(Hung. Magyarország).
Country in Central Europe. It was settled in the late 9th century by the Magyars. The introduction of Christianity was completed in the early 11th century by Stephen, who took the title of king. In the 14th century, under kings of various dynasties, its territory included much of central Europe; however, in the 16th century it was invaded and partly conquered by the Turks. By the end of the 17th century the Turks were expelled and the country was united under Habsburg rule. In 1867 the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy was established, but after World War I the Habsburgs were dethroned and the territory of the monarchy was divided; large parts of Hungary were lost, Transylvania being ceded to Romania and the area now known as Slovakia becoming part of the new state of Czechoslovakia. The communist People's Republic was established in 1949 and dissolved in 1989. For a map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, see Austria, fig.1.
JANKA SZENDREI (I, 1), DEZSŐ LEGÁNY (I, 2–4), JÁNOS KÁRPÁTI/MELINDA BERLÁSZ, PÉTER HALÁSZ (I, 5), BÁLINT SÁROSI (II, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7), IRÉN KERTÉSZ WILKINSON (II, 3, 6)
The Hungarian tribal alliance first occupied the sparsely populated Carpathian Basin in 895–6. Christianity was adopted there by Prince Géza after 970 and was fully established by his son Stephen (St Stephen), who was crowned king in 1000 using a crown sent by Pope Sylvester II. This date marks the beginning of the Hungarian state and of the recorded history of art music in Hungary. The musical life of the preceding period is only hinted at in historical sources, although analysis of folk music has revealed musical styles which may be remnants of that Eastern heritage.
The adoption of Latin Christianity brought with it the Roman liturgy and liturgical chant, while the introduction of the school system of the Western church created a solid institutional framework for their cultivation. A report of choral singing and instruction is found in the description of the visit to Hungary of the Benedictine Arnoldus of Regensburg (Arnold von Vohburg) in about 1030, and Bishop Gellért of Csanád (d 1046) requested a teacher from Székesfehérvár to share the duties of singing and reading instruction in his newly established school at Csanád. King Stephen had issued orders that every ten villages build a church, and on the basis of early registers it seems that these churches were provided with liturgical chantbooks.
The earliest surviving documents of Gregorian chant in Hungary are the codices that Ladislaus, King of Hungary, donated to the bishopric of Zagreb on the occasion of its establishment between 1090 and 1095. The earliest complete musical codex is the Codex Albensis from the first third of the 12th century, an antiphoner that was probably made for the church of the bishopric of Gyulafehérvár in Transylvania, and that also contains the earliest antiphons in honour of King Stephen. These codices were all written in German (mostly southern German) neumatic notation, but in one early 12th-century manuscript a diastematically-arranged mixed notation assimilating Messine signs can also be observed.
On the evidence of the late 12th-century Pray Codex (H-Bn Mny 1), the introduction of staff notation to Hungary occurred during the mid-12th century. The signs put on the staff were not the German neumes which had been used until then, but an independent set of neumes showing Messine, Italian and German influences. This ‘Esztergom’ or ‘Hungarian’ notation is found in documents from the mid-12th century to the 18th, and the scriptoria devoted to its cultivation were exclusively in the territory of medieval Hungary. It emerged along with liturgical and musical developments through which a characteristic Gregorian repertory, including a system of melodic variants based on earlier traditions, was established in the archdiocese of Esztergom; this use of Esztergom was later adopted by the archdiocese of Kalosca, to which Transylvania, Várad, Csanád and Zagreb also belonged in the Middle Ages, and the thus established mos patriae remained virtually unchanged until 1630.
Chant composition in Hungary goes back to the 11th century, and the creative process continued uninterrupted well beyond the Middle Ages in almost all genres. The most distinguished item in this repertory, by virtue of its literary and musical merits, is Raimundus's rhymed Office for St Stephen of Hungary, composed in the 13th century.
Bendictine monks had played an active part in establishing the Hungarian church, and maintained a school at their monastery of St Martin (now Pannonhalma), which was well provided with books in the 11th century and which also gave instruction in musica theoretica. Nonetheless, of their subsequent musical practice only sporadic documents survived. The Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustinians, on the other hand, continued to cultivate their own repertories and chant variants, assisted by their own musical notation, even in their Hungarian monasteries; thus their liturgical musical activities were not influenced by Hungarian musical customs.
In the later Middle Ages social development, trade relations, visits to universities, urbanization and settlement policy led to changes in liturgical musical culture within the Hungarian diocesan structure itself. The influence of the liturgical chant repertory, melodic variants, and notational practices of central Europe first affected liturgical singing in urban parish churches, especially in regions with mixed populations. By the end of the Middle Ages traditional notational practices had declined in rural regions of Hungary as well. The old Esztergom notation became a cursive script for everyday use widely practised in schools (see Szendrei B1983, B1988 SMH), but was preserved as a codex script only by extremely conservative scriptoria. For notating ornamented codices, a new neume mixture was developed in the 15th century which combined the Esztergom and the gothicized Messine-German mixed notations; this was stylized in the course of the century in accordance with Renaissance tastes.
The cathedral, parish and monastic schools remained the chief institutions of music education until the end of the Middle Ages. Chapter statutes fixed regular times for practising Gregorian chant and for learning to read and write it. All students sang with a Gregorian choir at church every day (selected choirboys excelled in polyphonic singing and provided music for the most important masses). László Szalkai's tract with tonary of 1490 documents the high level of instruction in music theory and notation at the school in Sárospatak. Conclusions for the teaching of musica theoretica in Hungary can be drawn from medieval book-lists and fragmentarily surviving sources. Apart from the studium generale of the Dominican friars in Buda, studies at universities abroad (Paris, Padua, Prague, Vienna, Kraków) offered the best possibilities to pursue higher music theoretical studies.
Polyphony may have started with binatim singing, which is mentioned from the 13th century onwards, although the first extant records with musical notation are later. Some fragmentary 14th-century sources survive (e.g. H-Bs S.Fr.1.m. 146, Mezey L. 1988), and examples from all over the country and from a variety of social settings crop up in the 15th century (H-Efkö I, Efkö 178, Bn clmae 366, etc.). The next group of polyphony is made up of two- and four-part cantiones, conductus-like Benedicamus tropes and rondelli, some of which are also known from sources copied outside Hungary. This repertory, in which some pieces show the indirect influence of the Ars Nova, belonged to the urban litterati. The two most essential (though fragmentary) sources emerged in Kassa (now Košice) (Bn clmae 534, SK-BRu Inc.318-I and BRmp Inc.33).
From the end of the 14th-century there survive an Italianate cantelina mass and a fragmentary polytextual motet, and from the second half of the 15th century there are three-part liturgical compositions which elaborate a cantus firmus with two rhythmically more complex parts. Some favourite western European items of this kind, such as Walter Frye's Ave regina celorum, were also known in Hungary. The most important sources for this tradition are the so-called Kassa fragments now preserved in Bratislava. There are two fragmentary sources of secular polyphony, one each from the 14th and 15th centuries, and some examples of the four-part Renaissance motet based on common chord foundation surviving in peripheral or occasional sources. It is confirmed by various witnesses that polyphony was widespread by the end of the Middle Ages; for example, Szalkai's tract discusses cantus planus and mentions musica composita, cantus organus and mensuristae. According to a sermon in Hungarian from the same period, the saints sing praises in heaven with tenor, discantus and contratenor.
In the 12th and 13th centuries the royal court of Hungary at Esztergom frequently welcomed musicians from abroad. (In earlier times the order of singers known as the regösök or combibatores had played a decisive role at court and had kept alive the ancient eastern traditions.) At the turn of the 12th century the two famous troubadours Gaucelm Faidit and Peire Vidal were in King Emerich's entourage. A steady court chapel was established in the 14th century, by which time Buda was the seat of the royal court (the Angevins entertained German Minnesinger like Peter Suchenwirt, Heinrich der Teichner and Heinrich von Müglen at their court). Members of the court chapel of Sigismund of Luxembourg, who reigned in the early 15th century, are known by name, as are other Hungarian-born and immigrant singers. In the same century Oswald von Wolkenstein and later Michel Beheim were the guests of and worked for the Hungarian kings. During the reign of King Matthias Corvinus (1458–1490), who married Beatrix of Aragon in 1476, the choir of the royal court could vie with the best European ensembles, as the papal legate Bartolomeo de Maraschi reported. According to the historian Bonfini, the king engaged singers from France and Germany for his famous ensemble. In several descriptions of court ceremonies and festive masses, mention is made of the high standard of polyphonic music provided by the court chapel. Its repertory comprised polyphonic music from the Netherlands, Burgundy, Germany and Italy. At the court of King Matthias and his successors singers and instrumentalists from all over Europe enlarged Hungarian musical horizons, among them Master Philip of Holland, Georg Kurz, Johannes Stockem, Erasmus Lapicida, Verjus, Sandrachino, Jacobus Barbireau, Johannes Bisth, Thomas Stoltzer, the organist Grimpeck and Wolfgang Grefinger. However, sources emphasize the activity of native Hungarian choirboys too. The radiating force of the musical culture of Buda Castle is borne out by reports saying that in Buda and in other Hungarian towns students greeted prominent guests by singing Gregorian chant or mensural polyphony.
Evidence of instrumental music can be found only in charters and chronicles. The earliest surviving information concerns the organization of court musicians (wind players and drummers): the kings of the House of Árpád settled the musicians and their families in separate villages and organized them in military structures. Chronicles repeatedly mention the excellent performance of Hungarian military bandsmen when they marched up as members of the royal escort abroad, or welcomed foreign visitors to Hungary.
The charters mention organists next. The first reference to an organ dates from the end of the 13th century. Later, in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, a number of town churches had organs built, renewed or extended. The Pauline friars gained particular distinction in organ building and playing.
From the 14th–15th centuries information on instrumentalists survives from almost every region of the country: in the more traditional regions pipers, violinists and bagpipe players are mentioned most often, while in towns in the process of modernization lute and virginals also appear. Evidence of virginals studies at a school towards the end of the Middle Ages can also be found. The high standard of lute playing in Hungary can be inferred from the international success of Hungarian-trained lutenists such as Valentin Bakfark.
The highest level of instrumental culture was that of the royal and pontifical courts. At the end of the 15th century excellent instrumentalists, often of foreign origin, were active primarily in the queen's entourage (for example, the lutenist Pietrobono de Burzellis in around 1486); there is also evidence of domestic music-making. It seems that these instrumentalists performed the most advanced vocal polyphonic items of the time in a chamber music-like manner.
Written evidence on singing in the vernacular can be found in two areas. Indirect evidence on the popularity of epic singing (‘heroic songs’) survives from the age of the Árpáds; the 15th-century chroniclers added some particulars about vernacular singers. Bonfini stressed that there was no essential difference between reciting a song at the royal court or among the people. An ancient epic-singing tradition seems to have survived until the end of the Middle Ages and to have been enlarged by topics from the Christian tradition, recent Hungarian history, and European mythology, as well as by European-style musical elements. The few poetic works written down around 1500 may be expressions of this epic tradition, which survived, though in a transformed state, in the ‘historic’ poetry which emerged in the mid-16th century. Its literary style can be reconstructed, by and large, by means of the latter, while the melodies associated with some texts (for example, the song of praise of King Ladislaus) can be determined fairly precisely.
Another important sphere of vernacular song was congregational singing in church. As elsewhere in Europe, the pieces in question were mostly used at the periphery of the liturgy (sermons, processions) rather than during the liturgy itself. Although this repertory was not large, it spread throughout the country. The majority of pieces were translations of cantiones known in other countries as well, but there are also Latin-Hungarian or exclusively Hungarian songs documented from Hungary alone. Within this group there survive also a number of Latin-Hungarian songs known only in a narrow circle and sung for the most part in devotional societies influenced by monks, and some songs known exclusively in the Hungarian language. Some of these pieces were later more widely distributed, and became popular sacred folksongs of the 16th century.
The only written document of secular vernacular song is a fragmentary virág-ének or ‘flower song’ (so called because of the subject matter of its refrain) from Sopron. However, folk music research has traced 20th-century remnants of a rich medieval secular musical culture by looking at texts, functions, musical styles and parallels from other countries. The first group is constituted by ancient ritual songs associated with the calendar year (for example, the summer solstice, 26 December and the beginning of the year, Pentecost etc.). The second group consists of court or middle-class musical customs: indoor games accompanied by singing that found their way to the general populace and became transformed through use by them (elements of dramatic games, the songs associated with certain children's games, verse recitation at school, the cries of nightwatchmen etc.). The third group comprises remnants of the medieval virág-ének, which survives in peasant wedding and matchmaking songs. The fourth and final group incorporates the music of entertainments and medieval dance melodies, and can be reconstructed by means of the bagpipe songs and swineherds' dances of Hungarian folk music; it has several counterparts in the ‘lower-style’ European material which survives in written notation.
A characteristic of these musical genres is that although they can be clearly separated from the ancient styles of Hungarian folk music and are presumably of western European origin, they have survived in the process of assimilation to a continuous musical taste. Their range is narrow, usually no more than five or six notes, modal melodies are used, though sporadically, and the tonality is variable. As far as form is concerned, a striking feature is the frequency of two- and three-line forms, asymmetric structures, pre-strophic formations and forms with refrain, as compared with the typical isosyllabic-isorhythmic four-section structure of Hungarian folksongs.
In 1526 János Szapolyai, the most powerful noble in the country, was chosen to replace King Lajos II, who fell at the battle of Mohács. In the west of the country the opposing party, hoping for assistance from the Habsburg dynasty against the Turks, soon afterwards raised the Habsburg Ferdinand to the throne. The choice of these two kings and the ensuing struggle between them divided Hungary's strength and made it possible for the Turks to march into Buda in 1541 and dominate the large southern and central part of the country for 150 years. The eastern part of the country (Transylvania) became an independent Hungarian principality, while the western and northern parts became a Hungarian monarchy governed by the Habsburgs from Vienna. For two centuries Hungary became a battleground, both against the conquering Turks and in defence of Transylvania and the kingdom of western Hungary, where the Habsburgs were attempting to Germanize the area and oppress the Protestants. As a result there was great economic, social and cultural degeneration. With the fall of Buda there was no longer a Hungarian royal court to transmit Western music to the country, and the few episcopal residences collapsed. In non-Turkish areas the spread of Protestantism caused the polyphonic music of the Catholic Church to decline, and musical literacy suffered greatly with the closure of monastery schools.
Although foreign musicians were interested in Hungary, only a few notable musicians visited the country (Capricornus was in Pozsony (now Bratislava, Slovakia) in 1651–7, and Andreas Rauch was in Sopron, 1629–56). Transylvania was occasionally an exception, partly through Polish and German musicians at the princely courts of János Zsigmond Szapolyai (1556–71) and Gábor Bethlen (1613–29), but mainly through musical interest of the princely Báthory family, at whose court in Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia, Romania) contemporary Italian and Dutch works were performed by Italian singers and musicians under G.B. Mosto. This was not, however, typical of these two centuries; native musicians emigrated to avoid the dangerous and difficult conditions at home. Of the 16th-century musicians who did so, the lutenist Hans Neusidler moved from Pozsony to Nuremberg about 1530; Stephan Monetarius, born in Körmöcbánya (now Kremnica, Slovakia), the first Hungarian writer to have a musical theory printed (Epitoma utriusque musices practice, Kraków, 1515), went to Vienna; the great lute virtuoso Valentin Bakfark left Szapolyai's court after 1540 and, although he briefly returned to Hungary (1568–71), died in Padua; Georg Ostermayer emigrated from Brassó (now Braşov, Romania) and became organist in Tübingen in 1558 and later in Stuttgart. This emigration continued in the 17th century: after studies in Pozsony the composer G.C. Strattner stayed in various German towns and finally settled in Weimar; Michael Bulyovszky (d Durlach, 1711), a theologian, philosopher and organist, went to study in Wittenberg and Strasbourg; and J.S. Kusser emigrated to Stuttgart as a child with his father, an organist and composer in Sopron and Pozsony.
