The cimpoi (, ; also ) is a Romanian folk woodwind musical instrument and a regional variety of the bagpipe. It is an aerophone consisting of an air reservoir (bag) and several pipes: a blowpipe, a drone, and a melody pipe (chanter).
The cimpoi is considered an instrument of local origin, traditionally associated with the territories of present-day Romania and the Republic of Moldova. The first written references to the instrument date from the 16th century. In the past, it was widespread throughout most regions and, alongside the fluier, served as one of the principal instruments of shepherds and an important element of rural festivities. By the early 21st century, the tradition of playing the cimpoi has survived mainly in certain regions (Oltenia, Dobruja, Hunedoara, and Moldavia), although the instrument continues to be used in folk ensembles.
From an organological perspective, the Romanian cimpoi belongs to the Eastern European group of bagpipes with a cylindrical bore and single reeds. The instrument displays considerable typological diversity. Researchers distinguish six main types, differing primarily in the construction of the chanter, which may be single or double, as well as in the number and arrangement of finger holes. Instruments with a double chanter make it possible to produce not only a melody and drone but also a simple harmonic interval (usually a fifth), which researchers consider one of the oldest forms of Romanian polyphony.
In traditional culture, the cimpoi occupies a dual symbolic position. On the one hand, it is regarded as a pastoral instrument closely associated with shepherd life; on the other, it is depicted in folklore and legends as possessing demonic or supernatural attributes and is sometimes associated with evil spirits. Certain forms of performance are specific to the instrument, such as the Dance of the puppets, in which the musician plays the bagpipe while simultaneously manipulating marionettes. The influence of the cimpoi can also be observed in other genres of Romanian folk music, where instruments such as the violin or fluier imitate its characteristic drone and melodic patterns.
History and distribution References to instruments resembling the bagpipe appear in ancient literature, including works by Aristophanes, Suetonius, Martial, and Dio Chrysostom, although no instruments or visual depictions from this period have survived. Reliable historical evidence for the bagpipe in Western Europe dates from the early Middle Ages. One of the earliest written references is the term musa – the root of the , meaning “bagpipe” – which appears in a 9th-century treatise by Regino of Prüm, where it is listed among other wind instruments between tibiae and fistula.
From the 13th century onward, the evidence becomes more detailed. A separate drone pipe is mentioned in Adam de la Halle’s Jeu de Robin et Marion (c. 1283), and a drone pipe from this period was discovered at Weoley Castle in England. From this time, depictions of bagpipes in European art become increasingly common. By around 1500, French literary sources recorded numerous names for the instrument, including , and .
Regional distribution The cimpoi belongs to a broad family of bagpipes distributed across Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia. Romania and Moldova are located at the intersection of several Eastern and Southeastern European cultural zones, which helps explain the diversity of local bagpipe forms. Closely related instruments are used by neighboring peoples and can be grouped into several typological categories:
Central European type (duda, kozioł): characteristic of West Slavic regions (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland) and Ukraine. This group includes Czech and Slovak dudy, typically with one chanter and one drone ending in horn bells, as well as the Polish kozioł, a large bellows-blown bagpipe with a bass drone, used in ensembles with mazanki (small violins) until the late 19th century. Hungarian type (duda): featuring a double chanter with two parallel channels – one for the melody and the other (contra) providing a variable drone used for rhythmic accompaniment. Transylvanian varieties of the cimpoi equipped with double chanters are structurally related to this type. Balkan type (gaida): a mouth-blown bagpipe widespread from Albania (gajdë) and Greece (tsampouna) through Serbia and North Macedonia to Bulgaria (gaida). This type usually has a single chanter, often with a curved bell, and a separate drone. Romanian cimpoi with a single chanter, especially those from southern regions, are typologically closest to this group.
Historical evidence in Romania The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians classifies the Romanian cimpoi as an instrument of local origin. The earliest specific written references in Romanian lands date from the 16th and 17th centuries. A 16th-century translation of the Acts of the Apostles produced in Maramureș contains the phrase „” (“to the sounds of the cimpoi”). The , transcribed in Transylvania between 1580 and 1619, includes a Bogomil text warning: „” (“Woe to him who drinks and eats to the cimpoi, zithers, and lutes!”). Chroniclers such as Grigore Ureche and Miron Costin mention bagpipers at the courts of Moldavian princes (gospodari). Ureche describes Prince Aaron (1591–1595) as being particularly fond of dances and bagpipers, whom he maintained for entertainment. Costin recounts a feast at which a bagpiper performed on an instrument wrapped in expensive silk. The Italian monk Niccolò Barsi, who visited the Principality of Moldavia in 1640, noted that dances began to the sounds of violins, bagpipes, flutes, and drums (). These sources indicate that during the Middle Ages the bagpipe was known not only in rural settings but also at princely courts. Over time, at court and among the nobility, the cimpoi was replaced by instruments introduced from Constantinople under Ottoman influence, while it continued to survive in folk tradition.
