Bruno Buike, Neuss/Germany, July 2003
This is the revisited, improved and enlarged version of the the section "Musik" (music) from the official "Verwaltungsportal" (site-title and google listing) (administrative portal) of the Hungarian government under adress http://www.ekormayzat.hu/deutsch?kateg=deutsche:1430 (main adress: http://www.ekormanyzat.hu/deutsch) , which was submitted free of charge for absolute free use - the e-mail-connections to ekormanyzat.hu not functioning - to the Collegium Hungarium (Hungarian Institute for Culture) and to the department of the Attaché for Culture within the Embassy of Hungaria, both at Berlin.
The work of this article was undergone as preliminary theoretical study on the occasion of a composition for piano in double octaves, the title of which is "Maros - River" (Hungarian incipit: "Maros vize folyik csendesen"; German incipit: "Leise fließt der Marosfluß"), which is published as MIDI-sound in www.geocities.com/buikemusic2 and with partition and sound in http://www.finalemusic.com , click "showcase", search/browse by English title and/or by "Bruno Buike", where is ready for free download a FinaleViewer - this latter partition not being perfect however because of software-problems with a free-software. A second composition on a Gypsi theme from Russian Kosacks or from Ukraine is under construction under the title "Thousand perls in my glass"/German incipit: "Es funkeln tausend Perlen in dem Glass in meiner Hand", Russian/Ukrainian incipit not known to me, and will be published in due time under the adresses given above.
This little exercise - so to say: for relaxation - has been published in my web-sites undder (http://www.) geocities.com/buike_2001 and geocities.com/buikemusic1.
Specimen copies have been submitted to:
- Deutsches Volksliedarchiv (International German Archives For Folksongs), Freiburg/Brsg.
- Institut für musikalische Volkskunde (Institute for musical folklore), Cologne University
- Österreichisches Volksliedwerk (Austrian Central Organisation For Folksongs), Vienna
- author, soloviolinist and scientist in several related fields of theory and knowledge of language Michael Jelden (via Buske Publishers, Hamburg)
- Gymnasium Antonianum, Vechta/Northern Germany (between Oldenburg/Oldbg. and Osnabrueck), where I went to school, a school that today has strong partnerships throughout Europe, namely to Poland, Hungary and France
- Public Library, Neuss.
old title of the presentation within the Hungarian official web-site: "Musik" ("music")
new title: Hungarian music and music in Hungary from the beginnings to today, general screen and lexical information , file names: UngarnMusEngl.htm and UngarnMusEngl.html. This is NOT a translation from the German!
German title: Ungarische Musik und Musik in Ungarn von den Anfängen bis heute, allgemeinbildende lexikalische Auskunft, file-names: UngarnMus.htm and UngarnMus.html. Dies ist KEINE Übersetzung!
Hungary achieved an important rank in the music history of the world. The historical ups and downs in the course of the centuries in this country however prevented a continous development. Nevertheless Hungarian musicians of all musical styles and directions, namely in the sections of classical music and jazz, became famous throughout the world today.
Very similar to other parts of Europe at the starting point of Hungarian musical history we find socalled "folkmusic", but a very special sort of popular music indeed which is unique in the whole of Europe and of some primordial character which became clear with certainty through the first collections, which can be named true scientific in a more modern sense of Istvan Bartalus ("Magyar nepadlok", several volumes, 1873 -1896) which was followed by the two "twin-researchers" Béla Bartók (1881-1945) and Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967), who collected nearly 14.000 songs, partly with "phonograph" - which is a recording device p; - that are under publication under the direction of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences since 1951 (6 vol's. of planned 25 vol's.). In particular since Bela Bartok the musical avantgarde frequently makes use of these "precious gem-stones of old antiquity".