Less significant non-Hungarian musicians who visited Hungary, and the hundreds of Hungarian students who went to study at foreign universities, transmitted to Western countries the dance music which survived there under titles which recorded their Hungarian origin (e.g. Hayduczky, Ungerischer Tantz, Passamezzo ongaro, Ungarescha etc.). Although they appeared abroad in a stylized and more subdued fashion, these dances conquered even the highest circles in Hungary in their original form, whether danced by cattleherds or as a military hajdútánc (‘soldier's dance’).
The first music printed in Hungary was vocal: a collection by the Transylvanian Saxon reformer Johannes Honterus, Odae cum harmoniis (Brassó, 1548, 2/1562); Sebestyén Tinódi's Cronica (Kolozsvár, now Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1554/R); and the Hofgreff Songbook (Kolozsvár, c1553). The ballad-like epics contained in these last two are the most characteristic form of 16th-century Hungarian music, and are closely related both in poetry and music to the psalms of the Protestant Hungarian assemblies. Further sources containing the melodies of about 250 historical songs and psalm settings (variants excepted) include Gál Huszár's printed Protestant songbook and gradual (Debrecen, 1560, 2/1574); the manuscript Eperjes Gradual; Cantus catholici (1651, 5/1792, 6/1935–8), the first printed Hungarian Catholic hymnbook; the collection of Catholic psalms and funeral chants Soltári … és halottas énekek (1693, 12/1904); and the first printed Calvinist hymnbooks in Hungary (Kolozsvár, 1744, 3/1761; Debrecen, 1774; 1778, 4/1806). Alongside vernacular songs and psalm settings with Hungarian music, the Gregorian repertory continued to be used in Latin in Catholic churches and in the vernacular in Protestant services (before the 17th-century Counter-Reformation). Nevertheless, Gregorian chant was gradually ousted from Protestant churches by the German chorale and in the Reformed Church by the Geneva psalms.
Scarcely any trace has survived of the lyrical love songs of the period, the virág-ének (‘flower song’). Because of the decline in musical literacy and the familiarity of the music, no written or printed music of the 16th- and 17th-century princely and aristocratic courts has survived. However, some information about their ensembles (between 16 and 29 musicians) has been recorded: the style of playing in string ensembles is described in Ungarische Wahrheitsgeige (Freiburg, 1683), a translation from Hungarian of a political pamphlet justifying the Hungarian uprising, while musical occasions are related in both Ungarischer oder dacianischer Simplicissimus (Göppingen, 1683/R), a novel based on the experiences of Daniel Speer, a visitor to Hungary, and in Péter Apor's description of the age, Metamorphosis Transylvaniae (written in 1736; Budapest, 1863/R). It is possible to draw conclusions from Speer's two collections of the music performed (Musicalischer Leuthe-Spiegel, 1687, and Musicalisch Türckischer Eulen-Spiegel, 1688) and even more from virginal books written in Hungary: the Kájoni Manuscript (1634–71, now lost), the Sopron Virginal Book (1689), the Lőcse (Levoča) Virginal Book (c1670) and the Vietórisz Manuscript (c1680). The Lőcse Virginal Book and the Vietórisz Manuscript are important collections of both Hungarian and Slovak music. Apart from the transcription of native folklike songs and dances and church music, these collections include a variety of international dance types included in the Baroque suite.
Folklike songs and dances and Western Baroque music also influenced the important collections of János Kájoni (1629–87; see Căianu, Ioan), a Transylvanian organist and organ builder, botanist, linguist and historian. His main collections are: the Kájoni Manuscript (which was begun by others); the Cantionale Catholicum (Csíksomlyó, now Şumulare, Romania, 1676, 3/1805), comprising 555 Hungarian songs, 259 Latin songs and four Credo melodies that were translated into Hungarian; the Organo-missale (1667), a manuscript consisting of 39 masses and 53 litanies in organ tablature; the Sacri concentus, a manuscript of church songs, chiefly from the works of Viadana (1669); and the Csíkcsobotfalvi Manuscript, which contains Hungarian church songs (c1651–75, by Kájoni or his circle). These influences were also apparent in western areas and shaped the musical individuality of Duke Pál Esterházy, whose Harmonia caelestis (1711) is a printed collection of 55 one-movement sacred pieces for solo voices (or chorus) and orchestra, some of which combine popular Hungarian sacred songs with Italian and German forms.
Hungary's connection with Western music was not broken even in these two difficult centuries; the centre of activity, however, shifted to the towns at the western edge of the country, and north and east in the Carpathians, which were far from the Turkish conflict and inhabited largely by Germans. Documents in various music libraries (Brassó from 1575; Körmöcbánya, 1599; Kassa, 1604; Pozsony, 1616) show that there was no decline in church music in these towns and that they embraced the polyphonic music of the 15th and 16th centuries; the works of Lassus were widely disseminated, and works by Janequin, Willaert, Vecchi, Giovanni Gabrieli and Vulpius (in Brassó), Finck, Josquin, Senfl and Handl (in Körmöcbánya) and Blasius Ammon and Hassler (in Pozsony) were known. Many works by these and other composers have survived in collections made in the areas around Bártfa, Eperjes and Lőcse (now Bardejov, Prešov and Levoča, all in Slovakia), some of which are in the Hungarian National Library. The works of local composers are also in the collections: about 20 compositions by Zacharias Zarevutius, an organist in Bártfa (until 1665), and 42 by Johannes Schimbracki (c1640), who worked in several northern towns. In the Eperjes Gradual (1635–50), which contains 53 four- to six-part choral works in Hungarian, there may also be works by native composers. Baroque works have survived by Johannes Spielenberg, chorus master in Lőcse (in the Kájoni Manuscript), Gabriel Reilich, who worked in Nagyszeben (now Sibiu, Romania), and Daniel Croner, an organist from Brassó.
The recapture of Buda from the Turks in 1686 marked the beginning of a new era in Hungary. The Turks lost the territories that they had occupied and Transylvania was no longer independent; thus, after the tripartite division which had lasted for over 150 years, the country was once more united under Habsburg rule. Despite the War of Independence (1703–11) under the leadership of Rákóczi, Hungary became linked with the Habsburg empire, and immigrants (mainly German) settled in the areas retaken from the Turks. There was an influx of foreign musicians, chiefly German and Vienna-influenced, in the course of the 18th century: for example, Albrechtsberger went to Győr, Krommer to Pécs and Mederitsch to Buda. Western art music was re-established in places from which it had disappeared: Michael Haydn (c1757–62), Dittersdorf (1765–9) and Pichl were engaged at the episcopal residence in Nagyvárad (now Oradea, Romania), and concerts were held in Hungarian aristocrats' palaces in Pozsony, where the young Mozart appeared by invitation in 1762. Among the various courts, the residences of the Esterházy dukes in Kismarton (now Eisenstadt, Austria, where G.J. Werner had been Kapellmeister) and Eszterháza were outstanding, the latter becoming the centre of Haydn's activity for three decades (1761–90). Haydn's symphonies and church music soon spread from there to the rest of the country (to Pécs and Pozsony as early as the 1770s). The opening of the opera house at Eszterháza in 1768, under the direction of Haydn, also saw the beginning of regular operatic life in Hungary. The earliest opera performances in Hungary had been those of Ferdinand III's Viennese court opera in Pozsony (1648) and (from 1740) occasional performances by visiting Italian companies.
The changes in musical style that had already taken place in the West, and especially in Germany, spread to the towns of Hungary and were adopted by the local musicians, for example in Pozsony by the town musical director Ferenc Tost (1754–1829), the composer and conductor Anton Zimmermann (1741–81) and the keyboard player F.P. Rigler. The first performance of a Mozart opera in Hungary was in Pozsony (Die Entführung aus dem Serail, 13 June 1785), given by Count Erdődy's resident opera company conducted by József Chudy (1753–1813), who later composed the first Hungarian Singspiel. A more modest but similar role was played by the organists and composers Benedek Istvánffy (1733–78) in Győr and János Wohlmuth (1643–1724) in Sopron, and by János Sartorius (1680–1756), J. Knall and Peter Schimert (a pupil of J.S. Bach) in Nagyszeben; a cathedral orchestra was founded in Pécs in 1712. The most talented of this group was János Fusz (1777–1819), who spent his life in Pozsony, Vienna and Buda as a composer and music historian.
All these influences had a considerably stronger effect on the development of musical life and taste in Hungary than on the music itself. The music was influenced by German and Italian forms and melodic styles, promoted by the poets László Amade (1704–64) and especially Ferenc Verseghy, who wrote texts to pre-existing melodies in those styles. More significant to the development of Hungarian music, however, were the folk traditions, which influenced both vocal and instrumental idioms.
In Protestant colleges choruses had long existed. They were further stimulated by the work of the mathematician György Maróthi (1715–44), who published two short theories of music as appendices to psalters (Debrecen, 1740 and 1743) to develop music-reading techniques he had learnt while he was in Switzerland and the Netherlands; he also organized a chorus in the Debrecen college (1739) and published Goudimel’s four-part arrangement (1565) of the Geneva psalter in a Hungarian translation by A. Szenci Molnár (1743, enlarged 4/1774). Maróthi's influence was far-reaching, although a short Hungarian music theory had already been written by J. Apáczai Csere in his Magyar Encyclopaedia (Utrecht, 1655/R), the Goudimel psalter had already been in use in Hungary, and the practice of having the melody in the tenor was already old-fashioned. Choruses were formed in Calvinist colleges. In Debrecen and Sárospatak choirmasters compiled melodiárium (choirbooks), in somewhat clumsy notation, to which many Hungarian songs were added between 1762 and 1820; besides their polyphonic development of Hungarian folksong, the chief merit of these 18th-century choruses was the preservation of the folk tradition, on which the folk-influenced songs of the 19th century were based.
The schools also laid the foundations of Hungarian musical theatre. The earliest step in this direction was the first drama in Hungarian set to music throughout, an anonymous Comico-tragoedia (Nagyvárad, 1646, repr. 1914). In this and similar instances the Protestant colleges in their school dramas were concerned primarily with the support of the Hungarian language (Nagyenyed, now Aiud, Romania, 1676), and the Catholic colleges with the music. In the Pécs Jesuit School, sung school dramas were also performed from 1717. The earliest surviving melodies (1736, Beszterce, now Bistriţa, Romania) are from the school dramas of the prolific Piarist teacher K. Kátsor (1710–92); among them are folk melodies that also survive in the oral tradition. Another Piarist teacher, the philosopher, linguist and writer B. Benyák (1745–1829), also composed the music for his own school dramas.
Alongside the Hungarian musical theatre a new type of instrumental music evolved, which was called a ‘Hungarian dance’ by those who notated it, and not verbunkos (‘recruiting music’), as it was incorrectly named later. Used for military recruitment, introduced in 1715, it was not created for that purpose and was widely familiar in its own right. Part of its musical material can be traced back to Hungarian dance music of the 16th century and to folk music. As a type it was not created by Gypsy musicians, although they later played an important role in disseminating it and in the style of its performance once they were permitted entry to the towns after 1765. Of the three outstanding verbunkos composers, only János Bihari was a Gypsy (János Lavotta and Antal Csermák were virtuoso violinists); it was chiefly with him that the genre was further enhanced by Hungarian popular music and the melodies of the Rákóczi period and remained essentially heroic dance music. The verbunkos helped to initiate a process whereby Hungarian music began to erode the influence of the German population settled by the Habsburgs in Buda and Pest after the departure of the Turks.
These immigrants started to build up the musical culture of the capital. Hungarian institutions began gradually to appear in Buda and Pest, and as early as 1733 Hungarian musicians were also in evidence; they were probably called Hungarian rather on the basis of the music they played than on their ancestry. However, church music and the more developed secular music, instrument making and regular opera performances (introduced in German in 1773) all remained the exclusive domain of immigrant musicians. Despite Emperor Joseph II's efforts at Germanization, the first Hungarian acting company, that of László Kelemen, was formed in the capital (1790–96), and was expanded to include some music productions, including the first Hungarian opera, Pikkó Hertzeg és Jutka Perzsi (‘Duke Pikko and Judy Perzsi’), by their conductor Chudy. For a time Lavotta and Csermák worked with this company, also giving concerts of their verbunkos; a few years later Bihari appeared in Pest. With them, and with the opera performances, Hungarian music, if only modestly, moved into Buda and Pest.
The 18th century effectively ended in Hungary in 1825 with the beginning of the ‘reform period’ associated with Count István Széchenyi. The War of Independence, led by Lajos Kossuth in 1848–9, was suppressed, and the subsequent oppression ended in 1867 with an agreement by which Hungary regained relative independence within the framework of the Habsburg monarchy. The population of the capital (Buda and Pest were united in 1873) increased from 60,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the century to 733,000 by the end. This general growth was also reflected in the development of musical institutions, mainly during the reform period and after the agreement of 1867.
Visits to Hungary by Haydn, Beethoven and, later, Schubert (traces of verbunkos style have survived in works by all three) were followed by other composers and performers from further away, some of whom settled there: Marschner (1817–21), Louis Lacombe (1838), Schindelmeisser (1838–46), Robert Volkmann (1841–53, 1858–83) and Mahler (1888–91) all worked in Hungary; Anton Rubinstein (several times after 1842), Berlioz (1846), Wagner (1863, 1875), Brahms (many times after 1867), Delibes (1878, 1881, 1885), Massenet (1879, 1885), Saint-Saëns (1879) and Richard Strauss (1895) performed or conducted there. This reflected a greatly increased interest in music which, until the last quarter of the century, led many gifted native musicians to emigrate in their childhood or youth because of inadequate training and limited opportunity (e.g. József Böhm, Liszt, Heller, Filtsch, Joachim, Goldmark, Hans Richter, Auer, Joseffy, Nikisch, Etelka Gerster and Tivadar Nachez).
In the first decades of the century the aristocratic orchestras typical of the preceding period were still in evidence in Kismarton, Tata and Esztergom. The Hungarian nobility was particularly interested in instrumental playing, but the weight of musical activity shifted from the aristocracy to the bourgeoisie. In Pest a new Hungarian drama and opera company was formed and for some years (1807–15) vied with the German company; its conductor Gáspár Pacha (1776–1811) wrote several Hungarian operas. But the German company moved into a fine new theatre in 1812 with an up-to-date repertory that quickly incorporated new Italian and French operas. The Hungarian company was confined to giving performances in the provinces for two decades along with several Hungarian and German companies who had already been working there for the first half of the century; the main centres of the Hungarian companies were Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca) and Kassa (now Košice), and of the German companies, Pozsony and Temesvár (now Timişoara, Romania). The role of the aristocratic courts was taken over by theatres and music societies (Pest, 1818; Kolozsvár, 1819; Veszprém, 1824; Sopron, 1829; Pozsony, 1832): the Veszprém society published the first big collection of verbunkos music; and the Kolozsvár society organized a music school, which developed into the country’s first conservatory (1837). This conservatory and the Nemzeti Szinház (National Theatre), opened in 1821, made Kolozsvár an important centre of Hungarian art music. József Ruzitska, conductor of the National Theatre, wrote Béla futása (‘Béla's Escape’, 1822), the most popular Hungarian opera before those of Ferenc Erkel (whose career also began in Kolozsvár). The predominantly German ensemble at Pozsony Cathedral gave historically important concerts, including Beethoven's Missa solemnis in 1835.
