Music of Hungary
Encyclopedia
Hungary
has made many contributions to the fields of folk
, popular
and classical music. Hungarian folk music is a prominent part of the national identity and continues to play a major part in Hungarian music. Hungarian folk music has been influential in neighboring areas such as Romania
, Slovakia
, southern Poland
and especially in southern Slovakia and the Romanian region of Transylvania
, both home to significant numbers of Hungarians. It is also strong in the Szabolcs-Szatmár
area and in the southwest part of Transdanubia
, near the border with Croatia
. The Busójárás carnival in Mohács
is a major Hungarian folk music event, formerly featuring the long-established and well-regarded Bogyiszló orchestra
.
Hungarian classical music has long been an "experiment, made from Hungarian antedecents and on Hungarian soil, to create a conscious musical culture [using the] musical world of the folk song". Although the Hungarian upper class has long had cultural and political connections with the rest of Europe, leading to an influx of European musical ideas, the rural peasants maintained their own traditions such that by the end of the 19th century Hungarian composers could draw on rural peasant music to (re)create a Hungarian classical style. For example, Béla Bartók
and Zoltán Kodály
, two of Hungary's most famous composers, are known for using folk themes in their music. Bartók collected folk songs from across Eastern Europe, including Romania and Slovakia, whilst Kodály was more interested in creating a distinctively Hungarian musical style.
During the era of Communist rule in Hungary (1944–1989) a Song Committee scoured and censored popular music for traces of subversion and ideological impurity. Since then, however, the Hungarian music industry has begun to recover, producing successful performers in the fields of jazz
such as trumpeter Rudolf Tomsits
, pianist-composer Károly Binder
and, in a modernized form of Hungarian folk, Ferenc Sebő
and Márta Sebestyén
. The three giants of Hungarian rock, Illés
, Metró
and Omega
, remain very popular, especially Omega, which has followings in Germany and beyond as well as in Hungary. Older veteran underground bands such as Beatrice
from the 1980s also remain popular.
Unlike most Eastern European peoples, the Hungarian people, Magyars, emerged from the intermingling of Finno-Ugric
and Eastern Turkish
peoples during the fifth to eighth centuries CE. This makes the origins of their traditional music unique in Europe. According to author Simon Broughton, the composer and song collector Kodály identified songs that "apparently date back 2,500 years" in common with the Mari people of Russia; and, as well as the Mari, the ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl
indicates similarities in traditional Hungarian music with Mongolian
and Native American music
al styles. Bence Szabolcsi, however, claims that the Finno-Ugric and Turkish-Mongolian elements are present but "cannot be attached to certain, definite national or linguistic groups". Nonetheless, Szabolcsi claims links between Hungarian musical traditions and those of the Mari, Kalmyk
, Ostyak
, northwest Chinese
, Tatar
, Vogul, Anatolian Turkish
, Bashkirian
, Mongol
and Chuvash musics. These, he claims, are evidence that "Asia
n memories slumber in the depths of Hungarian folk music and that this folk music is the last Western
link in the chant of ancient Eastern
cultural relations".
According to Broughton, traditional Hungarian music is "highly distinctive" like the "Hungarian language
, which invariably is stressed on the first syllable, lending a strongly accented dactylic
rhythm
to the music". Nettl identifies two "essential features" of Hungarian folk music to be the use of "pentatonic scale
s composed of major second
s and minor third
s" (or "gapped scales") and "the practice of transposing
a bit of melody
several times to create the essence of a song". These transpositions are "usually up or down a fifth
", a fundamental interval
in the series of overtones
and an indication perhaps of the "influence of Chinese musical theory
in which the fifth is significant".