This autochtone Hungarian music should not be mixed up with socalled "restaurant-music" or "gipsy-music" - like all European Gipsies the Gipsies of Hungaria are originated in the Northwest of India, called Pundschab, from where a succesor of Alexander the Great brought them as a complete Indian-type "caste" of musicians, jugglers and buffons to his king's yard in Mesopotamia, which means from the Greek "land between the two rivers", i.e. Euphrat and Tigris -: this eldest music of Hungaria is not even strictly "Hungarian" in the common sense! There was not such a people like the "Hungarians" of today at all, as the predecessor- tribes of the Onogurs, the Awares and Hunns, from which the modern Hungarians were amalgamated, settled in the regions of the Kaf-Mountains, of Armenia and between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, where they were surrounded by neighbours of the great Turc people-family, from whose music they took over the characteristic elements and style of music. Because of this musical - but not biological! - relationship we are not surprised to find, that Chinese musicologist Du Yaxiong during the Congress of Musical Ethnology in 1982 in Beijing is on report in saying that there are close connections between the music of the Turc-tribes of Northwestern China and even Mongolia and the Hungarian music of old. In short: In Hungaria a music of seldom antiquity of more than 1400 years has survived by the means of oral traditions - forming a continuity of musical traditions in spite of all the other discontinuities of Hungarian common and secular history.
The pecularities of the eldest Music are: 1. Form or structure (szerkezet), 2. key-system (hangsor), 3. quantity of syllabes (szótagszám), 4. rythm (ritmika), 5. quantity of measures (ütemszam), 6. closing of line and vers (sorvégz?dés), 7. span of scales within a melody (hagterjedelem), 8. style (stilus). This with the exception of No. 7 is to be found as well in the music of Finnland/Suomi - in Hungarian and elder ethnological literature called as well "people of the Tscheremisses" - which may or may not be part of the relationship of the languages of Hungaria and Suomi, forming a singular family within the languages of Europe, called the "Finno-Ugrish" family. Some of these characteristics can be found as well in the skev-songs of Norway and even in Gregorian chants , some, but not enough in number to form something like a "Hungarian style" of music in these examples. Very special we find in the system of scales even a division of single tones in quarters and thirds, which may or may not be compared with system and theory of the Ragas in Indian music.
Most interesting within the genres of the eldest music are the ritual songs - tunes of lamentation (sirató), wedding airs and children songs - because in the "siratos" it is supposed, that there may be some traces hinting at the music of the "Samans", the monotonous-magical incantations of which otherwise could not be reconstructed yet. But perhaps it can be considered interesting, that originated from ethnological research including musical ethnology shamanism under intellctuals of Northern America and of Russia became in some way trendy today.
Other key-words which may be helpful in search for the characteristics of the eldest music are: "old style", "falling melodies", "pentatone of Transsylvania" (that sometimes is of more than 5 single tones!), "diatonical tunes of lamentation", "shepherd's music with bagpipe". By the way: - in Transsilvania, which is partly Roumanian today, you may have a glance at the castle of Vlad Dracul who in history and memory of the people has been very real before he became the "Earl of Dracula" in horror-literature ...
Briefly after the arrival between 896-907of the 7 Hungarian tribes in the region of the former province of the Roman Empire called "Pannonia", these nomads became after the defeat of Augsburg/Germany 955 resident - there have been indeed rails of these first Hungarians to northern Italy of the "Langobards" as well! - and soon afterwards under King Stephan I., the Holy, (997-1058) from the first dynasty of the Arpads (till 1301) CHRISTIANS - and Hungary opened herself to the centralisized efforts of civilisation brought forward in special by the Catholic orders of St. Benedict and the Cistercians of St. Bernard de Clairvaux, that embraced the whole of Europe. The eldest known Latin document is of 1002 and stating the foundation of the Abbey of "St.Martin at the hill", since the 19th century called "Pannonholma" (near Györ), that until today is a Territorial Abbey, the popularity of the holy St.Martin in Hungary, bishop of Tours in France, resulting from the fact, that he has been Roman solidier in Pannonia before. The eldest document containing words of Hungarian language is the diploma for the foundation of the Abbey of Tihanyi from 1055. Like elsewhere in Europe from the 10th -11th century it has been the time of the foundation of schools under the supervision of the Abbeys and Monasteries, which laid floor for the participation of Hungaria in European occidental culture, sholarship and education. This historical turning point produced footprints in musical history as well, such as in the developement of a genuin Hungarian tradition of Gregorian chants - we often forget, that before today's strictly centralisized church-organisation at Rome there have been quite a lot of local and regional traditions in Gregorian chants, for instance in Czechoslavakia or in France or in the Spain of the times of Mozarabic rite, the widespread Gregorian chant of today, that has the approval from Rome, being something like an extension from regional Ambrosian traditions of Milano/Italy - , that later was accompagnied by a special Hungarian system for the notation of this music, which even was sung with two voices sometimes later, as the cities and their inhabitants became a sociological factor selfconfident enough to rival the king and the foedal land owners, a church music for liturgical use that is shown in codices richly decorated with colors and bookpaintings, that have survived until now. As everywhere in Europe in addition the peasantry had her own wordly popular music of the type of any "joculatori"-music typical for the late medieval times.