Pest finally became the country's musical centre in the 1830s with a rapidly developing concert life, the building of the National Theatre in 1837 and the opening of the Conservatory of the Pestbuda Society of Musicians in 1840. Erkel became the leading musician at that time: he was principal conductor of the opera from 1838 to 1874; his early works include the earliest significant Hungarian Romantic operas (Bátori Mária, 1840; Hunyadi László, 1844); he composed the national anthem in 1844; he was a concert pianist; and he directed many concerts, notably those of the Filharmóniai Társaság (Philharmonic Society) from their beginning in 1853 until 1871. The operas by Erkel’s subordinates at the theatre – Károly Thern, György Császár (1813–50), Franz and Karl Doppler and Károly Huber, Jenő Hubay's father – did not, despite their brief success, compare with Erkel's. Yet Hungarian musical sources were common to them all, including Erkel: the verbunkos, already past its zenith; the csárdás, which emerged around 1835, and was closely related to the verbunkos; and the folk-influenced art song.
There was no lack of initiative in other areas of musical life: György Arnold, regens chori in Szabadka (now Subotica, Yugoslavia), wrote church music, Hungarian dances and opera (Kemény Simon, 1826), published a Yugoslav songbook and wrote a music encyclopedia (1826, followed only in 1879 with József Ságh's Hungarian music encyclopedia); Gábor Mátray was important for his research into Hungarian music history and his collections of folk-style music; András Bartay, a forerunner of Erkel with the first Hungarian comic opera Csel (‘Ruse’, 1839), was a pioneer of oratorio and in music education; and Lajos Beregszászy founded an internationally renowned piano factory.
At his childhood farewell concert in Pest (1823) Liszt played verbunkos music and the Rákóczi March, dating from around 1810 and arising from tunes of the Rákóczi War of Independence (1703–11). At his 1839–40 and 1846 concerts in Hungary, however, he turned mainly to the melodic sources of the folk-influenced art songs and csárdás. Liszt made use of these themes within the formal structure of the verbunkos in his Hungarian Rhapsodies (nos.1–15). His later visits to his native Hungary, apart from being connected with some important cultural or political event, often coincided with the first performance of one of his significant works with Hungarian connections or in a Hungarian style (e.g. Missa solemnis, 1856; Hungaria, 1856; Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth, 1865; Hungarian Coronation Mass, 1867). His Hungarian Rhapsodies provided the model for a school but among the many compositions by his followers, it was only those of Imre Székely (1823–87), the finest Hungarian pianist of the time apart from Liszt, and of Jenő Hubay that were outstanding. Erkel wrote Hungarian symphonic music before Liszt (Hunyadi László overture, 1845), but Liszt's influence was deeper and more lasting, and can be traced in the works of Mihály Mosonyi and Ödön Mihalovich through the turn of the century (Károly Aggházy, Mór Vavrinecz) up to Bartók. Despite such early efforts as Mátyás Engeszer's Hungarian Mass (1841) Liszt's influence was felt more slowly in church music. He had relatively little influence on his contemporaries, but his church works alluding to Hungarian origin (he used the motivic material of the Rákóczi March in the Hungarian Coronation Mass, and old church modes and newer themes in folk style in the Die Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth), and those using Gregorian chant and alluding to a 16th-century polyphonic style (Missa choralis and the second version of the four-part Mass) had a strong impact on 20th-century Hungarian composers (Kodály, Artúr Harmat, Lajos Bárdos).
Liszt did not write chamber music or opera, and his influence was scarcely apparent in these genres. After the innovations of Lavotta and Csermák and some early Erkel works there had been only sporadic attempts at composing chamber works with a Hungarian character (Székely's string quartets and Violin Sonata; Ede Reményi's string quartets; Géza Allaga's Serenade for string sextet and cimbalom, 1882). The German Romantic music of Goldmark, who lived in Vienna, and Volkmann, who settled in Pest, was highly appreciated and dominated the repertory until Brahms’s chamber works began to appear in the 1870s and Dohnányi's at the end of the century. But the thematic and harmonic character of Hungarian opera showed some influence of Liszt. The most important opera composer was Erkel, whose works, after the success of Bánk bán (1861), were of two contrasting types: the historical music drama with recitatives and choruses (Dózsa György, 1867; Brankovics György, 1874), and the lyrical-comic type, with arioso and many folk scenes (Névtelen hősök, ‘Unknown Heroes’, 1880). Szép Ilonka (‘Pretty Helen’, 1861), a lyrical fairy-tale opera by Mosonyi, used verbunkos and folklike art song elements and was also a significant contribution to the genre.
The 1867 agreement made it possible for societies and institutions to be set up. That year many of the song-circles joined the Országos Magyar Daláregyesület (National Hungarian Choral Association), which organized a national choral festival in different towns every two years with Erkel as chief conductor. In the capital two mixed choirs were formed, each with orchestra, initiating the performance of large-scale works. In 1873 the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of Liszt's first public concert in grand style with a performance of Christus conducted by Richter. From 1869 to his death, Liszt spent considerable time each year in Hungary, and through his appearances as pianist and conductor, his encouragement to local musicians and the visiting musicians drawn to Hungary by his presence, he played an important part in making Budapest a musical centre of Europe.
The country's musical culture was greatly advanced by the founding of the Országos Magyar Királyi Zeneakadémia (National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music) in Budapest (1875), with Liszt as president and principal of the piano performing faculty, and Erkel as director and one of the piano professors. Most of Liszt's outstanding Hungarian pupils came from the academy: Aggházy, Aladár Juhász, I. Ravasz, Árpád Szendy and István Thomán, who later taught both Bartók and Dohnányi.
In the Népszínház (People's Theatre), built in Budapest in 1875, the folk play was revived chiefly through the efforts of the talented composer of folk-influenced songs Elemér Szentirmay, the opera conductor Gyula Erkel and the theatre conductor Elek Erkel, who then developed from the folk play the Hungarian operetta. In 1884 the opera section of the National Theatre moved to the new Opera House, under the direction of Sándor Erkel (1876–86), Mahler (1888–91), Nikisch (1893–5) and Gyula Káldy (1895–1900). The general development and prosperity of the capital also reached the country towns, where the new or rebuilt theatres (Debrecen, 1865; Arad and Székesfehérvár, 1874; Szeged, 1883; Pozsony, 1886; Pécs, 1895; Kassa, 1899) welcomed the Hungarian opera groups as well, chiefly those based in Debrecen, Kolozsvár and Arad.
Although it offered excellent professional training, the Academy of Music had no effect on the evolution of compositional styles and musical scholarship. Research into Hungarian music history was carried out on the initiative of Gábor Mátray, and later by István Bartalus and János Seprődi (1874–1923) (in addition to their folk music publications) as well as Ábrányi (who wrote on the history of 19th-century Hungarian music). The new generation of Hungarian composers after Liszt and Erkel were unable to continue the late style of Liszt, in which an increasingly large role was played by Hungarian music in its stricter sense (e.g. Sunt lacrymae rerum, three csárdás, Hungarian Rhapsodies nos.16–19, Historische ungarische Bildnisse) and whose bolder features pointed towards the 20th century. Ferenc Erkel's last opera, István király (‘King Stephen’, 1885), written to a large extent by his son Gyula, was in a style closely approaching Wagner. Excessive respect for Wagner was detrimental to the operas of the talented Mihalovich; Géza Zichy's operas, based on Hungarian traditions and the works of Ödön Farkas (1851–1912) were also short-lived. Only one of Hubay’s operas, A cremonai hegedűs (‘The Violin Maker of Cremona’, 1894), had an international success. Among the earliest Hungarian ballets were those on music of the 18th-century verbunkos composers Lavotta and Csermák (1829) and the ballet inserts in Erkel’s operas; these were followed by Jenő Sztojanovits's Csárdás (1890), a ballet using folkdance throughout, and Károly Szabados's Vióra (1891), both of which were particularly successful in Hungary. It was Liszt's pupil Aggházy, rather than the conservative J.G. Major, Béla Szabados or the experimental Sándor Bertha, who became historically significant to early 20th-century Hungarian music through combining elements of Liszt with French and Baroque influence.
At the turn of the century Hungarian music and musical life were marked by a characteristic dichotomy: trained musicians were influenced by German Romantic composers while the national tradition was represented by the popular art songs of semi-dilettante composers. Szabolcsi concluded that ‘European culture and national tradition had become unhealthily separated from each other and even appeared as adversaries’.
The Budapest Academy, run by Liszt and Erkel together during its first decade, had the neo-Wagnerian Ödön Mihalovich as its director from 1887 to 1918, with composition being taught by German musicians such as Robert Volkmann, and later Hans Koessler, whose classes produced the generation of Hungarian composers who opened new horizons for Hungarian music: Dohnányi, Bartók, Kodály and Weiner. From the outset, Dohnányi’s music was unambiguously Germanic and largely remained within the framework of Brahmsian Romanticism, although during the decades of his activities in Hungary his use of Hungarian folk melody became more significant. Weiner’s music also adheres to German Romanticism, though he went further than Dohnányi in the use of the Hungarian folk material, which became the main feature of an identifiable late period of his style (1931–51). His activities as a teacher of chamber music at the Budapest Academy influenced several generations of Hungarian musicians. Among his students were Antal Dorati, Georg Solti, György Pauk, György Sebők and Janos Starker.
Bartók also began his career with experiments aimed at combining Germanic musical style with the 19th-century Hungarian verbunkos, and only later realized that the melodies of Hungarian popular art song and the verbunkos (forcibly transplanted from its own period) were not compatible with the German Romantic symphonic forms and instrumentation. However, the discovery of ancient peasant melodies that had survived practically unchanged in Hungarian villages led to the solution of this problem. Kodály started collecting folksongs on a wide-ranging, scholarly basis in 1905, and Bartók followed his example; their use of the melodic material they found, which differed both from Western European folksongs and from Hungarian popular songs (which had until then been thought of as folksongs) gave new direction to the development of Hungarian music. Also, again on Kodály’s initiative, composers had become orientated towards France rather than Germany and discovered, especially in the works of Debussy, new possibilities for the harmonization of pentatonic and modal melodies. While a sort of national classicism emerged in Kodály’s music, Bartók interpreted folk music sources in a wider sense, absorbing into his music the influences of the folksongs that he subsequently collected in Romania, Slovakia and North Africa. Bartók also reacted more sensitively than Kodály to Western influences, approaching Schoenberg’s atonal style in the early 1920s, while later in the decade he briefly followed Stravinsky in neo-Baroque experimentation. In his last creative period, alongside his robust classicizing tendencies he ensured an even broader context for the interpretation of traditional music.
Bartók’s and Kodály’s younger contemporaries Sándor Jemnitz, György Kósa and László Lajtha consciously struggled to forge their individual styles and incorporate new influences; Jemnitz, a pupil of Reger and Schoenberg, assimilated German expressionism and stood apart from Kodály’s nationalism; Kósa drew his inspiration from Hungarian literature and dance, while Lajtha followed Kodály and Bartók in their use of folk music but went his own way under the influence of such French composers as Schmitt and d’Indy and the Triton society in Paris.
Besides his compositions and folk music research, Kodály’s activity as a teacher also contributed to the establishment of a national school. From 1907 he taught music theory and later composition at the Budapest Academy, where he had a powerful influence on two generations of young composers. If Kodály did not force his personal style on his pupils, he trained Hungarian musicians to master the most valuable elements of European art music and to make use of Hungarian folksongs in establishing a national style. In the 1920s and 30s the Kodály school not only laid the foundations of a new sort of national musical classicism, but became the progressive opposition of the chauvinistic pro-German musical culture that flourished between the wars.
The first generation of Kodály’s pupils, born around the turn of the century, came to international attention in the 1920s and 30s, and included Jenő Ádám, Lajos Bárdos, Tibor Serly, Ferenc Szabó, Pál Kadosa, Zoltán Horusitzky, Géza Frid, István Szelényi, Mátyás Seiber, Zoltán Gárdonyi, Antal Dorati, János Viski, György Ránki, Sándor Veress and Mihály Hajdu. Kodály’s influence was so great that it left its mark on composers who did not study with him, among them Ferenc Farkas, a pupil of Albert Siklós.
Although the composers of the Kodály school all shared the same musical training, central to which was the creation of a national music language, each one left works that reflected his own personality. Kadosa, who composed chiefly instrumental works, always showed great individuality, despite some influence of Bartók and Kodály. Szabó’s early works are characterized by the austere sounds and Baroque forms of functional art; however, from the 1930s onwards, his vision and his choice of genre were decisively influenced by his left-wing political sympathies (from 1932 to 1945 he lived in the Soviet Union). The works of Ádám and Bárdos were closely linked to the development of the new Hungarian choral movement, while the continuation of the Liszt tradition emerged as an important element in the music of Szelényi and Gárdonyi. In the 1950s Horusitzky and Hajdu each attempted to revive Hungarian opera, the former composing the historical opera Báthory Zsigmond, the latter the folk-based opera Kádár Kata. The most original and successful attempt at reviving the genre of operetta was Ránki’s Pomádé király új ruhája (‘King Pomádé’s New Clothes’) Veress, who succeeded Kodály in the composition faculty at the Budapest Academy, was rated the most successful composer of the generation following Bartók and Kodály. His early chamber works, initially neo-classical, then folk-based were followed in the 1940s by such large-scale compositions as the Violin Concerto, the ballet Térszili Katicza (‘Katica from Térszil’) and Szent Ágoston psalmusa az eretnekek ellen (‘St Augustine’s Psalm Against the Heretics’).
The evolution of Veress’s output was similar to those of his contemporaries whose development was decisively influenced by emigration. Both before and after World War II, a number of Hungarian composers, including Tibor Harsányi, Frid, Seiber, Dorati, Veress, Miklós Rózsa and Jenő Takács, were forced to emigrate. The effect of a new cultural environment on the creativity of the emigrant composers was usually stimulating, although most of them retained their distinctive Hungarian voice.
Both made use of the language of Hungarian vocal music that Kodály had cultivated to refine his personal style. He deliberately trained a group of competent musicians with whose help he hoped to achieve his main objective – the creation of a musically cultured Hungary. Many of his pupils became teachers, while a number of his colleagues and pupils (Lajtha, Veress and György Kerényi) were engaged in the collection and study of folk music.
The second generation of Kodály’s pupils (the group of composers born around 1920), like young composers elsewhere, were hampered in their development during the war years. The social and political transformation of the country in 1948–9 brought with it a cultural policy that turned musical life against the trends in Western Europe and, in the spirit of socialist realism, made a composer’s primary task that of serving the cultural needs of the masses. This over-simplified cultural policy won easy acceptance in Hungary, for even between the wars Kodály had hoped that he and his pupils would ‘bring art closer to the people, and the people closer to art’. The three most prominent features of the Kodály school – a national outlook based on Hungarian folk music, the need for correct Hungarian prosody and the rejection of experiments in language and technique – thus became the dominant trends in Hungarian music in the first decade after the war. It was characteristic of the situation around 1950 that while Bartók’s music was officially praised, some of his works, mostly from his avant-garde middle period, were banned.
In the ongoing arguments about the politics of music in the late 1940s and early 50s there were frequent shifts in emphasis. The first few years after the war were dominated by lighter genres: serenades and cantatas in a conservative, highly accessible idiom and songs for the masses, whose texts reinforced the prevailing socialist ideology. After a few years, however, composers began to turn to more substantial genres, notably the oratorio, the symphony and the concerto. Significant works of this period include Rezső Sugár’s Hősi ének (‘Heroic Song’, 1951), Pál Járdányi’s Vörösmarty-Symphony (1952), Endre Szervánszky’s Concerto in Memoriam Attila József (1954) and András Mihály’s Cello Concerto (1953), all of them written in a neo-Romantic nationalist idiom incorporating elements of folk music.
