Hungarian Music

Hungarian music, name for Hungarian folk music, which can be divided into two layers in the unanimous folk song.

An older one with semitone pentatonic and parlando rubato performance, a younger one with a seven-step scale and rhythmically strict performance. Folk musical instruments include in addition to various forms of the violin, a cello-like instrument (gardon), dulcimer (cimbalom), hurdy-gurdy (tekerő), magnetic flute (furulya) and a popular oboe (tárogató).

Hungarian art music begins with Gregorian chants as well as vernacular epics and the work of foreign musicians at the Hungarian royal court (around 1000). Central and western European immigrants (since the 12th century) brought their music with them; traveling musicians and students mediated the exchange with the rest of Europe; Hungarian dances (Ungaresca) have been an integral part of the pan-European repertoire since the end of the 15th century.

During the Turkish rule (from 1526) and the tripartite division of the country (from 1541), historical chants (rhyming chronicles, political songs) lived on, especially in the Austrian part; Protestant and Hussite chant elements complemented the popular sacred song. Art music was used by the aristocratic courts, churches, monasteries and, in some cases, schools.

Between 1690 and 1711 the »Kurutzenlieder« were created, a combination of historical song and folk song with Slovak, Romanian and Polish features (e.g. the »Rákóczi-way«). In the middle of the 18th century the Verbunkos appeared. János Bihari (* 1764, † 1827), János Lavotta (* 1764, † 1820) and A. Csermák. Verbunkos and its branches in Csárdás and urban song as well as liberty and student songs form a folk style that was considered typical of Hungarian music from 1790 to the 20th century.

Liszt, Mihály Mosonyi (* 1815, † 1870) and F. Erkel created national Hungarian music with a romantic character. At Liszt close ödön mihalovich (* 1842, † 1929) and J. Hubay directly. The works of E. von Dohnányi and Leó Weiner (* 1885, † 1960) are in the German romantic tradition; Erwin Lendvai (* 1882, † 1949) is considered an important choral composer. Modernism includes Sándor Jemnitz (* 1890, † 1963), László Lajtha (* 1892, † 1963) and F. Farkas.

The most important Hungarian composers, B. Bartók and Z. Kodály, were also well-known folk music researchers and used original peasant music in their compositions. Bartók fuses national, folk music material with highly developed compositional methods. Kodály’s conception as a composer and teacher is based on folk music and has created the basis of a new Hungarian musical culture through a broad choral movement and a system of music schools, especially since 1945; it has received international attention as a model since the late 1950s.

As a teacher, Kodály trained several generations of composers, including P. Kadosa, Ferenc Szabó (* 1902, † 1969), Rudolf Maros (* 1917, † 1982) and P. Járdányi; worked abroad M. Seiber, A. Doráti and S. Veress. The contemporary music represented inter alia. G. Kurtág, G. Ligeti, Emil Petrovics (* 1930, † 2011), Sándor Szokolay (* 1931, † 2013), István Láng (* 1933), Z. Durkó, Attila Bozay (* 1939, † 1999), P. Eötvös, R. Wittinger and Z. Kocsis. In order to participate in the international development of music, some composers, musicologists and musicians – including Zoltán Jeney (* 1943, † 2019), László Sáry (* 1940) and László Vidovsky (* 1944) founded the »Studio for New Music (* 1944) in  1970 «(Uj Zenei Stúdió), with which they broke with tradition, drawing on the music of J. Cage. Encouraged by this group, but also withdrawn from it, other composer associations such as the »Group of Young Composers« (Zeneszerzók Csoportja) and the »Group 180« (180-as Csoport) were founded in the 1980s.

Szeged

Szeged [ sεgεd], German Szegedin [ sεgεdi ː n], capital of the district Csongrád, Southeast Hungary, on both sides of the Tisza near the mouth of the Maros, near the border with Romania and Serbia (Wojwodina), (2018) 161 100 residents.

Catholic bishopric; University (founded in Kapozsvár / Cluj-Napoca in 1872, re-establishment of the Hungarian University in Szeged, which closed there in 1919/20, in 1921), other universities, microbiological research institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, biotechnological center, national theater, conservatory, Ferenc Móra museum, botanical Garden. The food industry is important, especially salami and pepper production (Szeged is the center of the most important Hungarian paprika growing area), as well as mechanical engineering, furniture, textile and leather industries, tobacco processing, tire factory; in Algyő oil and gas production; Transport hub with inland port and airfield.

Demetriusturm (12th to 13th centuries, tower of the former Demetrius Church); Remains of a castle (13th century); Marienkirche (end of the 15th century) with baroque furnishings; neo-Romanesque cathedral with two 93 m high towers, built at the beginning of the 20th century to commemorate the flood disaster of 1879; neo-baroque town hall (1883); Town houses mainly from the 17th century.

On the already around 2000 BC Béla IV. Had a castle built in the 13th century. The important medieval salt transhipment point became a royal free town in 1498 and was under Turkish rule from 1543–1686. In 1879 a flood destroyed almost the entire city. In 1919, Szeged was the starting point for the counter-revolutionary movement to overthrow the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

Miskolc

Miskolc [ Wed ʃ Kolts], capital of the county of Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Northern Hungary, on the eastern edge of the Bükk, (2018) 155 700 residents.

Industrial center; University (founded in 1949 as a TU for heavy industry), metallurgical open-air museum, etc. Museums; Iron and steel industry in the Diósgyőr district (decline during the 1990s), mechanical engineering, paper and food industries. The Tapolca district with its underground caves and lakes is a health resort (thermal springs).

The Gothic church on Avasberg (middle of the 13th century) was rebuilt several times; rebuilt after a fire in 1560–69. The castle ruins in the Diósgyőr district date from the 13th century; it houses a museum and is the scene of the annual castle festival.

Miskolc goes back to a Scythian settlement; Proven as a wine market in 1365, free royal town in 1405; came to royal Hungary after 1526 (Battle of Mohács), then was briefly Transylvanian. Located in the border area, Miskolc suffered from Ottoman raids and double taxation. Miskolc was a center of early industrialization (hammer and stamp mills, oldest blast furnace at the beginning of the 19th century).

Hungarian Music