A truely highspirited time for Hungarian music came with the reign of King Matthias Corvinus (1440? 1443? (1457?) - 1490). He with his father Janos Hunyadi not only organized the last and effective defense in the Southeast and nearly the whole Balkans against the islamic expansion of the Osman turcs but entertained figuring as celebrity thoughout Europe as well a famous court, to whom were attracted the most famous artists from the whole of Europe of his time, to partake in the performances of his skilled chamber orchestra and choir of excellence, we should add: in spite of all the inconveniences of traveling in that time.
With the siege and fall of the Bzyantine Empire and its capital Konstantinople in 1453 dark clouds rose at the horizon ready to overshadow with black evil the second dramatical turning point of Hungarian history which again had consequences, this time but severe consequences, for the developement of Hungarian music. 1521 castle and city of Nándorfehérvag - today called Beograd/Belgrade, because of its old name "Griechisch Weißenburg" (Greek white town) in contrast to Székesfehérvar (White town of the - royal - seat); "white" color being a somewhat odd attribuition to towns depending perhaps on the old symbolism we find in quite a lot of flags with "white" indicating "female" and "red" indicating "male", which may of may not be connected with geomantic concepts about some sort of Greek "hieros gamos" (holy wedding) of the alchemy of old - Nándorfehérvag, called by the elder geographers "clavis hungariae", the "key to Hungary", was taken by Süleyman the Magnificient and up to 1566 the whole of the central parts of Hungary became a Turkish-Osman province - and remained Turkish province until the tide of history, which brought the flood of the Osman's expansion was followed after the second siege of Vienna 1689 by the low tide of Osman retreat showing the western Empire and its commanders-in-chief, the Habsburgers in charge of power, fighting to break the Turkish ban, under which not a single of the subdued peoples of the Southeast and in the Balkans was free to follow the paths of its inherited cultures, which indeed hardly survived the centuries of foreign rule: It was not before1867 that the last Turkish commander of the castle of Belgrade left ... In this Turkish period of Hungarian history there was no Hungarian music, art, literature, at least not of a kind worth mentioning - until at about 1750 under Empress Maria Theresia there was set into effect some sort of general plan for reconstruction of the country, which again showed strong foreign and non-Hungarian elements, such for instance the protestant song-traditions of German settlers called into the country with their scenic-theater accompagnied by music on the occasions of the main Christian festivities.
There were in this Turkish period but the univocal singings of Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos - and that were due to the circumstances historical songs of the freedom and glory of old and military songs of assault to take the enemy by storm. In addition we find a bulwark of resistance in the former pricipality of "Siebenbuergen" (province of the "seven mountains") around its former capital with the Hungarian name Temesvar, which is today's Rumainian Timisoara, that region that became as one of the first parts of Hungary free as stated by the peace treaties of Karlowitz (1699) and Passarowitz (1718) - the latter both in former Yogoslavia! -: Well, it really needs specialists to understand all these little scents of geography and history in the Southeast, doesn't it? From this principality of Temesvar was originated the famous virtuoso of the lyre Bálint Bakfark in the 16th century. Bulwark if not of resistance but at least of preservation has been too the church: Through church channels Hungarian melodies became known to Palestrina (1525-1594) in far away Rome, who even made use of them in some of his compositions. It has been the church again who after shaking off the Turkish rule brought to Hungaria the musical splendor of Baroque, of which latter is witness the collection of musical partitions and notes at the archives of the Raab cathedral , where can be found even works of the classic by Mozart and Haydn ordered by Hungarian bishops.