After the 1956 uprising there was a call for greater liberalization in musical life. Although nominally an official political ideology for the arts continued to exist, it could no longer be consistently enforced. Composers soon sensed the liberalized atmosphere and began to compensate for the ground lost during the years of isolation. Through foreign radio broadcasts and recordings and scores obtained from abroad, they began to broaden their horizons; and from Bartók, whose most radical works were no longer banned, they learnt how to synthesize Hungary’s native musical language with modern European techniques into an individual expression. Composers of the middle generation such as Járdányi, Rudolf Maros, Mihály, Endre Székely and Szervánszky were able to lay down a new path for Hungarian music, free of the strictures of the past. The first and most natural orientation lay in the belated imitation of the Second Viennese School, from which Hungarian musical life had been cut off both before and after the war. An emblematic work of this period was Szervánszky’s Six Pieces for Orchestra (1959), strongly influenced by Webern. Strict 12-note technique was used in only a few works (e.g. Imre Vincze’s String Quartet no.2), while a freer application became fairly common.
Two particularly gifted composers of the generation born in the 1920s proved capable of moving in a fundamentally new direction: György Ligeti and György Kurtág, both of them pupils of Veress and Farkas at the Budapest Academy. Ligeti settled in Vienna in 1957 and soon became an influential composer of avant-garde music. Kurtág’s studies in Paris (1957–8) were a turning-point in his career; without departing from the subtly rethought Bartók tradition, his style underwent radical reform on the basis of the serial techniques of Webern and Stravinsky. Kurtág discovered the ‘microform’, and through his concentration, extreme expressive capacity and fertile exploration of previous traditions he has created a unique musical style, the scope of which won belated international recognition following the 1981 premičre of his Poslaniya pokonoy R.V. Trusovoy op.17 (‘Messages of the Late R.V. Troussova’). Another distinguished composer of this generation is András Szőllősy, who studied with Kodály, Viski and Petrassi and established his individuality in orchestral works from the mid-1960s.
About 1960 a new generation of young composers appeared whose studies had been completed in the new freer atmosphere at the academy, and who were offered the chance of continuing their studies abroad. Two opera composers of this generation whose works are known abroad are Emil Petrovics and Sándor Szokolay whose Vérnász (‘Blood Wedding’, 1964) was probably the most successful Hungarian opera since Bluebeard’s Castle. Many of these musicians gave Hungarian music new direction at the beginning of the 1960s: although they were all influenced by a recognizably Hungarian tradition (not necessarily using folksong), the influence of free 12-note technique and of the ‘Warsaw school’ helped them to achieve results that brought the attention of the musical world back to Hungary (Decsényi, Kalmár, Károlyi, Kocsár, Láng, Lendvay, Papp and Soproni). Balassa, Bozay and Durkó, in particular have achieved an international reputation. They have not bound themselves to any single trend, but have drawn on all of them – from serialism to techniques based on timbres, clusters, note rows and aleatory procedures. In instrumental music their preferred genres have been works for a solo instrument and for chamber ensembles, sometimes using experimental instrumental combinations. In the 1980s most composers of this generation turned increasingly to a neo-Romantic idiom.
The works of the generation that became established in the 1970s showed that Hungarian music had broken free of national tradition and could move closer to both the older and newer avant-garde trends. The young musicians of the group known as the Új Zenei Stúdió (New Music Studio) – Jeney, Sáry, Vidovszky, Eötvös and Dukay – completed their studies in Hungary; most of them then worked under Petrassi, Messiaen or Stockhausen, experimenting with principles of organization in musical time and space, chiefly on the basis of the ideas of Cage. After the gradual dissolution of the group in the 1980s the individual characteristics of each of its composers became clearer: Eötvös’s theatrical temperament, Jeney’s strict rationalism, Sáry’s lyricism and Vidovszky’s wit. Among other composers of this generation who were unconnected with the New Music Studio, Jószef Sári founded a non-dramatic style following the example of Ligeti, and László Dubrovay brought the techniques of electronic music to his instrumental works.
The generation of Hungarian composers that emerged around 1980 did not formed a unified group, although many of them studied with Petrovics. Iván Madarász’s eclectic style shows an affinity with minimalism, István Márta uses collage techniques and incorporates elements from pop music, and the experimental 180-as Csoport (Group 180) of László Melis, András Soós and Tibor Szemző were influenced by Steve Reich. Many younger composers have adopted a neo-Romantic, tonal idiom, among them Miklós Csemiczky, György Orbán, György Selmeczi and János Vajda. Some composers of this generation (e.g. Máté Hollós) cultivate a specifically Hungarian style, while others such as László Tihanyi, a disciple of Eötvös, are more cosmopolitan in outlook.
The birth and relatively rapid expansion of Hungarian musicology in the 20th century was closely related to the development of modern Hungarian music. The pioneering role was not played by historical and theoretical research, as in most western European countries, but by ethnomusicology, initiated by Béla Vikár at the turn of the century, followed by Kodály, Bartók, Lajtha and Veress. While Kodály founded a school of ethnomusicology (Járdányi, Kerényi, Kiss, Olsvai, Rajeczky, Sárosi, Vargyas, László Vikár), Bence Szabolcsi and Dénes Bartha carried out pioneering work in the field of music history. Many branches of musicological research are carried out at the Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (Hungarian Academy of Sciences), under whose auspices the first collections of folk music were systematized (Bartók, 1934–40), and the Népzenekutató Csoport (Folk Music Research Group) established under Kodály’s direction in 1953. Under Kodály’s guidance the systematic publication of Hungarian folk melodies was begun in 1951 in the series Magyar Népzene Tára (Corpus Musicae Popularis Hungaricae). This has been continued by the new generation of folk music scholars.
In 1951 Bartha and Szabolcsi founded the department of musicology at the Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Főiskola (Liszt Academy of Music). They taught several generations of music historians. Besides Bartha and Szabolcsi, important musicologists have included Gárdonyi, Bárdos, Rezso Kókai and, later, György Kroó, Lászlo Somfai, János Kárpáti, Tibor Tallián, Lászlo Dobszay, Janka Szendrei, Katalin Komlós, A. Batta, Sándor Kovács and I. Ferenczi. In 1961 the Bartók Archives, an independent department of the Academy of Sciences, were opened under the directorship of the Belgian scholar Denijs Dille. The archive’s activities were expanded under Somfai’s direction from 1972, and have included the preparation of a thematic catalogue and a complete critical edition of Bartók’s works.
The Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Zenetudományi Intézete (Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) is a centre of musicological research in Hungary. In 1974 the previously independent Népzenekutató Csoport (Folk Music Research Group) was annexed to this institution. The institution’s activities have included important research into Gregorian chant and the history of early music in Hungary; the series of musical editions Musicalia Danubiana (16 volumes) and the congress reports Cantus Planus have gained international recognition. Since the early 1980s Hungarian scholars have been involved in the production and publication of the five-volume series Magyarország Zenetörténete (‘The History of Music in Hungary’), the first two of which appeared in 1988 and 1990. The results of recent decades of research into the history of music in Hungary are published in the series Magyar Zenetörténeti Tanulmányok (‘Studies in Hungarian Music History’, ed. F. Bónis). Two important institutions opened since the 1980s are the Liszt Memorial Museum and Research Centre, under the direction of Mária Eckhardt (1986), and the Kodály Memorial Museum and Archives, directed by István Kecskeméti. The distinguished tradition of Hungarian music criticism established in the first half of the 20th century by Bartha, Antal Molnár, Aladár Tóth and Jemnitz has been continued by such critics as Járdányi, András Pernye and Kroó.
The principal institution for the teaching of music in Hungary is the Liszt Academy of Music, founded in 1875 as the National Hungarian Royal Academy of Music, and named after Liszt in 1925. The Nemzeti Zenede (National Conservatory) was founded in 1840 and was renamed the Bartók Béla Zeneművészeti Szakiskola (Béla Bartók Musical Training College) in 1949; it provides training at an intermediate level together with affiliated colleges in provincial towns (Debrecen, Győr, Miskolc, Pécs, Szeged etc.). There is a broad network of elementary music schools; music is taught in all schools according to Kodály’s principles. The centre for the teaching of the ‘Kodály method’ is the Nemzetközi Kodály Intézet (International Kodály Institute) in Kecskemét. (For further information on Hungary’s principal institutions see Budapest.)
See also Braşov; Bratislava; Cluj-Napoca; Eszterháza; Szeged.
Hungary, §I, 5: Art music: 20th century
E. Haraszti: La musique hongroise (Paris, 1933)
D. Bartha: Erdély zenetörténete [History of Transylvanian music] (Budapest, 1936)
I. Molnár, ed.: A magyar muzsika könyve [Book of Hungarian music] (Budapest, 1936)
G. Papp: A magyar katolikus egyházi népének kezdetei [The sources of Hungarian Catholic hymns] (Budapest, 1942)
D. Bartha and Z. Kodály: Die ungarische Musik (Budapest, 1943)
B. Szabolcsi: A magyar zenetörténet kézikönyve [A concise history of Hungarian music] (Budapest, 1947, rev. 3/1979 by F. Bónis; Eng. trans., l964, 2/1974, as A Concise History of Hungarian Music)
F. Bónis, ed.: B. Szabolcsi: A magyar zene évszázadai [Szabolcsi's collected writings on centuries of Hungarian music] (Budapest, 1959–61)
J. Vigué and J. Gergely: La musique hongroise (Paris, 1959, 2/1976)
D. Keresztury, J. Vécsey and Z. Falvy: A magyar zenetörténet képeskönyve [The history of Hungarian music in pictures] (Budapest, 1960)
D. Legány, ed.: A magyar zene krónikája: zenei művelődésünk ezer éve dokumentumokban [Chronicle of Hungarian music: 1000 years of documentation on musical culture] (Budapest, 1962)
B. Stoll: A magyar kéziratos énekeskönyvek és versgyűjtemények bibliográfiája: 1565–1840 [Bibliography of Hungarian manuscript song and poem collections, 1565–1840] (Budapest, 1963)
F. Sándor, ed.: Zenei nevelés Magyarországon (Budapest, 1964; Eng. trans. by B. Balogh, Z. Horn and P. Járdányi, 1966, 3/1975 as Musical Education in Hungary)
E. Major: Fejezetek a magyar zene történetéből [Episodes from Hungarian music history], ed. F. Bónis (Budapest, 1967)
F. Bónis, ed.: Magyar zenetörténeti tanulmángok [Studies on Hungarian music history], i–vii (Budapest, 1968–1996)
J. Ujfalussy, ed.: Dokumentumok a Magyar Tanácsköztársaság zenei életéhez [Documents on the musical life of the Hungarian Socialist Republic] (Budapest, 1973)
K. Szigeti: Régi magyar orgonák: Kőszeg [Old Hungarian organs: Kőszeg] (Budapest, 1974)
K. Bárdos: Volksmusikartige Variierungstechnik in den ungarischen Passionen, 15. bis 18. Jahrhundert (Budapest, 1975)
Műhelytanulmányok a Magyar zenetörténethez [Workshop studies to ‘History of Music in Hungary’], i–xv (Budapest, 1981–95)
K. Bárdos: ‘Újabb szempontok a magyarországi toronyzenészek történetének kérdéséhez’ [New aspects of the problem concerning the history of the tower musicians in Hungary], Zenetudományi dolgozatok (1983), 103–11
L. Dobszay: Magyar zenetörténet [A history of Hungarian music] (Budapest, 1984; Eng. trans., 1993)
E. Halmos: Die Geschichte des Gesang-Musikunterrichts in Ungarn: unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Einflusses aus dem deutschsprachigen Kulturbereich (Stuttgart, 1988)
I. Balázs: Musikführer duch Ungarn (Budapest, 1991; Eng. trans., 1992)
E. Brixel: ‘Das Signalwesen der Postillions in Österreich-Ungarn’, Musica pannonica, i (1991), 75–110
P. Karch: ‘Ergänzungen und Berichtigungen zu den bisher veröffentlichten Verzeichnissen über die Militärmusik in der Donaumonarchie, die ungarische Reichshälfte betreffend’, Pannonische Forschungsstelle Oberschützen: Arbeitsberichte-Mitteilungen, ii (1991), 130–75; iii (1992), 277–350
J. Kárpáti, ed.: Fejezetek a Zeneakdémia történetéből [Chapters from the history of the Academy of Music] (Budapest, 1992)
L. Dobszay: Abriss der ungarischen Musikgeschichte (Budapest, 1993)
K. Schnorr: ‘Gli organi delle chiese nella fascia danubia slovacca ed ungharese’, Danubio: una civiltŕ musicale, iii (Monfalcone, 1993), 55–76
L. Marosi: Két évszázad katonazenéje Magyorországon, 1741–1945 [Two centuries of military music in Hungary, 1741–1945] (Budapest, 1994)
I. Bartalus: A magyar egyházak szertartásos énekei a XVI. és XVII. században [Liturgical song in the Hungarian church of the 16th and 17th centuries] (Pest, 1869)
J. Dankó: Vetus hymnarium ecclesiasticum hungariae (Budapest, 1893)
K. Isoz: Körmöczbánya zenészei a XVII. században [The musicians of Körmöcbánya in the 17th century] (Budapest, 1907)
O. Gombosi: ‘Quellen aus dem 16.–17. Jahrhundert zur Geschichte der Musikpflege in Bartfeld (Bártfa) und Oberungarn’, Ungarische Jahrbücher, xii (1932), 331–40
D. Bartha: Szalkai érsek zenei feljegyzései monostor-iskolai diák korából (1490) [Music notes of Archbishop Szalkai from his school years (1490)] (Budapest, 1934)
E. Haraszti: ‘Les musiciens de Mathias Corvinus et de Béatrice d'Aragon’, La musique instrumentale de la Renaissance: Paris 1954, 35–59
K. Csomasz Tóth: A XVI. század magyar dallamai [Hungarian songs of the 16th century] (Budapest, 1958) [with Ger. summary]
Z. Falvy: ‘Spielleute im mittelalterlichen Ungarn’, SMH, i (1961), 29–64
B. Rajeczky: ‘Spätmittelalterliche Organalkunst in Ungarn’, SMH, i (1961), 15–28
Z. Falvy and L. Mezey: Codex Albensis: ein Antiphonar aus dem 12. Jahrhundert (Budapest and Graz, 1963)
K. Szigeti: ‘Denkmäler des Gregorianischen Chorals aus dem ungarischen Mittelalter’, SMH, iv (1963), 129–72
K. Szigeti: ‘Mehrstimmige Gesänge aus dem 15. Jahrhundert im Antiphonale des Oswald Thuz’, SMH, vi (1964), 107–17
L. Zolnay: ‘Data of the Musical Life of Buda in the Late Middle Ages’, SMH, ix (1967), 99–113
Z. Falvy: Drei Reimoffizien aus Ungarn und ihre Musik (Budapest and Kassel, 1968)
G. Papp: ‘Beiträge zu den Verbindungen der polnischen und ungarischen Musik im 17. Jahrhundert’, SMH, x (1968), 37–54
G. Papp: A XVII. század énekelt magyar dallamai [Hungarian songs of the 17th century] (Budapest, 1970)
B. Szabolcsi: Tanzmusik aus Ungarn im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (Budapest and Kassel, 1970)
L. Dobszay: ‘Dies est leticie’, Acta ethnographica, xx (1971), 203–13
B. Rajeczky: ‘Ein neuer Fund zur mehrstimmigen Praxis Ungarns im 15. Jahrhundert’, SMH , xiv (1972), 147–68
J. Szendrei: ‘Die Te Deum-Melodien in Kodex Peer’, SMH, xiv (1972), 169–201
Z. Falvy: ‘Troubadourmelodien im mittelalterlichen Ungarn’, SMH, xv (1973), 79–88
J. Szendrei: ‘Te Deum als ungarischer Volksgesang im Mittelalter’, SMH, xv (1973), 303–20
L. Zolnay: ‘Feldtrompeter und Kriegsmusik im ungarischer Mittelalter’, SMH, xvi (1974), 151–78
J. Szendrei, L. Dobszay and B. Rajeczky, eds.: XVI.–XVII. századi dallamaink a népi emlékezetben [16th- and 17th-century Hungarian songs in the folk tradition] (Budapest, 1979)
J. Szendrei, L. Dobszay and B. Rajeczky: Cantus Gregorianus ex Hungaria – Magyar Gregoriánum (Budapest, 1981)
K. Rennerné Várhidi: ‘Adatok a szepesi huszonnégy királyi város 16–17. századi zenei eletéhez’ [Details of the musical life of the 24 royal towns of Szepes in the 16th and 17th centuries], Zenetudományi dolgozatok (1983), 91–102
