ELDER SONG STUDY

Abstract

The ballad, even if in European folklore it has a more restrictive meaning, will appear along with the term old-age song (popularly used to denote the oral epic) in the collection of Vasile Alecsandri from 1852. The old man's song represents one of the genres the most studied and at the same time controversial by researchers, because the genre raises a series of problems regarding the origin, the connection with social life, with the epic of other peoples, the relationship with others genres, the artistic and documentary value, the specific national features, the conditions and the occasion of manifestation, thematic frequency and its classification.