Indeed, in the 18th century we cannot think of European concert music and even European art as a whole without remembering the Pál Esterházy de Kismarton from Hungaria. From this family of three family-branches holding the seats to the right of the Hungarian King himself there was born the Prince Nikolaus I. Joseph, who was maecenas to Joseph Haydn (1732-1809; the brother of which, who later became composer as well, with name Michael was born in 1739), which became conductor of and composer for his orchestra since 1766 and continued in these professions under his successor Prince Nikolaus II, who refounded the orchestra, called back Haydn, who was followed principal of music by the wellknown composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel 1804-1811. Really odd to say: In this same year of 1811 - as the great comet of Halley had his scheduled return - was born Franz List/Liszt in Raiding/Doborján, Comitat Ödenburg/Sopron, as son of a rental-administrator of the Esterházys reigning the half of Hungary at that time from their residence Eisenstadt/Burgenland in Austria ... It is self evident, that there are to be found Hungarian melodies in the works of Haydn as well, which can be detected under the veil of Haydn's style of classical music of a more Westeuropean fashion.
At about the time of Haydn, that is to the end of the 18th century, there has been some sort of revival of Hungarian autochtone music resulting in the genre of "Verbunko", under which were subsummarized airs and dances for recruting soldiers as was the custom of the time and the country. It has been a source for some confusion, that this Verbunko-music often was played by gipsies, who wearing livrče also played in the housholds of the aristocracy - but NOT autochtone gipsy-music - that would mean music of Northwest-India as said before - but adaptions of Hungarian autochtone music, and adaption means: sligthly CHANGED music, means TRANSFER, to make the music of old Hungary playable with the means and techniques of Westeuropean music at her state of developement at Haydns time, means, to WRITE DOWN the old music from oral Hungarian tradition with the means of Westeuropean music of that time. Because you never can stop the genius of invention: inmidst of this process of transfer, there was born something new as well, forming all together the Verbunko-music and the "nota"-music of Hungary, which is derived from the Latin and simply means "written"-music, and with this newly written music of the "nota" there is until to today the controversy, whether it is "composed" music in the common sense or not, the authors or composers in most cases unknown. But so to say: there remains a rest, which could not be transformed into Western techniques of music - simply because in European music there are not existing such items like quarters or thirds of one single tone - and from that there started a process of invention within the Westeuropean music to indicate in a periphraseal manner what could not be expressed before: "rubato" "arpeggio-similars", "glissando-similars" and others - for instance some sort of shifting in tonal centre by breaking the fixed rules of common scale-theory - are such new means in European music to say the unspeakable, which by the way must be transduced normally - if not, as seldom occurs, at hand as gift right from the beginning from birth - by personal training and personal experience in spite of all written indications. This transfer then was not only single directed but had some specifics of an exchange thus in the end becoming a mutual exchange: Westeuropean music ADDED something to the autochtone Hungarian music that had been unkown there before, such for instance the addition of enharmonic harmonies to by origin univocal melodies, such for instance instruments of Westeuropean sophistication reached at that time, like the European violin and the piano, from which latter the cymbal of Hungarian music took up speed in its technical developement and nowadays can be found with pedals - like the "modern" piano (or to be more precise: at least the piano since the19th century). Indeed the violin of that typ. that through the families of Stradivari, Amati and Guaneri from Cremona/Northern Italy became principal in the world's music raised to that instrument most suitable to express all that is connected with "Hungarian-music" or "gipsy-music" in the perception of non-Hungarians and non-Gipsies, but reflecting the status of Hungarian music not earlier than the end of the 18th century.