Visual representations of the cimpoi in Romanian art are rare and occur mainly in church murals. This has been attributed to the strict canons of the Eastern Church regarding the depiction of musical instruments in biblical scenes and to the fact that, by the time many murals were created, the violin had largely replaced the cimpoi and had become associated in iconography with demonic figures. In popular belief, the cimpoi itself was sometimes regarded as a “devil’s instrument,” which limited its depiction to scenes of hell. Nevertheless, foreign artists documented its use: Auguste Raffet produced a drawing of a bagpiper in 1837, and Amedeo Preziosi depicted a fair in the late 1860s featuring an ensemble of four musicians, including two bagpipers.
Geography of distribution in Romania and Moldova Historical and ethnographic evidence suggests that the cimpoi was once used throughout most regions of Romania and Moldova. Even in areas where the instrument itself disappeared, its influence remains evident in folk instrumental music, particularly in violin performance, which often imitates bagpipe drone effects and melodic formulas. Over time, however, the geographical range of the cimpoi narrowed. In the second half of the 20th century, it survived mainly in northern Oltenia, parts of Muntenia, Dobruja, Moldavia, Bukovina, the southern regions of the Republic of Moldova, as well as southwestern Transylvania and parts of the Banat.
The former popularity of the instrument is reflected in surnames derived from its name or from the profession of bagpiper, such as Cimpoi, Cimpoieșu, Cimpoieru, Cimpoiaș, and Cărăbaș (from , the name of the chanter).
Names and etymology The primary Romanian name for the bagpipe is cimpoi; performers are referred to as , , or . The term cimpoi, like the Greek tsampouna and the Italian zampogna, is commonly traced to (symphonía), meaning “consonance” or “symphony”. In antiquity, symphonia was one of the names used for the Greek bagpipe (askaulos). This etymology has been interpreted by scholars as suggesting a long historical continuity of the instrument, although written documentation appears only from the late Middle Ages.
Regional pronunciation variants include (Banat), or (Hunedoara), (Tulcea), and cempoi (Gura Humorului, Bukovina). Other names include or (derived from the chanter, in southern Banat) and , used among Aromanians. In some contexts, the instrument is referred to in the plural as or .
Study The first systematic description of Romanian folk instruments, including the cimpoi, was published in 1877 by the folklorist and ethnographer Teodor Burada. In his work Research on the Dances and Musical Instruments of the Romanians, he described the cimpoi as an ancient instrument and one of the most popular among peasants, who performed traditional dances to its sound.
In 1912–1913, the Hungarian composer and folklorist Béla Bartók documented a cimpoi with two chanters among Romanian communities in Bihor and Maramureș and recorded a number of melodies for the instrument. He noted a programmatic piece imitating the call of a quail and observed that many dance melodies played on the fluier and violin imitate the style and techniques of cimpoi performance.
A major contribution to the study of the instrument was made by the Romanian ethnomusicologist Constantin Brăiloiu. In 1931, he documented the practice of playing the cimpoi while performing the Dance of the puppets (), and he used this material to illustrate his methodological work Outline of a Method for Musical Folklore. Brăiloiu also made numerous field recordings of cimpoi music, preserving the performances of musicians such as Gheorghe Mușuleac (Bukovina) and Pătruț Munteanu-Kovacs (Hunedoara).
In the second half of the 20th century, research on the cimpoi developed on an organological basis. ’s monograph Musical Instruments of the Romanian People (1956) proposed a classification of cimpoi types based on chanter construction, identifying five main categories. In the 1970s, the Romanian-German researcher expanded this typology by adding a sixth type and providing detailed descriptions of manufacturing techniques. focused on the symbolic and ritual aspects of the instrument, including the tradition of playing with puppets. In the 21st century, comprehensive studies combining ethnographic and organological data have been published, including Traian Ciuculescu's The Cimpoi among the Romanians (2014) and the second volume of Ovidiu Papană's series Romanian Folk Instruments: Musical-Acoustic Research (2019).
Structure and types of the cimpoi
Structure The cimpoi consists of four main components: an air bag, a blowpipe, a melody pipe (chanter), and a drone pipe:
Air bag (; less commonly ): made from animal skin, usually goat. The size varies by region, with the largest examples found in Hunedoara (up to approximately 60 × 38 cm) and the smallest in Dobruja (about 35 × 20 cm). Blowpipe ():Regional names: suflător (Ploiești), suflătoare (Moldavia and Hunedoara), sufleci (Craiova, Bucharest, and northern Dobruja), sufleţi (Bucharest), sufleare (the Hunedoara region), sufloi (Hunedoara, northern Dobruja), sufloni (Banat), suflaci (Craiova, Ploiești), clupă (northern Dobruja), comprimator (Ploiești), muștiuc (Buzău, northern Dobruja), and ţavă (Bucharest, Galați). used to inflate the bag and fitted with a leather valve () to prevent air loss. It is typically made of elder wood, metal, or bone.