A BTK Zenetudományi Intézet digitális archívum koncepciója az oktatás és a tudomány szolgálatában

The article introduces a unique Hungarian folklore database. Its design and operation were implemented within the framework of the new digital archive conception of the Institute for Musicology. This concept seeks to keep pace with the development of digital technology. I will briefly present aspects along which our strategy was developed, assessing how the database can be utilized in the fields of education and research. Hungarian folk music research, marked by the names of Bartók and Kodály, has a very strong tradition. Huge amounts of valuable material have been accumulated. Effects of this tradition are strongly felt even today. The connection between the archival background, folk music education and the performing arts is very strong. We are currently converting the heritage of our greatest researchers into digital knowledge. Results of this approach effect many areas of culture, creating an extremely complex system embedded in the communication space. Thorough knowledge of the context is essential to be able to design effective online systems.

Contemporary Voices from Eger. A Cross-section from the Piano Works of László Kátai

"The main purpose of the article is introducing the Hungarian contemporary composer, László Kátai. He is a retired associate professor who worked for almost 30 years at the Music Department of Eszterházy Károly College (Eger, Hungary). His compositions are strongly connected to Hungarian folk music and his musical language is based on Béla Bartók’s style amongst some other influences. The analysis of four piano compositions is the essence of the study. Keywords: László Kátai, Bartók’s style, piano pieces, musical analysis, Hungarian folk music"

In Bartók’s Footsteps A Folk Music Research Series Among Turkic People (1936–2019)

The Hungarian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric linguistic family, but several pre-Conquest strata of Hungarian folk music are connected to Turkic groups. Intrigued by this phenomenon, Hungarian folk music researchers launched thorough comparative examinations. Investigations authenticated by fieldwork have also been ongoing to the present day, parallel to theoretical research. Initially, the main goal was to explore the eastern relations of Hungarian folk music, which gradually broadened into the areal research of the Volga-Kama-Belaya region. I further expanded this work to encompass the comparative investigation of Turkic-speaking groups living over the vast Eurasian territory. This paper provides a summary of the findings of this field research examining the folk music of Anatolian Turk, Azeri, Karachay, Kazakh, Turkmen, Uzbek and Kyrgyz people. I briefly describe the sources, the fieldwork, the methods of processing the collected material, and most interestingly, I summarize new findings. After providing an overview of traditional songs of several Turkic peoples, selected results are provided in three tables: 1) a grouping of Turkic folk-music repertoires; 2) Turkic parallels to Hungarian folk music styles; and 3) the current state of Turkic folk music research conducted by Hungarian scholars.

Parlando Rubato György Kurtág and Hungarian Folk Music

This study focuses on the use of the parlando rubato style of Hungarian folk music in György Kurtág’s compositions. Kurtág applies the terms parlando, rubato,and molto rubato several times, and these designations always refer to a clearly defined meaning in his compositions, connected to “Hungarianness” and sexuality. This study aims to reveal these meanings, aided by Kurtág’s compositional sketches and notes preserved in the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, as well as through analysis of vocal works such as the Four Songs (op. 11), S. K. –Remembrance Noise (op. 12), Attila József Fragments (op. 20), Seven Songs (op. 22), Eight Choruses (op. 23), Kafka Fragments (op. 24), and Three Old Inscriptions (op. 25).

Transylvanian Folk Music in Zoltán Kodály's Compositions

Zoltán Kodály became seriously interested in Transylvanian folk music when he had learnt about the results of Béla Bartók's collecting fieldworks in Székelyföld. The wealth of old-style tunes and classical ballads, and – above all – the recognition of the importance of pentatony inspired Kodály to take part personally in the exploration of Székely folk music. Székely musical folklore obviously intrigued him both as an ethnographer and as a composer. He collected nearly 600 tunes in 15 Székely localities in the Gyergyó Basin, the valley of the Kászon stream, and Bukovina. He arranged 66 of these melodies within such compositions as e.g. the Dances of Marosszék, the musical play The Spinning Room, Hungarian Folk Music (57 ballads and folk songs for voice and piano), Székely Lament for mixed voices, Bicinia Hungarica, Kádár Kata and Molnár Anna (both with chamber orchestra accompaniment), and Pentatonic Music. Apart from his own collection, he also used those of some of his contemporaries. The paper discusses the specificities of Kodály's techniques of arrangement. His inspiring advice for younger folklorists had an essential role in triggering the in-depth investigation of Central Transylvanian folk music.

„Kimegyek a doberdói harctérre”

Folk music – just like any other work of art – bears the historical imprint of the age when it was born. World War military poetry is the last manifestation of the song creating imagination of Hungarian folk culture. Due to cultural history, we have a particularly colourful and nuanced image of the effects of the “Great War” on Hungarian folk music. It is a unique coincidence – both of historical and academic importance – that the significance of folk music and its research was recognized by the whole continent just a decade before the outbreak of the war, that there were two outstanding researchers of folk music in Hungary, and that these two researchers were both excellent composers. Due to the work of Kodály and Bartók, the collection of folk music, which formerly happened in the small villages of the country, spread to military communities, covering the songs that were born during the war. This way, the study of folk music made it possible for scholars to observe the effect of historical events on folk culture through living examples.

György Kurtág’s Hungarian identity and The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza (1963–1968)

After the political and cultural seclusion of the 1950s young Hungarian composers turned to Western European new music. While learning contemporary compositional techniques they were searching for a new Hungarian identity in music. The musicological discourse about new Hungarian music concentrated on the ‘Hungarianness’ of their music too. Composers used Hungarian literary texts, and referred to Hungarian music culture with musical allusions. They inherited the idea of the combination of the up-to-date Western European compositional techniques with the old Hungarian tradition from Kodály and Bartók, i.e. they were aware of the primacy of tradition. György Kurtág’s (1926) concerto for soprano and piano, The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza (1963–1968) represented for Hungarian musicians the paradigmatic example of new Hungarian music, modern and traditional at the same time. It was based on an old Hungarian text from the 16th-century, like Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus (1923). The vocal part, however, refers to Webern’s melodic concept, the piano part follows Stockhausen’s piano writing, and Kurtág quotes neither Hungarian folk music nor old Hungarian art music. The paper investigates by means of musical analysis the question why contemporaries felt that Kurtág’s piece represents unambiguously a Hungarian identity. Kurtág — as well as his contemporaries — uses symbols, allusions connected to certain words and word-paintings while concentrating on the picturesque elements of music. The source of this compositional attitude is Kodály’s oeuvre, foremost the Psalmus Hungaricus. From this angle Kurtág’s The Sayings stands for the new-old Hungarian musical tradition.