The violin-school of Carl Flesch - who has been pupil of the wellknown violinist Louis Spohr at the beginning of the 19th century - edited and printed but at the beginning of the 20th century has special chapters on "gipsy-music" - including the Spaniard Pablo de Sarasate - and since Flesch the whole world considers the perfection of expression and sound on the violin unthinkable without studies and practise of the socalled "gipsy-tune", as does the today's school of socalled "Russian violinists", founded by the "Russian" violinist Leopold Auer, who worked at Imperial St.Petersburg, then in 1918 went to the US, but was born 1845 in Veszprém/Hungary and - odd to say: - died in Dresden/Germany. Auer's violin-school in English became influential in the US - and today even in Japan - as holds true for the instructional works of Flesch. And if we are talking about the contribution to violin music from this country Hungaria, we cannot avoid mentioning the violonist Joseph Joachim, born 1831 at Kittsee, near Preßburg/Bratislava, at that time part of the former Kingdom of Hungaria, who went in 1833 to Budapest to be teached there from the Polish concert master of the Royal Opera at Pest on the violin, before he met Brahms and became wellknown first in Hannover and afterwards in Berlin, where one of his pupils was Franz/Ferenc de Vecsey (1893-1935) - not to be mixed up with Joseph de Vecsey de Vecse et Börröllyö-Iságfa, k.u.k General since 1888! -, who was entrusted by Sibelius with the first performance of his violin concerto in 1910. We thus cannot avoid to speak of the family of musicians called originally "Singer", which became later known as the "Szigetis" - this name was taken by them from the village Marámaros Sziget in the Hungarian Carparths (in former Carpartho-Ukraine?) - of which was one offspring the famos violinist Josef Szigeti (born 1892, dead 1970 in Lucerne/Switzerland) - a man remarkable for his breaking just by fire of temperament the strings of his violin during concert playing, even in his last concert as elderly man, where he broke the G-string! - , who cooperated in modern composition with Bartok in 1927 and even succeded in continuing his career after that break by outside force,that nearly everyone else of his generation stopped and silenced for ever, id est the II.World War. We thus cannot avoid mentioning Carl Goldmark (born 1830 at Kethely/Balaton), who was teached professionally the violin in Ödenburg first, before he after self-teaching in composition 1857-1860 in Budapest became wellknown as composer in Vienna, especially with operas, that were on stage in Budapest almost until 1930! - Well, so far! In the 18th -19th century with Verbunko-music became wellknown to the world Márk Rózsavöigyi and János Bihari and Verbunko-motives can be found in the music for theater of Béni Egressi.
In form and shape of these Verbunko-adaptions Hungarian music became known to the famous composers of the 19th century and in this form that music could be handled by them, namely by Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, C.M. Weber, Brahms and Berlioz - not to speak of Liszt. By the way: With Brahms's "Hungarian Dances" (original set for piano) it happend, that at their first occurence in Budapest they by Hungarians themselves at first could not be recognized as "true Hungarian" - as is on record by anecdotal telling ...Otherwise the arrangements of the "Rákóczi-March" and théme by Berlioz and Liszt - who's favorite language has been lifellong French in spite of his Hungarian origin and living parttime even in Weimar/Germany - have to Hungarians a special meaning up to today: Frank (Ferenc) II. Rácóczi became known through his insurrection 1703-1711 against the Habsburgers and on the assumption, that he was Turkish vassal in a satellite principality only officially, is symbolizing the longing for Hungarian freedom and Hungarian independence - that never faded away, that indeed was strong enough to force in 1867 the building of the double-state of Austria-Hungria with an equal ranking of both parts based upon constitutional guarantees.
So to say: The Rácóczi-march is figuring as some sort of Hungarian national anthem inofficially. But the first offical national anthem is dating back to the 19th century and was composed by Ferenc Erkal, who is famous as well because of his national-operas "Bánk bán" and "Hunyadi Lázló" - national-operas that in this time of musical history were brought to open light everywhere in Europe, the better known the national opera of the Czech B.(F.) Smetana, but national operas of Norway and even Danmark as well.
From the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th century to the beginning of the I. World War 1914 Budapest is an EUROPEAN METROPOLIS quirling of life, a calaidoscope of colours and peoples, with remarkable contributions to cultural life from its Jewish quarters - the before mentioned J.Joachim and C.Goldmark were of Jewish origin for instance -, with several Christian rites - among them namely the Greek and some of Slavic peoples - celebrating their own ritual music in divine worship, with musical guests like Gustav Mahler and an almost inevitable musical interchange with Vienna musical celebrities, with an own opera-house and several concert halls of course, with an educated middle class building up this and participating in this mass of cultural activities, educated enough to make music of nearly every level of difficulty at home and in private circles, with a developed system of public secondary education and schools, where we find teachers that were able to recognize and even to instruct on higher levels - again in private! - such talents like the later famous genius of mathematics Paul Erdös, founder of the famous school of Hungarian mathematicians, the Budapest of that time partaking of course in international economic activities covering a complete region of Europe, namely the socalled "Southeast", which would indicate rather fairly the range of its econimical radiance if we add econimocal relations to Poland and Ukraine of that time, if we add participations and joint ventures in all the great projects of railways-building and canal-construction of that time, including even the project of Suez-Canal, which only later passed to French management and direction - in short, Budapest before 1914 could be called truely a "Paris of the Southeast", far away from every slightly sleepy shephard's romantic - a city which attracted saisonal workerrs from Hungary and from neighbouring peoples, workers that brought with them their own music and dances and of course spred them, among that folksongs with a new structure of "domelike" melodies.