According to Szabolcsi, these 'Hungarian transpositions', along with "some melodic, rhythmical and ornamental peculiarities, clearly show on the map of Eurasia
the movements of Turkish people from the East to the West". The subsequent influence on neighboring countries' music is seen in the music of Slovakia
and, with intervals of the third
or second
, in the music of the Czech Republic
. Hungarian and other Finno-Ugric musical traditions are also characterized by the use of an ABBA binary musical form
, with Hungary itself especially known for the A A' A' A variant, where the B sections are the A sections transposed up or down a fifth (A'). Modern Hungarian folk music evolved in the 19th century, and is contrasted with previous styles through the use of arched melodic lines as opposed to the more archaic descending lines.
The earliest documentation of Hungarian music dates from the introduction of Gregorian chant
in the 11th century. By that time, Hungary had begun to enter the European cultural establishment with the country's conversion to Christianity and the musically important importation of plainsong
, a form of Christian chant. Though Hungary's early religious musical history is relatively well documented, secular music remains mostly unknown, though it was apparently a common feature of community festivals and other events. The earliest documented instrumentation in Hungary dates back to the whistle
in 1222, followed by the kobzos in 1326, the bugle
in 1355, the fiddle
in 1358, the bagpipe in 1402, the lute
in 1427 and the trumpet
in 1428. Thereafter the organ came to play a major role.
The 16th century saw the rise of Transylvania
(a region inhabited by Hungarians, never occupied by the Turks) as a center for Hungarian music. It also saw the first publication of music in Hungary, in Kraków
. At this time Hungarian instrumental music was well known in Europe; the lutenist and composer Bálint Bakfark
, for example, was famed as a virtuoso player. His compositions pioneered a new style of writing for the lute based on vocal polyphony. The lutenist brothers Melchior and Konrad Neusiedler were also noted, as was Stephan Monetarius, the author of an important early work in music theory, the Epithoma utriusque musices.
During the 17th century, Hungary was divided into three parts: an area controlled by the Turks; an area controlled by the Habsburg
s; and Transylvania. Historic songs declined in popularity and were replaced by lyrical poetry, whilst minstrels were replaced by court musicians. Many courts or households maintained large ensembles of musicians who played the trumpet, whistle, cimbalom, violin or bagpipes. Some of these ensemble musicians were German, Polish, French or Italian; the court of Gábor Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, included a Spanish guitarist. Little detail about the music played during this era survives, however. Musical life in the areas controlled by the Ottoman Turks declined precipitously, with even the formerly widespread and entrenched plainsong style disappearing by the end of the 17th century. Outside of the Ottoman area, however, plainsong flourished after the establishment of Protestant missions in around 1540, while a similarly styled form of folk song called verse chronicles also arose.
During the 18th century, some of the students at colleges such as those in Sárospatak
and Székelyudvarhely were minor noble
s from rural areas who brought with them their regional styles of music. Whilst the choirs in these colleges adopted a more polyphonic style, the students' songbooks indicate a growth in the popularity of homophonic songs. Their notation, however, was relatively crude and no extensive collection appeared until the publication of Ádám Pálóczi Horváth’s Ötödfélszáz Énekek in 1853. These songs indicate that during the mid to late 18th century the previous Hungarian song styles died out and musicians looked more to other (Western) European styles for influence.
The 18th century also saw the rise of verbunkos
, a form of music initially used by army recruiters. Like much Hungarian music of the time, melody was treated as more important than lyrics, although this balance changed as verbunkos became more established.
Modern Hungarian folk music was first recorded in 1895 by Béla Vikár, setting the stage for the pioneering work of Béla Bartók
, Zoltán Kodály
and László Lajtha
in musicological collecting. Modern Hungarian folk music began its history with the Habsburg
Empire in the 18th century, when central Europe
an influences became paramount, including a "regular metric structure for dancing and marching instead of the free speech rhythms of the old style. Folk music at that time consisting of village bagpipers who were replaced by string
-based orchestras of the Gypsy, or Roma people.
