The Romanian lute, known as the cobza, is a short necked, unfretted lute very similar to the oud of Iraq and Syria. It is generally used to accompany violins or pipes. Playing melodies is rare due to the short neck construction. Once widespread through Moldavia, Oltenia and Muntenia cobza have become rare in village music, but can be seen in many “folk orchestras”.
Guitar and zongora
In Oltenia the cobza has been replaced by an adapted guitar which has fewer strings and is tuned similar to the cobza.
A version used in Maramureș and Oaș is known as the zongora. This has a reduced number of strings, two when Bartok visited the area, later increased to three, and now more often strung with thicker strings at the top and bottom.
The instrument is often held vertically when played. The string layout is compressed to the central inch of the fingerboard to allow rapid rhythmical strumming. Originally only a few chord changes were used, but nowadays more interesting chord structures are used by younger musicians. Zongora is also the name for the “piano” in Hungary. The origin of the name zongora is not clear.
Titera – the Romanian zither
The European zither is a rectangular box with a number of melody strings and several drone strings alongside. These are strummed together and the melody is played on a fret board with a small stick. This is probably a development of the Middle Eastern qanun that reached Europe in the 11th century. This was only an amateur instrument, not used by the lăutari, and is rarely seen in Romania today, but can still be found in Hungary.