We may say: With the I. World War ended a period of a strong but somewhat naive too belief in scientific and technical progress that has dominated indeed the whole of the 19th century culminating in the great World Exhibitions of Paris, of London, and followed by great exhibitions on the occasions of great historical jubilees in Vienna and Budapest, an optimism that we today after the Holocaust, after Stalinism, after Tschernobyl, after Hiroshima hardly or not without some critizism would be able to share, we that we all together just have survived the bloody terror that will be in books on history to come the main distinctive mark of the last century before the beginning of the 3. millenium after Christ, that almost could not be named "after Christ" because of the fact, that never before in history such a lot of Christians were murdered, not accidently but based upon a systematical and scientific programm of destruction of a n y religion ...The sorror and the weeping of the 20th century will last long. long, so long in the memory of the peoples and even of mankind: Whoever is a normal man can imagine what was reality in the bygone 20th century: violinplaying by official order in Auschwitz and Theresienstadt ... ? Well, 1914 only really independent observers may have felt growing something evil from that, what in historical restrospective later became known as the roots of Hitlerism and communism. The others enjoyed themselves in a somehow childlike optimism, an optimism that even became music in form of the newly invented genre of the "Operette", the meaning of which diminuitive is "the little opera", that does not engage in dramtic feelings, that wanted to entertain rather than evoke emotional shock in front of the numinal powers that since the Greek tragedy never failed to be in some ways present behind the curtains of theater. Every halfway good lexicon of music is listing the names of the welknown composers of the operette coming from Hungary: Imre Kálmŕn, Ferenc Lehár, Jeno Huszka. It may be of interest to know, that Kalman first was engaged in k.u.k. military music, as was the conductor Fricsay, whom we will have to deal with later: The world may be a better place, if there were more such armies of such profound musical interest ...
It was this perhaps somewhat lighthearted time before the beginning of the I. World War that we find a special interest in Austria-Hungria for ethnological research. Vienna indeed became an important place of publishing houses specialisized in rather strange languages - which has been before the computers of today a real technical problem regarding the production of the sign-sets and letter-sets! - such as Mic Mac, which is part of the Algonkin-group of languages of Northern America- a language in which after the works of Barry Fell (US) and Sudhoff (GE) revolutioning our insight in America's history before Columbus they think that we might find there some writing signs imported from pharaonic old Egypt... Otherwise Matthias Murko starting from Vienna began real field-research in southern parts of former Yugoslavia regarding the Gusle-music and the tradtions there of musical historical "epos" centered around the heros of old - as did independently the young Bartok and Kodaly in Hungaria herself. In Vienna and Budapest was published under patronage of the last Prince of Crown Rudolf of Habsburg by a first class commission of editors the great ethnological encyclopedia "Östereich-Ungarn in Wort und Bild" (Austria-Hungria depicted in word and picture) covering of course music and customs of all the peoples of that former Imperial Empire - and that were quite a lot of different peoples on a map showing rather some sort of mosaic even with isolated little islands of some languages and groups instead of the coherent great zones in one colour we today are used to find on European maps.
Bartók and Kodály later became real composers in a more strict sense - and modern composers creating new sounds and musical structure but not derived from the just invented technique of dodekaphony ("Zwölftontechnik" of Anton Webern) but instead developed from their research in the autochtone Hungarian music, thus to gain new fields of sound-experience of some exravagant sort never heard in artificial composed music before. They both in these efforts were followed by Erno (de) Dohnányi and Leo Weiner thus forming a little group of Hungarian modern composers very independent from other developements in European modern music - and we may add: very interesting in sound.
With special regard to Zoltan Kodaly it perhaps should be mentioned, that he in Hungary herself is very much more wellknown for his nationwide Kodaly-method in musical education and instruction - a fact that to our best knowledge onlyy can be compared with the popularity of the Suzuki-method in violin-instruction in Japan.