In the 19th century, Roma orchestras became very well known throughout Europe, and were frequently thought of as the primary musical heritage of Hungary, as in Franz Liszt
's Hungarian Dances and Rhapsodies
, which used Hungarian Roma music as representative of Hungarian folk music Hungarian Roma music is often represented as the only music of the Roma, though multiple forms of Roma music are common throughout Europe and are often dissimilar to Hungarian forms. In the Hungarian language
, 19th-century folk styles like the csardas
and the verbunkos
, are collectively referred to as cigányzene, which translates literally as Gypsy music.
Hungarian nationalist composers, like Bartók, rejected the conflation of Hungarian and Roma music, studying the rural peasant songs of Hungary which, according to music historian Bruno Nettl, "has little in common with" Roma music, a position that is held to by some modern writers, such as the Hungarian author Bálint Sárosi. Simon Broughton, however, has claimed that Roma music is "no less Hungarian and... has more in common with peasant music than the folklorists like to admit", and authors Marian Cotton and Adelaide Bradburn claimed that Hungarian-Roma music was "perhaps... originally Hungarian in character, but (the Roma have made so many changes that) it is difficult to tell what is Hungarian and what is" the authentic music of the Roma.
The ethnic Csángó
Hungarians of Moldavia
's Seret Valley have moved in large numbers to Budapest
, and become a staple of the local folk scene with their distinctive instrumentation using flutes, fiddles, drums and the lute.
In the 19th century, verbunkos
was the most popular style in Hungary. This consisted of a slow dance followed by a faster dance; this dichotomy, between the slower and faster dances, has been seen as the "two contrasting aspects of the Hungarian character". The rhythmic patterns and embellishments of the verbunkos are distinctively Hungarian in nature, and draw heavily upon the folk music composed in the early part of the century by Antal Csermak, Ferdinand Kauer
, Janos Lavotta and others.
Verbunkos was originally played at recruitment ceremonies to convince young men to join the army, and was performed, as in so much of Hungarian music, by Roma bands. One verbunkos tune, the "Rákóczi March
" became a march that was a prominent part of compositions by both Liszt
and Hector Berlioz
. The 18th-century origins of verbunkos are not well known, but probably include old dances like the swine-herd dance and the Hajduk
dance, as well as elements of Balkan, Slavic and Levantine music, and the cultured music of Italy and Vienna, all filtered through the Roma performers. Verbunkos became wildly popular, not just among the poor peasantry, but also among the upper-class aristocratics, who saw verbunkos as the authentic music of the Hungarian nation. Characteristics of verbunkos include the bokázó (clicking of heels) cadence
-pattern, the use of the interval of the augmented second, garlands of triplets, widely arched, free melodies without words, and alternately swift and slow tempi. By the end of the 18th century, verbunkos was in use in opera, chamber
and piano
music, and in song literature, and was regarded as "the continuation, the resurrection of ancient Hungarian dance and music, and its success signified the triumph of the people's art".
The violin
ist Panna Czinka was among the most celebrated musicians of the 19th century, as was the Roma bandleader János Bihari
, known as the "Napoleon of the fiddle". Bihari, Antal Csermák and other composers helped make verbunkos the "most important expression of the Hungarian musical Romanticism
" and have it "the role of national music". Bihari was especially important in popularizing and innovating the verbunkos; he was the "incarnation of the musical demon of fiery imagination". Bihari and others after his death helped invent nóta
, a popular form written by composers like Lóránt Fráter
, Árpád Balázs
, Pista Dankó
, Béni Egressy
, Márk Rózsavölgyi
and Imre Farkas. Many of the biggest names in modern Hungarian music are the verbunkos-playing Lakatos family, including Sándor Lakatos and Roby Lakatos
.
, Romani Rota and Kalyi Jag
have added modern instruments like guitar
s to the Roma style, while Gyula Babos' Project Romani has used elements of avant-garde jazz
.