J. Szendrei: Középkori hangjegyírások Magyarországon [Music notations in medieval Hungary] (Budapest, 1983)
K. Bárdos: Szabad királyi városaink és mezővárosaink zenei struktúrája és zeneélete a 16–17. században (1541–1686) [The musical structure and musical life of our independent royal towns and our agricultural towns in the 16th and 17th centuries (1541–1686)] (diss., U. of Budapest, 1986)
Z. Czagány: ‘Fragment eines anonymen Musiktraktats des XV. Jahrhunderts aus Leutschau’, Cantus Plannus III: Tihany 1988, 237–44
J. Szendrei: ‘Tropenbestand der ungarischen Handschriften’, ibid., 297–326
J. Szendrei: ‘Die Geschichte der Graner Choralnotation’, SMH, xxx (1988), 5–234
K. Bárdos: ‘Das Musikleben des Jesuiten und Piaristen Ordens in Nordungarn des 17. Jahrhunderts’, Musicae sacrae ars et scientia: ksiega ku czci Ks. Prof. Karola Mrowca, ed. S. Dabek (Lublin, 1989), 315–29
C. Brewer: ‘The Historical Context of Polyphony in Medieval Hungary: an Examination of Four Fragmentary Sources’, SMH, xxxii (1990), 5–21
L. Dobszay: ‘Plainchant in Medieval Hungary’, Journal of the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, xiii (1990), 49–78
Z. Czagány, G. Kiss and Á. Papp: ‘A Repertory of Mass Ordinaries in Eastern Europe, Cantus Plannus VI: Eger 1993, 585–600
A. Jánosi: ‘La tradizione interpretativa della musica barocca in Ungheria’, Danubio: una civiltŕ musicale, iii (Monfalcone, 1993), 267–73
L. Dobszay: ‘Local Compositions in the Office Temporale’, Max Lütolf zum 60. Geburtstag Festschrift, ed. B. Hangartner and U. Fischer (Basel, 1994), 65–74
R. Gates-Coon: The Landed Estates of the Esterházy Princes: Hungary during the reforms of Maria Theresia and Joseph II (Baltimore, 1994)
G. Kiss: ‘Die Beziehung zwischen Ungebundenheit und Traditionalismus im Messordinarium’, Laborare fratres in unum: Festschrift László Dobszay zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. J. Szendrei and D. Hiley (Hildesheim, 1995), 187–200
K. Ábrányi: A magyar zene a 19-ik században [Hungarian music in the 19th century] (Budapest, 1900)
B. Szabolcsi: ‘Ungarische Chorpartituren des 18. Jahrhunderts’, ZMw, xi (1928–9), 306–12
D. Bartha: A XVIII. század magyar dallamai [18th-century Hungarian melodies] (Budapest, 1935)
A. Molnár: ‘Nyugatias magyar dallamok a XVIII. század végén és a XIX. század első felében’ [Hungarian art songs of the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century], ZT, iv (1955), 103–62
A. Valkó: ‘Haydn magyarországi működése a levéltári akták tükrében’ [Documentation on Haydn’s activity in Hungary], ZT, vi (1957), 627–67; viii (1960), 527–668
J. Ujfalussy: ‘Hogyan kerülnek a magyarok Beethoven III. szimfóniájának utolsó tételébe?’ [How did Hungarian influence reach the finale of Beethoven’s Third Symphony?], Magyar zene, i (1960–61), 7–15
P.P. Domokos: ‘Magyar táncdallamok a XVIII. századból' [Hungarian dance melodies of the 18th century], ZT, ix (1961), 269–94
Z. Falvy: ‘Danses du XVIIIe sičcle en Hongrie dans la collection “Linus”’, SMH, xiii (1971), 15–59
I. Mona: ‘Hungarian Music Publication 1774–1867’, SMH, xvi (1974), 261–75
K. Bárdos: Pécs zenéje a 18. században [Music at Pécs in the 18th century] (Budapest, 1976)
K. Bárdos: A Tatai Esterházyak zenéje 1727–1846 [Music of the Esterházy court in Tata, 1727–1846] (Budapest, 1978)
K. Csomasz Tóth: Maróthi György és a kollégiumi zene [Maróthi and the music in colleges] (Budapest, 1978)
A. Meier: ‘Die Pressburger Hofkapelle des Fürstprimas von Ungarn, Fürst Joseph von Batthyany, in den Jahren 1776 bis 1784’, Haydn Yearbook 1978, 81–9
D. Legány: ‘Kamaramuzsikálás Magyarországon 1800–tól 1830–ig’ [Chamber music performance in Hungary from 1800 to 1830], Magyar zene, xxiv (1983), 269–80
G. Galavics: ‘Művészettörténet, zenetörténet, tánctörténet: Muzsikus- és táncábrázolások 1750–1820 között Magyarországon’ [History of art, music and dance: representations of musicians and dance in Hungary between 1750 and 1820], Ethnographia, xcviii (1987), 160–206
A. Németh: A magyar opera története a kezdetektől az Operaház megnyitásáig [The history of Hungarian opera from its beginnings to the opening of the Opera House] (Budapest, 1987)
I. Sonkoly: ‘Die Vertonungen von Texten deutscher Dichter des 19. Jahrhunderts in Ungarn’, Német filológiai tanulmányok/Arbeiten zur deutschen Philiologie, xix (1990), 25–38
A. Gupcsó: ‘Musiktheater-Aufführungen an Jesuiten- und Piaristenschulen im Ungarn des 18. Jahrhunderts’, SMH, xxxviii (1997), 315–44
Contemporary Hungarian Composers (Budapest, 1967, enlarged 5/1989)
M. Pándi: Száz esztendő magyar zenekritikája [A century of Hungarian music criticism] (Budapest, 1967)
G. Kroó: A magyar zeneszerzés 30 éve [30 years of Hungarian music] (Budapest, 1975; Ger. trans., 1980 as Ungarische Musik gestern und heute; Fr. trans., 1981 as La musique hongroise contemporaine)
T. Tallián: ‘Új magyar opera: korszak- és típusvázlat’ [New Hungarian opera: a rough sketch of period and type], Zenetudományi dolgozatok (Budapest, 1980), 345–64
A. Tokaji: Mozgalom és hivatal: tömegdal Magyarországon 1945-56 [Movement and office: the mass song in Hungary, 1945–56] (Budapest, 1983)
M. Berlász and T. Tallián, eds.: Iratok a magyar zeneoktatás történetéhez [Writings on the history of music teaching in Hungary] (Budapest, 1984)
M. Berlász and T. Tallián, eds.: Iratok a magyar zeneélet történetéhez [Writings on the history of musical life in Hungary] (Budapest, 1985–6)
J. Breuer: Negyven év magyar zenekultúrája [Hungarian music culture in the last 40 years] (Budapest, 1985)
T. Tallián: Magyarországi hangversenyélet 1945–1958 [Hungarian concert life 1945–1958] (Budapest, 1991)
J. Breuer: ‘Verfemte Musik in Ungarn’, Verfemte Musik: Komponisten in den Diktaturen unseres Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt and New York, 1995), 263–71
M. Hollós: Az Héletmu fele: zeneszerzőportrék beszélgetésekben [Halfway on career: portraits of composers in interviews] (Budapest, 1997)
For further bibliography see Budapest.
The Hungarian people, who belong to the Finno-Ugric language group, arrived in their present homeland from the east and occupied it definitively in the 9th century. Earlier, their residence on the borders of Europe and Asia had brought them into contact not only with closely related peoples (the Vogul and the Ostyak in western Siberia, the Mari in the Volga valley) but also with many other groups, especially Turkic peoples. The roots of Hungarian music go back to this period of direct contact with Asians. In their new central European home they adopted Christianity during the 10th century, and thus came into closer touch with the musical life of Europe. This had an increasingly decisive influence on the later evolution of their music.
According to the definition of Kodály and Bartók, Hungarian folk music is the unwritten music surviving in the peasant tradition. It is generally distinguished from those melodies created in the 19th century (mainly in the second half of the century) by middle-class amateur composers which also spread largely in unwritten form: in contemporary collections these songs were also called folksongs. The modern specialist term for them is népies dal (‘song in the folk style’), though they are also known as nóta (popular melody) or magyar nóta (Hungarian melody). As Gypsy bands led the way in popularizing them, they are also referred to as cigányzene (Gypsy music). The musical aspect of Hungary’s working-class folklore – apart from its obvious international connections – is related partly to the folk tradition and partly to popular art song.
2. Bartók’s classification of musical style.
7. Collectors, collections, research.
Children’s songs and some ritual songs are performed in rhythmically inflected speech. The most characteristic tonal system of such songs is that of the major hexachord, although two-note, three-note, tetrachordal and pentachordal melodies are also common. The pentatonic system is not found in children’s songs and regös songs. Units of two 2/4 bars, or motifs, are repeated in varied form according to the rhythm demanded by the text, and are supplemented by fresh motifs according to the demands of the action (in children’s games). Among ritual songs, similar in structure to the children’s songs, are the regös songs. The regölés ritual takes place between Christmas and the New Year (preferably the day after Christmas Day): a group of older boys or men go from house to house, greeting the villagers with the good wishes expressed in the regös song. Like the Slav koleda and the Romanian colindat customs, the regölés once formed part of fertility rites performed at the winter solstice.
The only totally improvised genre in vocal Hungarian folk music, the Lament, is performed during mourning of the deceased by the adult female relatives. They use traditional formulae, improvising both text and melody in recitative style. Descending melodic formulae used in laments are either penta/tetrachordal or pentatonic. In a considerable number, a descending melody based on a major pentachord is repeated a variable number of times arriving by irregular sequence on the second or first note of the pentachord. This melodic pattern may be extended downwards through the whole octave (ex.1). The pentatonic model in its wider form may fall by a major 9th and in its narrower form by a 5th or 6th. In laments with a wider compass, recitation generally takes place between the third degree and the tonic, whereas in those with a narrower compass it tends to occur on the fifth and fourth degrees below the tonic.
Folksongs not linked to specific occasions, together with some of the ritual songs (mainly wedding and matchmaking songs), are strophic in form. With relatively few exceptions the verses consist of four lines and are mostly lyrical. The loosely connected lyrical verses can be sung to various melodies. The songs – as is usual in Hungarian folk music – are monophonic. In traditional Hungarian singing there is no shading of dynamics except in the laments. The ideal voice is steady and vigorous, slightly harsh or tense (as if forced from the throat), free of sentimentality, chiefly male and high in register.
Bartók distinguished two main styles of Hungarian folksong, the ‘old’ (‘class A’) and the ‘new’ (‘class B’). However, according to Bartók’s statistics, these two types comprise barely 40% of the corpus of songs. The most distinctive features of the ‘old style’ are the anhemitonic pentatonic scale and a descending melodic structure, in which the second half of the melody is a transposition (if not always exact) of the first, a 5th lower. Following Bartók and Kodály, it has been speculated that the 5th-shift structure was a result of direct contact between the Hungarians and ethnic communities from East Europe, such as the Mari and Chuvash of the Volga region. This remains speculation.
Recent research indicates that even in Bartók’s ‘old style’ diverse strata may be discerned. In addition, 60% of vocal melodies referred to by Bartók as a mixed class (‘class C’) could be arranged in definite style categories. In his work A magyar dal könyve (‘An anthology of Hungarian songs’, 1984), László Dobszay distinguishes about 17 style-classes of Hungarian melodies including orally-transmitted hymns. These style-classes include the diatonic lament, ‘psalmodizing’, descending (5th-shifting) pentatonic songs, bagpipe and ‘swineherd’ songs, ecclesiastical and secular songs from the 16th to 18th centuries, 18th-century student songs, 19th-century popular art songs and Bartók’s ‘new style’ songs. The diatonic lament and the pentatonic lament with its ‘psalmodizing’ parts relate also to strophic songs (ex.2).
Similarities with Gregorian chant are found in the ‘old style’ which may stem from an earlier common source. The roots of folk hymns also lead back in part to Gregorian chant. The folk hymn, which has not yet been adequately investigated, basically followed the same path of development as the folksong: if the texts of the hymns were to some extent laid down by ecclesiastical practice, their melodies varied considerably, intermingling with secular tunes over the centuries and repeatedly coming under new influences. In this way not only did a specific Hungarian repertory evolve, but (as with secular folk music) distinct regional dialects developed within it.
The musical currents and fashions of western Europe from the Middle Ages onwards also influenced Hungarian folk music (ex.3 shows a volta tune printed in 1588 and its variant as a Hungarian children’s song), as did the music of neighbouring peoples – Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, South Slavs, Romanians and Germans. The sparse and largely incomplete written records of Hungarian music history can be supplemented or even reconstructed with the aid of folk music (in ex.4 for instance, a 17th-century melody is shown in its early 18th-century notation and in the version that has survived in oral tradition).
A decisive majority of more recent Hungarian folksongs can be classified in Bartók’s ‘new style’. According to his calculations some 800 groups of variants, or basic melody types, belong to it. The chief characteristic of the style is the repetitive, arched melodic structure. The main types of structure are AA5A5A, ABBA, AA5BA and AABA (A5 indicates an upward transposition by a 5th). In this style the rhythm is almost exclusively of the rigid, dance-like variety, adapting to the text as it goes. The modes may be pentatonic, D, A or G mode, or even the common major scale. At the beginning of the 20th century Kodály and Bartók witnessed the flourishing of the ‘new style’, particularly among the young villagers. The style’s roots, however, reach far back into European and Hungarian tradition. The upward transposition of a 5th and the symmetrical, arched melodic structure probably belong to the European tradition; there are examples to be found in the sequences and hymns in Hungary from the 12th century onwards. The upward transposition of a 5th can also be considered a reversal of the downward 5th-shift structure of the ‘old style’. Pentatonic patterns, common in ‘new-style’ folksongs (ex.5), similarly provide an organic connection with the ‘old style’.
An important part in the definitive evolution of the ‘new-style’ folksong was played by the popular art song, the magyar nóta, which was a characteristic urban song of the second half of the 19th century. It is distinguished from the folksong in musical approach rather than form; its melodic figures are determined by the system of functional harmony based on the major–minor system (ex.6). In practice, however, there is no sharp division between folksong and popular art song. A number of these popular art songs have spread into rural areas, have been altered and simplified, have been adapted to traditional folksong patterns and have merged into the mass of newer folksongs; they have also influenced traditional folk music in moving towards the major–minor system and they have accelerated the development of the ‘new style’.
Vlach Gypsies migrated to Hungary in large numbers after the abolition of bond-serfdom in Romania in the mid-19th century. There they encountered a substantial population of Romungre Gypsies, who had become partly or ostensibly ‘Magyarized’ during four centuries of settlement in Hungary. Many of the Romungre were already professional music-makers celebrated by their Magyar ‘hosts’ as active participants in the creation of Verbunkos instrumental music, a key element in Hungary’s emerging national culture and music after the 1848 Revolution. In this more Westernized cultural milieu, the still Romany-speaking Vlach Gypsies, who chose to continue their Transylvanian Hungarian- and Romanian-influenced vocal traditions each of which were complex fusions, were marginalized. This produced at one level in Hungary a strong cultural–musical division between three main Roma groups: the Romungre, who play instrumental music; the Vlach Gypsies, with their fusion of vocal traditions; and the Boyash, who entered Hungary at around the same time as the Vlach Gypsies but were more strongly linked to Romanian culture, language and musical traditions. However, as recent research into the domestic traditions of the Romungre and Boyash Gypsies show, these three practices overlap at another level.