Again the course of world history interfered with Hungarian history in a catastrophic manner with the beginning of World War II. in 1939. After this war Hungary found herself isolated from the rest of the world by the "iron curtain"- and reduced to very little exspectations that could not aspire to former cultural importance. All ways of public life were restricted again by political ideology, which meant for any cultural activity that it has been directed to "realistic socialism", whatever that was or could have been, that produced even the superficial idea of politics interwoven in e v e r y kind of activity, resulting for instance in "political mathematics", whatever that was or could have been. The new dictatorship was at odds with any halfway normal approach to music, which was in deepest philosophical senseless for their programm of materialism. Marx said: "Man is, what he eats." (This being a play with words in German!) - And well: is there anybody out there, who can eat music ...??? It was not music as music that was in the reach of their limited understandings. It was not folkmusic as folkmusic that was of interest to them. They were interested INSOFAR popular music could be instrumentalisized for political purposes regarding their sociological groups of preference , the "workers, farmers and proletarians" , not the real workers and farmers, but the proletarians of their ideological constructions reflecting the habitus of economical thinking of the 19th century. Classical music they understood INSOFAR they needed something respectable for the political purpose of official representation of their system of non-freedom, resulting compared with the real reality in some sort of self-agrandissement - not to make, what was little, greater, but to let it s e e m a bit greater... Modern music at last, especially as some sort of intercultural cross insemination demanding some philosophical trials in the ways of non-European thinking from Asia, from China, Japan, India for instance, not to forget the impulses and inspirations she got from the diversity of ways of African music, was completely beyond their reach. Whatever specifications and branches of music there are: quite a lot of people trained in music fled from Hungary - and it would be pure cynism, if we would assume, that this produced in the end the same effect as in former decades, where we find such a lot of Hungarian born musicians enriching the musical life of the continent and even of the world. Well, this is a long introduction for our short and selected list of names, that could became famous in music only abroad and not of free will abroad: There are the two conductors George Solti and Ferenc Friczsay, the latter starting his international career after World War II., both living or working outside Hungaria, there is the composer in the branch of really progressive modern music György Lígeti, who went into exile, there even in Germany was founded an orchestra of exile Hungarians, the "Philharmonia Hungaria"... being in existence even today ...
Thus Hungary was some little bit overdue with the presentation of compositions in the technique of "dodekaphony" invented by Anton Webern in the time before the I.World War and only in the 1960ties came forward with works written in this technique by György Kurtág, then with operas in this technique by Emil Petrovics, Sándor Szokolay, Attila Bozay and Zsolt Durkó - the restrictions of the bygone regime regarding jouneys abroad felt clearly as unneccessary hindrance for any free exchange of ideas.
In the 1970ties there was founded the Új Zenei Stúdió ("new studio for music"), that rather was a studio for a special sort of new music and could be compared with Stockhausen's "Studio for new music" at the WDR-Radio in Cologne, covering electronical music of a sort demanding technical sophisticated equipement in apparatus and devices, that partly were experimental as was this music. The Új Zenei Stúdió formed an auditory of its own thus engaging in some sort of musical paedagogic, because this typ of music needs explanation and is (at the moment?) not selfevident regarding efforts of understanding and interpretation.
The breakdown of socalled "real existant socialism" since 1990 and the opening of 1/3 of the earth's countries and territories established not only special new relations between new Russia and Germany, new Hungary and Germany, that in Germany NEVER will be forgotten, but freed in addition Hungarian musicians to partake in normal musical interchange on the continent, namely to free and remarkable contributions to its musical festivals and to all these marvellous international high leveled concerts in all the diversity of today's music worldwide. We really cannot list them all, the Hungarian names of today that whereever in the world is an important musical event make sure that an additional highlight is added to reach the peaks of music. There are to be named: the pianist and conductor Zoltán Kocsis, the conductor Antal Dorati, the Budapest Festival Orchestra under direction of Iván Fischer of course, the pianists András Schiff and Endre Hegedüs (the latter a composer as well), the cellist Miklós Perényi, and some of the long list of musicians with excellence in the wide fields of opera singing, such for instance Éva Marton, Szilvia Sass, Lásló Polgár, Andrea Rost, József Gregor ...
