(b Pusztafödémes, 5 July 1764; d Tállya, 11 Aug 1820). Hungarian composer and violinist. His title of nobility was ‘izsépfalvi és kevelházi’. He was taught the violin by his father, János Lavotta sr, an official of the council of government at Pozsony (now Bratislava) and later at Buda. He attended secondary schools at Nagyszombat (Trnava) and Pozsony, and studied law at Pozsony and Pest. He continued his musical education in Pozsony with Bonaventura Sabodi, Ferenc Hossza, Joseph Zistler and the military bandmaster Glanz. After a short period of military service at Pozsony, Lavotta went to Vienna in 1784 for further musical studies, and in 1786 moved to Pest. From 1788 to 1791 he was an official of the council of government and in 1791–2 tutor to the sons of Count Károly Zichy. It was not until 1792 that Lavotta decided upon a musical career. In 1792–3 he conducted, as music director, the orchestra of the Hungarian Actors’ Society in Pest and Buda. From about 1797 to 1799 he lived in Miskolc, and in 1802–4 in Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca), where he was director of the theatre orchestra. From 1804 Lavotta led an unsettled life, wandering restlessly and seeking hospitality at the country houses of noblemen, although he had a music shop at Debrecen in 1816–17. While visiting his friend Fülep Eöri, a doctor in Tállya, he died, his health completely ruined by alcoholism.
Like János Bihari and Antal Csermák, Lavotta belonged to the generation of violin virtuosos and composers that was responsible for the creation of a new Hungarian national style, the classical verbunkos. Lavotta was the first member of the Hungarian upper class in that era to devote himself entirely to music, and he was also the first professional musician to be recognized as an equal by the upper class. As a composer he showed less refinement than Csermák, and lacked the powerful originality of Bihari. As well as displaying the new national style, his works also show the influence of the German and Polish music of his time. Apart from dances he composed various pieces of programme music, including Nobilium hungariae insurgentium nota insurrectionalis hungarica (1797), a suite in 18 movements. In this work Lavotta attempted for the first time to adapt the new Hungarian music to more advanced, cyclical forms. For these and similar attempts to combine the melodic and formal resources of eastern and western Europe Lavotta’s contemporaries extolled him as a cultivated innovator, in contrast to Bihari, who was the instinctive, unrefined gypsy. Only two series of his compositions appeared in print during his lifetime, Ungarische Werbungs Tänze for two violins and bass (Vienna, 1810), and Verbunkós nóták oder Aecht ungarische National-Tänze for piano (Vienna, 1814). Shortly after his death some of his verbunkos dances were published in various collections, such as Magyar nóták Veszprém vármegyéből (‘Hungarian dances from County Veszprém’, vols.1 and 4), edited by Ruzitska (Vienna, 1822–4), Nemzeti Magyar tántzok (‘Hungarian national dances’), edited by A. Mohaupt (Pest, 1823–4), Pannonien oder auserlesene Sammlung ungarischer Tänze, vol.2, and Flora oder vaterländische Tänze aus Ungarn älterer und neuerer Zeit, vols.1 and 2, edited by G. Mátray (Vienna, 1826, 1829). His manuscripts, consisting chiefly of verbunkos dances, German dances, minuets, contredanses and polonaises, are in the music collection of the National Széchényi Library in Budapest (H-Bn).
M. Bernáth: A’ bájoló hegedűs, vagy is A’ híres virtuosus ’s diletant hegedűs Lavotta János életének leirása [The magic violinist, or A biography of the famous virtuoso and dilettante violinist Lavotta] (MS, 1818, H-Bn)
G. Bernáth: Lavotta élete [Lavotta’s life] (Pest, 1857)
M. Markó: Emlékkönyv izsépfalvi és kevelházi Lavotta János halálának századik évfordulójára [Memorial album for the 100th anniversary of the death of Lavotta] (Budapest, 1920)
S. Szilágyi: Lavotta János (Budapest, 1930) [incl. list of Lavotta’s MSS in H-Bn]
B. Szabolcsi: A XIX. század magyar romantikus zenéje [Hungarian Romantic music of the 19th century] (Budapest, 1951)
E. Major and I. Szelényi: A magyar zongoramuzsika 100 éve [100 years of Hungarian piano music] (Budapest, 1956)
B. Szabolcsi and F.Bónis: Magyar táncok Haydn korából [Hungarian dances from the time of Haydn] (Budapest, 1959, 2/1977)
E. Major: Fejezetek a magyar zene történetéből [Chapters from the history of Hungarian music] (Budapest, 1967)
G. Papp: ‘Die Quellen der “Verbunkos-Musik”’, SM, xxi (1979), 151–217; xxiv (1982), 35–97
I. Mona: Magyar zeneműkiadók és tevékenységük 1774–1867 [Hungarian music publishers and their activity 1774–1867] (Budapest, 1989)
F. Bónis: Ungarische Tänze (Vienna, 1993)
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