An ‘învârtită’ is a popular dance în which participants dance in pairs, arms on the shoulders. Each pair generally moves in one of two ways: either lightly walking in place following the rhythm of the music, or spinning (învârtire, from which the song obtains its name) around the center of the couple, again taking steps in the rhythm of the music.
This particular ‘învârtită’ is from the Hârtibaciu river valley, hence the name. In Romania, this river is in the Transylvania region, west of the Carpathian and southwest of Miercurea Ciuc (Csikszereda in Hungarian). The river merges into the Cibin (which merges into the Olt river, a tributary of the Danube) near Sibiu, a major Romanian city of the region of Transylvania, founded by Saxon settlers in the 12th century.
Similar to the other învârtită (Învârtita Oilor), it shares a structure of repeatable elements, however this one has a larger basic element size. This piece is composed of 3-4 unique phrases, each roughly 9 measures long. What is most notable about this piece is the strange rhythm that clearly is divided in groups of three, but it is not apparently clear what the size of each group is, as it is not constant. Each measure is five beats long, divided into four groups of lengths one beat, one beat, a beat and a half, and another beat and a half. Each of these groups is then divided into triplets; one should note that although on the score these triplets appear to be all the same, the latter two groups each last a beat and a half, while the first two only one beat each, and this gives the piece its distinction from other învărtite.
To see the sheet music for this piece, containing all the fragments, see this post.
Thank you.
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