The Boyash Roma of Hungary, who divide into three groups – Ard’elans, Muncans and Ticans – speak an antiquated Romanian dialect in addition to Hungarian. Available information predominantly concerns the Ard’elans. As with the Vlach Roma, their society is structured in endogamous ‘clans’ and order is maintained through their own community laws. There is, however, no trace of Romany in Boyash language. The traditional economic occupation of the Ard’elans centres around making wooden tubs for household use, which ties them more than the Vlach Roma to land. Boyash song lyrics and life stories tell of hard labour for no reward, a topic which is absent from Vlach or Magyar Roma song lyrics, and which suggests a closer relationship to the experiences and ethos of peasant cultures.
The Boyash Roma repertory includes a diminishing number of Christmas carols in a narrow pentachordal range (variants of Romanian colindas ), children’s songs and lullabies. Their ‘slow song’ repertory, called ‘listening songs’, ‘sad songs’, ‘tearful songs’ or ‘modest songs’, is performed parlando rubato and differs from Vlach and Romungre repertories. It comprises ballads and lyric songs. Ballad melodies consist of five descending lines of eight syllables; the older lyric songs have three descending octosyllabic lines, often with a cadence of VII, which is characteristic of Romanian music. Four-line melodies relate to laments and are in pentatonic, Aeolian or Mixolydean modes originally with a descending contour, but this has increasingly changed into an arch form under the influence of ‘new-style’ Hungarian songs.
Boyash dance tunes include some Romanian material but the majority are linked to the ‘new-style’ Hungarian folksong genre. The ‘rolling’ typical of Vlach Gypsy performance is found only among the Ticans who live close to the Vlach Roma. There is usually one textual verse; the rest of the melody is hummed. A selection of Romanian and Hungarian songs (magyar nóta) is also used, the latter with texts translated into Romanian and, in southern Hungary, adaptations from southern Slav materials.
Traditionally, the Boyash distanced themselves both culturally and musically from other Roma groups, but following the political changes of 1989 and in response to calls from Roma politicians for unification of all Hungarian Roma, they have joined the Roma political organization. The popular Vlach Roma group Kalyi Jag included a Boyash song on their LP of 1987, followed by two more in 1989, one of which became the Anthem for Hungarian Roma. As a result, several Boyash popular groups formed, such as Fracilor (‘Brothers’) and Kanizsa Csillagai (‘Stars of Kanizsa’) who fused Vlach Gypsy material and elements of performance style with their own in acknowlegment of the newly-found unity.
Vlach Gypsies divide their repertory into slow-songs (loki djili), also more recently referred to as listening- or revelling-songs (halgatośo or mulatośo djili), and dance- or cracking-songs (khelimaski or pattogośo djili). In the slow genre, they differentiate between their own Gypsy songs (Romani djili) and other songs (Ungriko djili), which are largely comprised of Hungarian nóta but include some Romanian and Serbian folk and Gypsy songs. In predominantly Romany contexts, they prefer to sing their own songs in Romany. This language choice, together with performance styles and Romany subject matter, are essential elements of what they refer to as ‘true speech’.
The tonal structure of their songs is diverse: not just major and minor scales are used but also modes akin to Aeolian, Mixolydian and Dorian and their reduced hexa- or pentachordic equivalents, though not the shifts of a 5th associated with older pentatonic Hungarian songs. Contours are mostly descending but individual performances may feature ‘octave breaks’ that create a much larger tonal space. The rubato tempo used is common to lyrical songs of Hungary and other parts of eastern Europe. However, there is a trochaic lilt within the poetical line and in the pauses before the last tones of the second and especially fourth cadences (ex.7) that relates to the Romany language and its concept of ‘silence’. Cadences are marked tonally by a characteristic descent from the fourth to the second to the tonic, and a lower leading note before the tonic may be used as ornamentation. The melodic structure is harmonically based rather than based on the traditional Hungarian structure of 4ths and 5ths. These overall features of traditional Vlach Gypsy songs are also incorporated into adapted songs.
The performance style of Vlach Gypsy loki djili in Hungary is predominantly unison singing in subtle heterophony with a lead support structure, which near the Ukrainian border changes to partial polyphony at the cadences of ‘lead’ and ‘chorus’. In the last decades of the 20th century, professional urban Vlach Gypsy performers developed this into full polyphony. Performance roles are interchangeable, with leaders taking supportive roles in turn, as in Flamenco. Some Vlach Gypsies suggest a parallel between their own performance structure and that of professional Romungre instrumental playing, which calls upon the band (banda) to follow the leader (primás), a practice also discernible in the Manush and Sinti jazz tradition with its alternation of solos within a piece and change of instrumental lead in different compositions. A similar concept of group support has also been noted in the solo-dominated Irish Traveller tradition in which group members hold hands during the performance.
Hungarian Vlach Gypsies, like other Roma, seem to be less concerned with distinguishing ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’ in dance-songs (fig.1) as both the performance and the dancing transform what are frequently adapted Hungarian songs into forms closer to their own Romany aesthetics. Performances of khelimaski djili include a strong emphasis on quaver divisions of a 2/4 or 4/4 metric structure, with a vocal accompaniment that uses various techniques on the off-beat. Most prominent of these are the szájbőgő (‘mouth bass’), which incorporates aspects of the bass and/or viola parts of Romungre instrumental traditions, and pergétes (‘rolling’), which metrically divides longer values into smaller ones, using slight alteration of the melody and accentuation of off-beats. Additional sounds created by dancers reinforce or counterpoint the vocal metrical structure (ex.8): men slap their bodies, women snap their fingers (pittyegetés), and both shout exclamations, chant rhythmically (with vocal encouragement from the audience) and stamp.
The overall effect of these Hungarian Vlach Gypsy dance-songs is similar to that of the chico genres of flamenco, such as alegrías or rumba flamenco, where zapateado (‘foot-work’), palmas (‘clapping’), pitos (‘finger-snapping’) and jaleo (‘shouts of encouragement’) add an orchestral dimension to the performance of the cantaor and guitar. Both in Hungarian Vlach Gypsy and Spanish Gitano genres, this results in an emotionally intense performance similar to that of ‘sad’ songs but which by contrast affirms extreme joy and happiness. The provision of rhythmic accompaniment to dance-songs by using household utensils such as spoons, water-cans (fig.2) and table-tops among Hungarian Vlach Gypsies or baking pans (tepšija) among the Balkan Roma, also has echoes in the flamenco tradition, where an anvil, box or box-top may be struck to provide the pulse for the otherwise solo vocal performance of the tonás and martinetes.
For centuries, the Romungres have performed for the dominant society, playing primarily instrumental rather than vocal music. However, their in-group practice comprises predominantly vocal music accompanied by acoustic or amplified guitar(s). Synthesizers are becoming popular and fewer musicians are playing traditional instruments such as the violin or double bass.
The Romungre vocal repertory comprises a mixture of Hungarian and Gypsy songs (nóta), which the older generation clearly differentiate from one another. Some Gypsy songs are the same as or similar to those in the Vlach Gypsy repertory. Dance-songs are similar to Vlach Roma songs but less ‘rolling’ and mouth bass is used. A selection of current popular hits is performed, with an underlying rhythmic pattern, beguin (similar to the ‘tango’ among Vlach Gypsies). In this genre, unlike Gypsy dance proper, couples hold each other as they dance. The basic steps are simple and executed on the main beats with off-beats marked by subtle body movements. The dance includes quasi-choreographed turns or half turns. This type of song may also be danced by couples individually in a traditional ‘Gypsy’ manner, with hands held high, and rapid footwork by both women and men (the latter using more elaborate figures). Romungre dance is similar to Vlach Roma dance in that both emphasize quaver pulses and off-beats with light steps; they differ in that Romungre men do less jumps, thigh- or heel-slapping.
Singing in 3rds (terc) – which also involves parts in lower 3rds, 4ths (quarts) and 5ths (quints) thereby creating a whole ‘choir’ to accompany the main melody – is a feature that Romungres emphasize as uniquely their own. Singers cite traditional string bands as the conceptual model behind their polyphonic singing, pointing out that the guitar accompaniments of the younger generation alter the 3rds. In both generational sub-traditions, however, a good singer must be able to deliver the main melody well and provide a good 3rd when others are singing, an aspect which correlates with the performance practice of the Vlach Roma. In the north-eastern community, the term ‘viola third’ (brácsa terc; referred to as ‘a “minor oriented” third’) supports a relationship with the Gypsy band tradition. Some professional instrumentalists, however, feel that there is little correlation between the harmonies of traditional Gypsy bands and vocal polyphony.
Romungres, like Vlach Romas, shape their musical practice according to their social structure. Social division among Romungres is expressed by localities, including the town or village in which they reside and their own Roma settlement. Community members are divided according to extended families, marked by a specific name or characteristics of an ancestor (e.g. the Puci family) and trace their lineages both matri- and patrilineally. The kinship system also regulates who is invited to social gatherings.
In contrast to Vlach musical practice, performances usually start with a period of discussion without verbal signalling to begin or end. However, both Romungres and Vlachs require that participants behave respectfully towards each other, that all may be allowed to take their turn in lead singing, that a performance is not interrupted by taking over the lead, and that 3rds should be supplied. Taking the lead without knowing all the lyrics is frowned upon because there is a strong link between a particular melody and its text. A new combination, which is one of the attributes of a good singer among the Vlach Roma, is reprimanded among the Romungre.
The musical practices of north-eastern Romungres are similar to those described above with three main differences: they have an adapted genre of religious songs, some of which may only be sung at wakes; they perform a few regös songs; and, being poorer than south-eastern Romungres, they use a smaller range of accompanying instruments.
Traditional instrumental music, used in village communities mainly to accompany dances, is played by shepherds, agricultural labourers and village craftsmen. During the 20th century the Moldavian Csángó (a Hungarian ethnic group in Moldavia-Romania) used the flute to accompany dances, while dances performed on the farms of the Hungarian Plain were accompanied by a zither played by each dancer in turn. In the early 20th century those performed at weddings and other major events in the Hungarian Plain were accompanied by a single reed instrument (clarinet) and hurdy-gurdy.
In addition to Gypsy bands, ‘peasant bands’ were fashionable in all parts of Hungary during this period. These were mostly brass bands comprising six to eight members, but many also incorporated the string instruments of Gypsy bands. Professional Gypsy musicians replaced the bagpipe, the traditional dance instrument of past centuries, with the violin. The bagpipe is known to have survived only in northern Hungary, where it was still being played in the period between World War I and II to accompany wedding dances. An ancient melodic motif occurs in the bagpipe repertory: an interlude called aprája (‘diminishing’) in which loose two-bar structures are repeated at random (ex.9). Most instrumental melodies are based on vocal tunes. Some vocal melodies, such as duda nóta (‘bagpipe song’, ex.10) and kanász nóta (‘swineherd song’, ex.11), are also used to accompany dances.
Knowledge of dissemination of the Gypsies in Hungary prior to the 19th century is incomplete. According to the adventure story Ungarischer oder Dacianischer Simplicissimus (Konstanz, 1683), almost every Hungarian nobleman in Transylvania (now a Romanian province) had a Gypsy violinist or locksmith. Kodály’s comment that at the beginning of the 20th century a Gypsy fiddler, also the blacksmith of the village, was the only musician at a Székely-Hungarian wedding in Transylvania, suggests that these two skills were probably combined in a single person. Gypsies also performed as duos.
Transylvanian village Gypsy bands performed dance melodies that have been influenced by 18th- and 19th-century verbunkos music as well as by ancient Hungarian melodies. In the second half of the 18th century, the influence of 18th-century Viennese serenade ensembles is evident in the instrumentaion of the Gypsy bands, to which extra bowed instruments and, from the third decade of the 19th century, one or two clarinets were sometimes added. To satisfy the demands of the developing Hungarian bourgeoisie and particularly the Hungarian nobility, who were the promoters and patrons of Gypsy orchestras, an increasing number of musicians acquired skill in western European musical styles, learning to read music and to apply the rules of classical 18th-century functional harmony. By the end of the 18th century verbunkos (derived from Ger. Werbung: ‘recruiting’), a new genre of instrumental music, had developed. Of the many verbunkos composers the following three are considered most outstanding: a Hungarian nobleman János Lavotta (1764–1820), the Gypsy virtuoso bandleader János Bihari (1764–1827) and antal Csermák (c1774–1822), presumably of Bohemian origin.
From the mid-19th century, the instrumental verbunkos fashion was succeeded by a vocal one: magyar nóta (‘Hungarian song’), also referred to as népies dal (‘popular song’) or népies műdal (‘popular art song’). Like verbunkos music, it was composed, produced by amateurs, and disseminated mostly by Gypsy bands. Consisting of the slow, rhythmically free hallgató (‘for listening’, see ex.6) and csárdás with duple-metre dance rhythm, this genre made up the bulk of the ‘Gypsy music’ repertory until the late 20th century. The best known composers are Béni Egressy (1814–51), Kálmán Simonffy (1831–88), Elemér Szentirmay (1836–1908), the Gypsy Pista Dankó (1858–1903), József Dóczy (1863–1913), Lóránd Fráter (1872–1930) and Arpád Balász (1874–1941).
A Gypsy band consists of at least four members: two violins, one double bass and one cimbalom. The prímás (‘leader’) plays the melody on the violin, while the kontrás (a violinist or more recently a viola player) adds part of the harmonic accompaniment by double-stopping in the required rhythmic pattern. The cimbalom is used primarily as a harmonic instrument, although it also lends itself to playing the melody or a virtuoso variation of it. A representative Gypsy band, however, has at least seven or eight members, including a clarinettist and cellist. The composition of the Gypsy band established in the verbunkos period is characteristic of late 20th-century village Gypsy bands.
In Central Transylvania, three-member ensembles were established consisting of a violinist, a kontrás player (using a viola rather than a violin) and a bass (mostly the size of a cello). The harmonization used by these ensembles is, however, not functional as with urban Gypsy bands but by a modal succession of chords that allows retention of old, even pentatonic melodies. These bands have preserved the style of improvised dance music to a greater degree and have been used as a model for the ‘dance house movement’ of urban youth (see §7 below).
This section considers instruments that played a role in traditional musical life, whether home-made in the traditional way or manufactured commercially. The simplest and oldest instruments (such as the reed-pipe, flute, bagpipe, wooden trumpet and the swineherd’s cow horn), which were easily made at home, were played mainly by shepherds. Day labourers, farmhands and poor peasants (the poorest social stratum of the villages) also used the most inexpensive means of music-making, from improvising rhythmic accompaniments (by tapping or rubbing pots or furniture), to playing the citera (zither), furulya (shepherd flute) and the gombos harmónika (button accordion).
The facimbalon (‘wooden dulcimer’ or xylophone, fig.3) is primarily the instrument of cimbalom players. The position of its keys is like that of the cimbalom, hence its name. It is chromatically tuned, with a range of g'–a'''. Some simpler and more developed types of struck idiophone are also used, for signalling and for frightening away animals. Of these the kalapácsos kereplő (hammer-clapper, fig.4a), a wooden hammer swinging in a shaft and banging on a wooden board, is used in Catholic church services. The szélkereplő or szélkelep (wind-clapper, fig.4b), used to frighten birds, is operated by a wooden propeller, and its clappers can be made of metal or wood.
Jingles fastened to a stick are sometimes used by shepherds for frightening away animals and are also included in the regölés ritual (traditional New Year greeting; see §2 above). Copper bells and all kinds of iron cattle bells were especially important in the days of extensive animal husbandry. They had not only a signalling but also an aesthetic function: bells of varying shape and size, hence of different pitch, were hung on the animals’ necks, giving an idea of harmony. Cog rattles of different size and shape are used as ritual instruments in the Catholic Church before Easter, as a means of frightening away animals and as children’s toys. The jew’s harp (doromb) was used by country children at the beginning of the 20th century. In regions where the population was poor, troughs were used as scraped idiophones for the accompaniment of dances.
