Doină cu noduri

Doină cu noduri (Romanian for "doina with knots", also: Romanian: hore cu noduri, hore în grumaz), is an archaic genre of the Romanian traditional music, distinguished by an intermittent, "stuttering" performance technique. This style creates a tense and expressive effect in which the voice seems to be momentarily caught or paused before re-emerging.

The genre is a variety of the doina – an improvisational solo song performed without metrical accompaniment and in a free tempo. Unlike the regular doina, the doina cu noduri is characterized by a special technique of vocal ornamentation based on short, sharp sounds that occur at the onset of a note through the accented action of the glottis.

One of the folk names for this style – hore în grumaz (from Romanian for "throat doina; singing from the larynx") – emphasizes that the complex vocal articulation is concentrated directly in the larynx, in contrast to more open, chest-based singing.

Songs of this genre have survived only in northwestern Oltenia, as well as in Oaș, Maramureș, and Lăpuș, and are considered one of the most archaic forms of the Romanian doina. Today, the genre is on the verge of extinction.

In 2009, the doina cu noduri, along with other types of doina, was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.