The young generation trained professionally in socalled "gipsy-music", detected within that strong elements of entertainment and, on the other hand was drawn to JAZZ, simply combined elements of both - with special regard to elements of improvisation - and started - perhaps somewhat late due to circumstances but nonetheless - with this new sound-amalgam to conquer the hearts of people allover the world. To these folks belonged: Aladár Pege (string-bass), Károly Binder (piano), Bela Szakcsi Lakatos (piano), Rudolf Tomsits (trumpet), György Vukán (piano and compositions/arrangement), Lazló Dés (brass), György Szabados (brass) and the Benkó Dixieland Band.
Like elsewhere in Europe in Hungary socalled "folkmusic" (or: ethnomusic) in the meantime plays an important role in marketing of tourism and accordingly is organized well as an seperated sector in economy, remarkable but for the highly professional standard of musical educational background and with a touch of "earnest music" due to the immense reserach work of Bartok and Kodaly upon which she is based today. In this field we find high quality productions of Marta Sebestyén and of the MUZSIKÁS Ferenc Sebo. the group Kaláka Kolinda and a series of CD's under the title "Uj Patria" (new patria, new homeland). To stress the point: We are not talking about the music of some villagers. We are but talking about such a famous orchestra playing the somewhat virtous socalled "popular music" of Hungary like the "100 tagü Cinágyzenekar" in Budapest, the meaning of which is "the 100 men company for czigan-music", an orchestra with which even such a first class solist like Michael Jelden from Stuttgart/Germany had his concert sessions playing the virtuous part of the violin.
Of some economical importance because of the good selling story is since the 1960ties the BEATMUSIC, in which is nearly inevetable to be noticed a Hungarian touch in sound similar to Hungarian jazz as told before. Slightly different to Western countries, where the beatmusic was some sort of sociological phaenomenon restricted to the demographic grouip of young people, in the countries of the East the beatmusic somehow gained a quality of political protest and resistance against the communist system - thus attracting even more interest of the public. From this direction of music remained popular up to today the bands Ilés, Metró and Omega. Members of the group Ilés even managed to become succesful with real rock-operas composed by Levente Szdrényi and János Bródy. In the 1970ties the group LTG international called attention and only slightly missed a real breakthrough worldwide.The worlds of socalled underground-music or alternative music of the 1980ties - Szlámi, Europa Kladó - today are far away from any rememberances of the shock which aroused their first appearance - and today nearly are ranking as classical.
Since then several other products of the Hungarian pop-industry had success worldwide, the discomusic of Neoton Familia even in the Far East - and last but not least the boygroup Yonderboi with electronical dancefloor-music.
Bibliographische Anmerkung:
Auer, Leopold: Violin Playing as I teach it, New York 1921
Auer, Leopold: Graded Course of Violin Playing, 8 vol's. Carl Fischer
Flesch, Carl: Die Kunst des Violinspiels, 2 Bde., Berlin: Ries & Erler (?) 1923-1928; engl./amerik. u.d.T.: The Art of Violin Playing, 2 vol's, Carl Fischer; last known year of edition: 2000
Flesch, C.: Das Klangproblem im Geigenspiel, Berlin: Ries & Erler
Helm, Everett: Franz Liszt - mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten, Reinbeck bei Hamburg: rowohlt paperback 1972, 1.Aufl.; 14.Aufl. 2001
Helm, Everett: Bela Bartok - mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten, Reinbeck bei Hamburg: rororo paperback 1972, (evt. neue Auflage?): NICHT ZU VERWECHSELN mit der EVERETT-HELM-COLLECTION des Everett Helm, USA, Komponist und Musikaliensammler, 19.Jahrhundert, heute in der National Library of Australia (online in google)
Jelden, Michael (Violinvirtuose, Sprachwissenschaftler, auch in Ungarn sehr bekannt): Die ungarische Volksmusik, München 1998; online (mit Bibliographie): http://www.editionhera.de/jelden/wissen.htm
Menuhin, Yehudi: Die Violine, Kulturgeschichte eines Instruments, Stuttgart, Weimar, Kassel: Metzler und Bärenreiter 1996; frz. u.d.T.: La Légende du Violon, Paris: Flammarion 1996
Sarosi, Balint: Zigeunermusik, Budapest: Corvina 1977; Zürich, Freiburg/Brsg.: Atlantis 1977