Smaller double-headed cylindrical drums (dob) are used by the public announcer to attract attention in villages. The nagydob (bass drum) with cymbals is used in country brass bands. Traces of the zörgősdob (frame drum with jingles), the successor to the shamanic drum and used for ritual purposes, have been found by ethnographers among peasants even in the 20th century. There are two types of friction drum: the köcsögduda, consisting of a pot (köcsög) with a wooden stick that pierces the skin; and the bika (‘bull’), the size of a bucket, with a horsehair cord. The latter is used only by the Csángó people, a Hungarian ethnic group living in Romania. Friction drums are mainly restricted to rituals of the New Year greeting. Mirlitons are usually children’s toys and include a reed tube about a span long, whose hard covering is cut off at one side so that only a thin layer remains underneath, and the tubular part of a hollowed-out gourd with one end covered by a membrane and a round opening at one side serving as a mouth-hole.
The kukoricahegedű or cirokhegedű (‘corn fiddle’) is an idiochord instrument about a span long (with one to three strings) made of sorghum stalk or corn stalk, serving as a toy for children. Two are used together, one as the ‘fiddlestick’, the other as the ‘fiddle’ itself. The citera (zither; fig.5), the most widely used instrument among Hungarian peasants, is closely related to the 17th-century German Scheitholt, the Swedish hommel or hummel and the Norwegian langeleik; diatonic variants have a single row of frets, while chromatic variants have two. The strings for the drone accompaniment are tuned to the note of the melody strings, and to the 4th above and the 5th below. The cimbalom (fig.6) is the same type of instrument as the santūr of the Middle East, the German Hackbrett and the English dulcimer. Its use in Hungary may be traced back to the 16th century. The present type of cimbalom used by Gypsy bands was established by Schunda, a manufacturer of musical instruments, in about 1870 in Budapest. The range of this chromatic instrument, equipped with a damper pedal, is usually D to e'''.
The tekerő
(hurdy-gurdy; fig.7) became popular in the central
regions of Hungary, on the Great Plain, most probably in the 18th century.
Semi-professional peasant musicians play mainly traditional dance music on it,
either as a solo instrument or, more often, with a melodic instrument (usually
the clarinet). If its melody string is tuned to f
', the tuning of the two accompanying
strings, which provide a drone accompaniment, is B and b:
characteristic ‘brayed rhythm’ tunes are produced using the b string (ex.12).
Hungarian peasant or Gypsy violin players in Transylvania sometimes fit on to their violins (of standard shape and tuning) a sympathetic string tuned to a'. Gypsy bands also use the viola, cello and double bass (tuned to standard pitch). Central Transylvanian ensembles put a flat-cut bridge on to the viola performing harmonic and rhythmic accompaniment, so that a triad can be played on its three strings at the same time. In this case the tuning of the viola is g–d'–a.
The gardon, a cello-like instrument, is used as a percussion instrument, with a violin performing the melody, by the Székelys, a Hungarian ethnic group in Transylvania (fig.8); its three or four strings, in most cases tuned to d and D, are on the same level and are sounded with a stick (not a bow), providing a rhythmically articulated drone accompaniment.
The pliant ‘bark whistle’ or ‘leaf’ (the leaf of a tree, a piece of birch bark, a piece of celluloid etc.) is used as a melodic instrument mostly by shepherds: the leaf is placed against the lips and blown on its edge. The bullroarer (zugattyú) is a children’s toy. The tube formed by removing the bark of willow branches in spring is used by children to make an end-blown duct flute without finger-holes. Some of the small pottery globular flutes (cserépsíp) made by potters are provided with one or two finger-holes: most of them are in the shape of animals, such as birds or bulls.
The
duct flute (furulya) with six finger-holes is the flute most often used
to perform melodies: it is 30–50 cm long and its diameter is 14–18 mm. It
produces a diatonic major scale. The rarely found double flute (kettős
furulya) consists of two pipes, one like that of the furulya and the
second of the same size and structure but without finger-holes. The long flute
(hosszú furulya; fig.9), the instrument of
Trans-Danubian shepherds (i.e. from south-western Hungary) and a characteristic
member of the family of fipple flutes, has five finger-holes, a diameter of
16–18 mm, and is 90 cm long. Its basic scale is f–g–a (or a
)–b–b–c'.
Apart from its blowing mechanism, the side-blown flute (harántfurulya or oldalfuvós furulya) has the same structure as the furulya with six finger-holes. Instruments more rarely found are the small peremfurulya or szélfurulya (rim-blown flute) with six finger-holes and, among the Csángó people, the larger rim-blown flute with no finger-holes (‘overtone flute’). In the south-east of the Great Hungarian Plain notched flutes were found, made of calabash or sunflower stem.
Children
make single-reed idioglot instruments from a goose feather or reed. The nádsíp
(reedpipe with a single reed) with six to eight finger-holes is used as a
melody instrument by shepherds (fig.10). Modern A and B clarinets are favoured by
Gypsy bands while E
clarinets are preferred by peasant brass bands. The Tárogató is an instrument similar to
the ordinary clarinet in structure but with a conical bore and accordingly
overblows at the octave. It was constructed by Schunda at the end of the 19th
century. The Hungarian duda (bagpipe) with three pipes is also a
single-reed instrument. Its melody pipe can produce a mostly diatonic G mode
with an octave range. If its basic note is g', the one-holed second pipe,
called kontrá (with the melody pipe forming a double chanter), sounds g'
and d' alternately; the note made by the separate bass pipe (called the bordó
pipe) is G. Mouth-blown bagpipes are played in northern Hungary, while
bellows-blown types are found in southern Hungary and the Great Hungarian
Plain.
The
end-blown cow horn (tülök or kanásztülök) and the wooden trumpet
(fakürt) – 1·5 metres or more in length – are chiefly a means of
signalling for shepherds. The fakürt was also used, again for signalling,
by isolated peasants on the Great Hungarian Plain. Of the brass wind
instruments manufactured in factories, peasant brass bands mostly use the B saxhorn or trumpet, the B bass saxhorn, the
euphonium, the E
trumpet and the F helicon.
The early 1970s gave birth to the ‘dance house’ movement, which aimed to revitalise the Hungarian folk music tradition. Its name is rooted in the Transylvanian tradition, where ‘dance house’ refers both to the occasion of dancing and its location.
The movement emerged as young intellectuals and artists searched for modern Hungarian expressions to resist the materialistic and individualistic ideologies accompanying the recent socioeconomic changes. Groups such as Illés and Omega fused Western pop-rock music with Hungarian folk melodies and lyrics, creating local permutations of an international form. Amateur folk dance groups, although initiated during the 1950s ‘revival’ movement under the political terror of Stalinist cultural policies, also remained popular among the urban population. Other ‘official’ Hungarian popular musics included magyar nóta, enjoyed by the older lower-middle classes and urbanising rural audiences, and Hungarian folksongs, which had been taught in a simplified way by the Kodály method of music education (emphasizing musical structure rather than performance) and had consequently not become widely accepted.
The two originators of the dance house movement, Béla Halmos and Ferenc Sebő, were trained musicians who experimented with different musical styles. Initially, Sebő set the poems of Attila József to his own compositions for guitar. Halmos researched into László Lajtha’s pre-World War II collections (mostly transcriptions) from Szék in Transylvania, encouraged by the Transylvanian musicologist Zoltán Kallós, the Hungarian dance researcher György Martin and the musicologist Bálint Sárosi. Sebő and Halmos then spent long periods in Transylvania with musicians (mostly Roma) whom they regarded as respected teachers, a practice followed by succeeding dance house musicians.
In Budapest, Sebő and Halmos accompanied the dance groups of the choreographer Sándor Tímár, and in 1972 Ferenc Novák with the Bihari Dance Group created the first dance house in association with other folk dance ensembles, which later opened to the general public. The first two dance houses were accompanied by the Sebő-Halmos duo, later joined by the Muzsikás, Jánosi, Téka, and the south-Slav group, the Vujcsis. The ensemble of three string instruments, Szék, became the model for dance house, achieving an ‘avant-garde’, ‘exotic’ and ‘modern’ musical expression which was nevertheless Hungarian. Dance house also encouraged collective music-making and dance which entailed years of committed learning rather than instant, passive consumption.
Although the aim was to maintain the genre’s rural form and function, the move to an urban environment necessarily involved change. For instance, the onus of decision-making for music-making, repertory and teaching methods moved from dancers to musicians. Dance house musicians, as with their Transylvanian equivalents, are mostly semi-professionals but are Hungarian rather than largely Roma as in Transylvania.
Most of the initiators of the early dance house movement continue to combine field and archival research, performance, dance and music-making, teaching and analysis. In the early 1990s, the Muzsikás recaptured aspects of an extinct tradition through their study of old Roma musicians (who played for Jewish communities in Transylvania). In their recent musical activities, inspired by the relationship between Bartók’s composition and his folk music research, they have been joined by the Romanian born violin player Alexader Balanescu. In 1985, Sebő edited Lajth’s collection from Szék; in recent years, Halmos has made documentaries (in co-operation with the film director György Szomjas) on Transylvanian musicians, such as the Hungarian Márton Maneszes, the cantor and prímás from Magyarszováta, and János Zurkula, the Roma prímás of Gyímes.
In contemporary Budapest, dance houses are held daily for Hungarian, Transylvanian, Romanian, Bulgarian and even Irish and Scottish dances. In the mid-1990s a new dance house venue, the Fonó, was established. It launched ‘Last Hour’, which invited musicians from Transylvania and other Hungarian-speaking parts to play for Budapest dance house enthusiasts. Many of these were produced on CD by Fonó.
The flourishing of the dance house movement into the 21st century has fulfilled the aspiration of Bartók and Kodály to create not only a Hungarian or central-eastern-European tradition but one that expands beyond national and geographical boundaries. Its success lies in making a rich local music and dance tradtion the basis of an urban and international form that allows the participation of all.
If the dance house movement is a continuation of Hungarian folk music by the urban intelligentsia, wedding rock is a continuation of the magyar nóta tradition by ‘ordinary’ Hungarians. This genre originated in 1985 in the Hungarian-speaking areas of Vojvodina (Serbia) and quickly spread to Hungary by the late 1980s. It forms part of an urban tradition of mixing and modernizing popular vernacular musics and is comparable to wedding music genres found in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and other parts of the Balkans.
Older Hungarians enjoy its nóta-based repertory and young people its synthesizer and drum instrumentation. Its thick sound texture is similar to that of the traditional Gypsy band, with bass lines moving in glissandos, and chordal portamente filling the musical space with ornamentation. The melody may be provided by a singer or additional keyboard instrument; a traditional clarinet or violin may also be added. Dance-songs are accented on the off-beat. Although it shows some affinities with the in-group practices of the Romungro (see §4(iii)), lakodalmas rock, mostly performed by and for Hungarians, is a distinct genre. Song lyrics range from sex to computers and black-market activities resulting in the genre being excluded from the state run radio and recording industry for over a decade. It was propagated entirely through privately recorded cassettes sold at local markets and by band performances at concert venues, restaurants and weddings. Political changes since 1989 have had little effect on the attitudes of cultural bureaucrats; it is only in recent years that one of its long-ignored proponents, Lagzi Lajcsi, has been granted a weekly television programme on which wedding rock is performed by himself and invited musicians.
Interest in folk music in Hungary developed in roughly the same way as it did in western Europe. Before the 19th century Hungarian folk music was noted down infrequently and haphazardly, although there are a few printed collections of religious songs including folk hymns from the 16th and 17th centuries – some of them Hungarian in origin, some of foreign origin but adapted to Hungarian taste. Dance melodies noted down and published at the end of the 16th century by foreigners, following the west European fashion for Hungarian dances under such titles as Ungarescha, Heiducken dantz or Ungarischer tantz, show striking resemblance to Hungarian bagpipe melodies collected in the 20th century. There are also miscellaneous Hungarian manuscript collections from the 17th and 18th centuries with notations or tablatures. In terms of vocal folk music, the student songbooks that have survived from the end of the 18th century are important; these were compiled in simple notation by students for their own use. In its melodic scope and its method of notation, Ádám Pálóczi Horváth’s great manuscript collection of 357 melodies, completed in 1813, can also be classified among these student manuals. Besides the fashionable Hungarian songs of the period and Pálóczi Horváth’s own compositions, it contains many songs from previous centuries, and can thus be considered the first great achievement in Hungarian folk music collection. Information about the wealth of songs current in the first half of the 19th century, mainly in middle-class circles is, with the exception of that noted by János Arany (Kodály and Gyulai, 1952), still found only in manuscript collections such as those of István Tóth, Sámuel Almási, Dániel Mindszenty, Dénes Kiss and János Udvardy Cserna.
Since 1832 the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has undertaken the collection and publication of folksongs. The most impressive 19th-century publication was the seven-volume Magyar népdalok egyetemes gyűjteménye (‘Universal collection of Hungarian folksongs’, 1873–96), prepared by István Bartalus. This extensive collection contains some 730 melodies; most of them are 19th-century tunes, including recent popular Hungarian ones by known composers. Earlier, in 1865, Károly Színi’s collection A magyar nép dalai és dallamai (‘Songs and tunes of the Hungarian folk’), containing 200 melodies, had appeared. It presents a range of songs without piano accompaniment. Only Áron Kiss’s Magyar gyermekjáték gyűjtemény (‘Collection of Hungarian children’s games’, 1891) was a pioneering work.
Béla Vikár (1859–1945) was the first to collect folksongs with a phonograph, starting in 1896. János Seprődi (1874–1923) began noting down folksongs methodically in 1897. Modern Hungarian folk music scholarship commenced with the systematic collecting trips of Kodály and Bartók in 1905 and 1906 respectively. The recordings and original transcriptions of Vikár, Kodály and Bartók are held in the Ethnographic Museum in Budapest. It also holds the only collection of Hungarian folk instruments that can be considered complete. They divided the area geographically: Kodály was concerned primarily with Hungarian musicological considerations while Bartók dealt with international comparative study. After they jointly edited a collection of ‘old-style’ Transylvanian folksongs (1923), Bartók summarized the results of their joint collecting; in his work A magyar népdal (‘Hungarian folksong’) of 1924, he gave a methodical exposition of the vocal material. Ten years later, after a thorough observation of the music of neighbouring countries, he wrote a detailed analytical account of the relationship between Hungarian folk music and that of neighbouring peoples (Népzenénk és a szomszéd népek népzenéje). Kodály’s study A magyar népzene (‘Hungarian folk music’, 1937), besides presenting the various branches and strata of Hungarian folk music and their interrelationship, also illuminates the most important links that connect Hungarian folk music organically with Hungarian and international culture: it remains the basic textbook of Hungarian folk music. According to a plan outlined in 1913, between 1934 and 1940 Bartók completed the editing of Hungarian folk melodies (about 14,000) collected up to that time on behalf of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; publication of the general edition (as A Magyar Népzene Tára/Corpus Musicae Popularis Hungaricae) was delayed until after World War II.
In 1953 the Folk Music Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was formed under Kodály’s leadership. Since January 1974 this institution has continued its activities as the Folk Music Research Department of the Institute for Musicology, publishing among other things the Corpus Musicae Popularis Hungaricae. The first ten volumes, completed by 1999, include children’s songs grouped according to melodic motifs, together with their related games, songs connected with folk customs, and folksongs grouped according to melodic contours.
The archives of the Folk Music Research Department have expanded rapidly and now contain about 150,000 melodies. It is still possible to gather substantial amounts of rural vocal and instrumental music in Hungary, Hungarian-speaking Transylvania and Romanian Moldavia. The Institute of Musicology also contains a department of dance research.
