovakia, Serbia, Poland, and Ukraine; in the last two countries it is known as trombita (Polish) and trembita (Ukrainian).
These instruments and their associated traditions are clear markers of the shared Carpathian highland pastoral culture, much of which was shaped by Vlach shepherd settlement between the 13th and 18th centuries.
It's used was traditionally for communicating between long distances between shepherds, announcing events, and as a community signal system with different sounds expressing different events such as births and deaths, alongside ritual purposes. One of those ritual purposes was the belief that it's sound lead the souls of the dead and ancestors through the mountains.