Since 1950 research perspectives have included the history of Hungarian folk music (by Rajeczky, Dobszay, Vargyas, Szendrei); the systematization of folk music (Járdány, Dobszay, Szendrei, Sárosi); and study of instrumental folk music (by Lajtha and Sárosi). Outside Hungary intensive research into folk music has been carried out notably by the Romanian Hungarians, especially in the 1950s, at the Cluj section of the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore under János Jagamas.
The first series of Hungarian folk music discs, the Patria series, began to be produced in Budapest in 1936. Under the original direction of Bartók and Kodály, and later of Lajtha, 250 discs in the series had been completed by the end of the 1950s. The first disc for widespread distribution was issued in 1964 in honour of the conference of the International Folk Music Council held in Budapest; this disc was followed by three series, edited by Rajeczky, to give a cross-section of Hungarian folk music styles and genres. An anthology from material in the Institute of Musicology began to be published in 1985 representing the musical styles of the Hungarian language area accompanied by informative multilingual documentation. By 1992, four series had been issued, a further two series followed in 1993 and 1995, and one more series is intended to complete it.
and other resources
ZL (‘Magyar népi hangszerek’ [Hungarian folk instruments]; B. Bartók)
K. Színi: A magyar nép dalai és dallamai [Songs and tunes of the Hungarian folk] (Pest, 1865)
I. Bartalus: Magyar népdalok egyetemes gyűjteménye [Universal collection of Hungarian folksongs] (Budapest, 1873–96)
E. Limbay: Magyar daltár [Hungarian song collection] (Győr, 1879–88)
Á. Kiss: Magyar gyermekjáték gyűjtemény [Collection of Hungarian children’s games] (Budapest, 1891)
B. Bartók and Z. Kodály: Erdélyi magyarság: népdalok [The Hungarians of Transylvania: folksongs] (Budapest, 1923; Fr. trans., 1925)
B. Bartók: A magyar népdal [Hungarian folksong] (Budapest, 1924); repr. in Ethnomusikologische schriften, ed. Bartók (Budapest, 1965–8); Eng. trans., 1931/R
P.P. Domokos: A moldvai magyarság [The Magyars of Moldavia] (Csiksomlyó, 1931, 5/1987)
Gy. Kerényi, ed.: Gyermekjátékok [Children’s games], Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, ii (Budapest, 1951)
Z. Kodály and Á. Gyulai, eds.: Arany János népdalgyűjteménye [The folksong collection of János Arany] (Budapest, 1952)
D. Bartha and J. Kiss, eds.: Ötödfélszáz énekek: Pálóczi Horváth Ádám dalgyűjteménye az 1813: évből [450 songs from Pálóczi Horvath’s collection of 1813] (Budapest, 1953)
Gy. Kerényi, ed.: Jeles napok [Tunes of the calendar customs], Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, ii (Budapest, 1953)
J. Faragó and J. Jagamas: Moldvai csángó népdalok és népballadák [Moldavian Csángó folksongs and ballads] (Bucharest, 1954)
L. Lajtha: Széki gyűjtés [Collection from Szék] (Budapest, 1954)
L. Lajtha: Szépkenyerüszentmártoni gyűjtés [Collection from Szépkenyerüszentmárton] (Budapest, 1954)
L. Lajtha: Kőrispataki gyűjtés [Collection from Kőrispatak] (Budapest, 1955)
L. Kiss, ed.: Lakodalom [Wedding songs], Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, iii (Budapest, 1955–6)
P.P. Domokos and B. Rajeczky, eds.: Csángó népzene [Csángó folk music] (Budapest, 1956–61)
Gy. Kerényi, ed.: Párosítók [Matchmaking songs], Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, iv (Budapest, 1959)
L. Lajtha: Dunántúli táncok és dallamok [Trans-Danubian dances and melodies] (Budapest, 1960)
P. Járdányi: Magyar népdaltípusok [Hungarian folksong types] (Budapest, 1961; Ger. trans., 1964)
Gy. Kerényi: Népies dalok [Popular songs] (Budapest, 1961; Ger. trans., 1964) [collection of 19th-century Hungarian popular songs]
L. Kiss and B. Rajeczky, eds.: Siratók [Laments], Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, v (Budapest, 1966)
B. Rajeczky, ed.: ‘Magyar népzene’ [Hungarian folk music], Qualiton-Hungaroton LPX 10095–8, 18001–4, 18050–3 [disc notes]
P. Járdányi and I. Olsvai, eds.: Népdaltípusok [Folksong types], Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, vi (Budapest, 1973)
J. Jagamas and J. Faragó: Romániai magyar népdalok [Hungarian folksongs from Romania] (Bucharest, 1974)
P.P. Domokos: Hangszeres magyar tánczene a XVIII században [Hungarian instrumental music in the 18th century] (Budapest, 1978)
I. Almási: Szilágysági magyar népzene [Hungarian folk music from Szilágyság] (Bucharest, 1979)
J. Szendrei, L. Dobszay and B. Rajeczky: XVI–XVIII századi dallamaink a népi emlékezetben [Melodies of the 16th–18th century in the living tradition], i–ii (Budapest, 1979)
L. Vargyas: A magyarság népzenéje [Folk music of the Hungarians] (Budapest, 1981)
L. Dobszay: A siratóstilus dallamköre zenetörténetünkben és népzenénkben [The melodic sphere of the lament style in Hungarian folk music and music history] (Budapest, 1983)
L. Dobszay: A magyar dal könyve [An anthology of Hungarian songs] (Budapest, 1984)
G. Papp, ed.: Hungarian Dances 1784–1810 (Budapest, 1986)
P. Járdányi and I. Olsavi, eds.: Népadaltípusok [Folksong types], ii, Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, vi (Budapest, 1987)
L. Dobszay and J. Szendrei: A magyar népdaltípusok katalógusa [Catalogue of Hungarian folksong types], i (Budapest, 1989)
M. Berlász and O. Szalay: Moldvai gyűjtés, Gyűjtötte Veress Sándor [Moldavian collection, Sándor Veres’s collection] (Budapest, 1989)
L. Dobszay and J. Szendrei: Catalogue of Hungarian Folksong Types I (Budapest, 1992)
L. Vargyas, ed.: Népdaltípusok [Folksong types], iii, Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, viii (Budapest, 1992)
S. Kovács and F. Sebő: B. Bartók: Magyar népdalok, Egyetemes Gyütemény [B. Bartók: Hungarian folksongs, complete collection], i (Budapest, 1991; Eng. trans., 1993)
I. Pávai: Az erdélyi és a moldvai magyarság népi tánczenéje [The folk dance music of the Transylvanian and the Moldavian Magyars (Budapest, 1993)
M. Domokos, ed.: Népdaltípusok [Folksong types], iv, Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, ix (Budapest, 1995)
K. Paksa, ed.: Népdaltípusok [Folksong types], v, Corpus musicae popularis hungaricae, x (Budapest, 1997)
G. Mátray: ‘A magyar zene és a magyar cigányok zenéje’ [Hungarian music and the music of Hungarian gypsies], Magyar- és erdélyország képekben, iv, ed. F. Kubinyi and I. Vahot (Pest, 1854)
F. Liszt: Des bohémiens et de leur musique en Hongrie (Paris, 1859, 2/1881/R; Eng. trans., 1926/R, as The Gypsy in Music)
E. Major: Bihari János (Budapest, 1928)
E. Major: A népies magyar müzene és a népzene kapcsolatai [The relationship of popular Hungarian composed music to folk music] (Budapest, 1930); repr. in Fejezetek a magyar zene tőrténetéből, ed. F. Bónis (Budapest, 1967)
B. Bartók: ‘Cigányzene? Magyar zene?’ [Gypsy music? Hungarian music?], Ethnographia, xlii (1931), 49–62; Eng. trans., MQ, xxxiii (1947), 240–57
B. Bartók: Népzenénk és a szomszéd népek népzenéje [Our folk music and the folk music of neighbouring peoples] (Budapest, 1934); Ger. trans., Ungarische Jahrbücher, xv (1935), 194–258; Fr. trans., Archivum europae centro-orientalis, ii (1936), 197–232 and i–xxxii (1935)
Z. Kodály: A magyar népzene [Hungarian folk music] (Budapest, 1937, enlarged 3/1952 by L. Vargyas, 6/1973; Eng. trans., 1960, enlarged 3/1982/R)
L. Vargyas: Áj falú zenei élete [The music of the village of Aj] (Budapest, 1941)
P. Járdányi: A Kidei magyarság világi zenéje [The secular music of the Hungarians of Kide] (Kolozsvár, 1943)
B. Szabolcsi: ‘Adatok az új magyar népdalstilus történethéhez’ [Contributions to the history of the new-style Hungarian folksongs], Új zenei szemle, i (1950), 13–18; 9–13; 40–51
B. Avasi: ‘A széki banda harmonizálása’ [The harmonization of the Gypsy band of Szék], Néprajzi értesítő, xxxvi (1954), 25
L. Lajtha: Széki gyűjtés [Collection from Szék] (Budapest, 1954)
E. Major: ‘A galanti cigányok’ [The Gypsies of Galánta], Magyar zene, i/1–6 (1960–61), 243–8; repr. in Fejeztek a magyar zene történébol, ed. F. Bónis (Budapest, 1967), 125–8
L. Vargyas: ‘Folk Music Research in Hungary’, SMH, i (1961), 433–49
A. Hajdu: ‘La loki djili des tsiganes kelderas’, Arts et traditions populaires, xii/2 (1964), 139–77
Gy. Kerényi, ed.: Szentirmay Elemér és a magyar népzene [Szentirmay and Hungarian folk music] (Budapest, 1966)
B. Sárosi: Die Volksmusikinstrumente Ungarns (Leipzig, 1967)
B. Sárosi: ‘Instrumental ensembles in Ungarn’, Studia instrumentorum musicae popularis II: Stockholm 1969, 116–36
G. Martin: Magyar tánctípusok és táncdialektusok [Hungarian dance types and dance dialects] (Budapest, 1970, 2/1995)
L. Dobszay: ‘Comparative Research into an “Old Style” of Hungarian Folk Music’, SMH, xv (1973), 15–78
I. Almási: ‘Bartók és az erdélyi magyar népzenekutatás’ [Bartók and folk music research in Transylvania], Bartók dolgozatok, ed. F. László (Bucharest, 1974), 103–9
A. Benkő, ed.: Seprődi János válogatott zenei irásai és népzenei gyűjtése [Seprődi’s selected writings on music and folksong collections] (Bucharest, 1974)
I. Szenik: ‘Kutatás és módszer’ [Research and method], Bartókdolgozatok, ed. F. László (Bucharest, 1974), 111–37
L. Dobszay and J. Szendrei: ‘“Szivárvány havasán”: a magyar népzene régi rétegének harmadik stíluscsoportja’ [On the ‘Mountain Rainbow’: the third style-group of the old stratum of Hungarian folk music], Népzene és zenetörténet, iii, ed. L. Vargyas (1977), 5–101
J. Jagamas: ‘Adatok a romániai magyar zenei dialaktusok kérdéséhez’ [Contributions to the question of the Hungarian musical dialects in Romania], Zenetudományi írások, ed. Cs. Szabó (Bucharest, 1977), 25–51
B. Halmos: ‘Közjátékok egy széki vonósbanda tánczenéjében’ [Interludes in the dance music of a string band of Szék], Zenetudományi dolgozatok, ed. M. Berlász and M. Domokos (Budapest, 1981), 191–220
B. Halmos: ‘Tizenkét széki csárdás’ [Twelve csárdáses from Szék], Népzene és zenetörténet, ed. L. Vargyas (Budapest, 1982), 157–224
L. Dobszay: A siratóstílus dallamköre zenetörtébetünkben és népzenénkben [The melody-circle of the lament style in the Hungarian history of music and folk music] (Budapest, 1983)
K. Paksa: Magyar népzenekutatás XIX században [Hungarian folk music research in the 19th century] (Budapest, 1988)
B. Halmos: ‘A táncházmozgalom jővője’ [The future of the dance house movement], TÉKA Nomád Nemzedék [Nomadic generation], ed. J. Molnár and D. Virt, ii/13 (Budapest, 1992), 5–10
F. Sebő: ‘A rivaval-mozgalmak és a táncház Magyarországon’ [The revival movements and the dance house in Hungary], ibid., 17–19
I. Kertész Wilkinson: ‘Genuine and Adopted Songs in the Vlach Gypsy Repertoire: a Controversy Re-Examined’, British Journal of Ethnomusicology, i (1992), 111–36
K. Paksa: A magyar népdal díszítése [The ornamentation of the Hungarian folksong] (Budapest, 1993)
J. Frigyesi: ‘The Aesthetic of the Hungarian Revival Movement’, Retuning Culture: Musical Changes in Central and Eastern Europe, ed. M. Slobin (Durham and London, 1996)
K. Kovalcsik: ‘Roma or Boyash Identity?’, World of Music xxxviii/1 (1996), 77–93
B.R. Lange: ‘Lakodalmas Rock and the Rejection of Popular Culture in post-Socialist Hungary’, Retuning Culture: Musical Changes in Central and Eastern Europe, ed. M. Slobin (Durham and London, 1996), 76–91
B. Sárosi: Sackpfeifer, Zigunermusikanten … die instrumentale ungarische Volksmusik (Budapest, 1996)
I. Kertész Wilkinson: ‘Musical Performance: a Model for Social Interaction between Vlach Gyspies in South-Eastern Hungary’, Romani Culture and Gypsy Identity, ed. T. Acton and G. Mundy (Hatfield, 1997)
B.R. Lange: ‘“What was the Conquering Magic”: the Power of Discontinuity in Hungarian Gypsy Nóta’, EthM, xli (1997), 517–38
M. Stewart: Time of the Gypsies (Boulder, CO, 1997)
I. Kertész Wilkinson: The Fair is ahead of me: Individual Creativity and Social Contexts in the Performances of a South-East Hungarian Vlach Gypsy Slow Song (Budapest, 1998)
Magyar népzene [Hungarian folk music], various pfmrs, Qualiton-Hungaroton LPX 10095–8, 18001–4 (1972), 18050–3 (1982) [incl. notes by B. Rajeczky]
Hungarian Instrumental Folk Music, various pfmrs, Hungaroton LPX 18045–7 (1980) [incl. notes by B. Sárosi]
Hungarian Folk Music from Szék, coll. L. Lajtha, Hungaroton LPX 18092–4 [incl. notes by F. Sebő]
Anthology of Hungarian Folk Music, i: Dance Music, various pfmrs, Hungaroton LPX 18112–6 (1985) [incl. notes by Gy. Martin, Y. Németh and E. Pesovár]
Anthology of Hungarian Folk Music, ii: The North, various pfmrs, Hungaroton LPX 18124–8 (1986) [incl. notes by L. Tari and L. Vikár]
Anthology of Hungarian Folk Music, iii: Transdanubia, various pfmrs, Hungaroton LPX 18238–42 [incl. notes by I. Olsvai]
Anthology of Hungarian Folk Music, iv: Great Hungarian Plain, various pfmrs, Hungaroton LPX 18159–63 [incl. notes by K. Paksa and I. Németh]
Anthology of Hungarian Folk Music, v: East 1 (Western and Central Transylvania), various pfmrs, Institute for Musicology [incl. notes by E. Sárosi and I. Németh]
Anthology of Hungarian Folk Music, vi: East 2 (Székelyland), various pfmrs, Institute for Musicology [incl. notes by B. Sárosi and I. Németh]
Meg van még a szívemben [It still lives in my heart], Göess Film, dir. B. Halmos and G. Szomjas (1994) [documentary on János Zerkula, prímás of Gyimes (Transylvania)]
Rabja vagyok az életmnek [I am a prisoner of my life], Göess Film, dir. B. Halmos and G. Szomjas (1994) [documentary on Márton Maneszes, prímás of Magyarszovát (Transylvania)]