, Serbia
, Slovakia
, the United States
and elsewhere. Of these, the Hungarian population of Romania (both in the region of Transylvania and among the Csángó
people) - being the more rural, outer rims of the kingdom of Hungary - has had the most musical impact on Hungarian folk music. The Hungarian community in Slovakia has produced the rootsy band Ghymes
, who play in the táncház tradition. The Serbian region of Vojvodina
is home to a large Hungarian minority
Transylvanian folk music remains vital part of life in modern Transylvania. Bartók and Kodály found Transylvania to be a fertile area for folk song collecting. Folk bands are usually a string trio, consisting of a violin, viola and double bass, occasionally with a cimbalom; the first violin, or primás, plays the melody, with the others accompanying and providing the rhythm. Transylvania is also the original home of the táncház tradition, which has since spread throughout Hungary.
(literally "dance house") is a dance music
movement which first appeared in the 1970s as a reaction against state-supported homogenized folk music. They have been described as a "cross between a barn dance
and folk club", and generally begin with a slow tempo verbunkos (recruiting dance), followed by swifter csárdás dances. Csárdás is a very popular Hungarian folk dance that comes in many regional varieties, and is characterized by changes in tempo
. Táncház began with the folk song collecting of musicians like Béla Halmos and Ferenc Sebő
, who collected rural instrumental and dance music for popular, urban consumption, along with the dance collectors György Martin and Sándor Timár. The most important rural source of these songs was Transylvania
, which is actually in Romania
but has a large ethnic Hungarian minority. The instrumentation of these bands, based on Transylvanian and sometimes the southern Slovak Hungarian communities, included a fiddle
on lead with violin
, a kontra (a 3-string viola also called a brácsa), and bowed double bass, and sometimes a cimbalom as well.
Many of the biggest names in modern Hungarian music emerged from the táncház scene, including Muzsikás
and Márta Sebestyén
. Other bands include Vujicsics, Jánosi, Téka and Kalamajka, while singers include Éva Fábián
and András Berecz. Famous instrumentalists include fiddlers Csaba Ökrös
and Balázs Vizeli, cimbalomist Kálmán Balogh
, violinist Félix Lajkó
(from Subotica
in Serbia) and multi-instrumentalist Mihály Dresch
.
, a renowned pianist in his own time and a well-regarded composer of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies
and a number of symphonic poems such as Les préludes
. Liszt was among the major composers during the late 19th century, a time when modern Hungarian classical music was in its formative stage. Along with Liszt and his French Romantic tendencies, Ferenc Erkel's Italian and French-style operas, with Hungarian words, and Mihály Mosonyi
's German classical style, helped set the stage for future music, and their influence is "unsurpassed even by their successors, because in addition to their individual abilities they bring about an unprecedented artistic intensification of the Romantic musical idiom, which is practically consumed by this extreme passion". Elements of Hungarian folk music, especially verbunkos, became an important elements of many composers, both Hungarians like Kalman Simonffy and foreign composers like Ludwig van Beethoven
.
Hungary has also produced Karl Goldmark
, composer of the Rustic Wedding Symphony
, composer and pianist Ernő Dohnányi
, composer and ethnomusicologist László Lajtha
, and the piano composer Stephen Heller
. A number of violinists from Hungary have also achieved international renown, especially Joseph Joachim
, Jenő Hubay
, Edward Reményi
, Sándor Végh
, Ferenc von Vecsey, de Zathurecky, Emil Telmányi
and Leopold von Auer. Hungarian-born conductor
s include Antal Doráti
; Adam
, Gyorgy and Ivan Fischer
; Eugene Ormandy
; Fritz Reiner
; George Szell
and Georg Solti
.
Pianists of international renown: Géza Anda, Tamás Vásáry, George Cziffra, Annie Fischer, Kocsis, Ránki, Schiff and Jenö Jandó
. Operas at the time were in either the German
or Italian style
. The field Hungarian opera began with school dramas and interpolations of German operas, which began at the end of the 18th century. School dramas in places like the Pauline School in Sátoraljaújhely
, the Calvinist School in Csurgó
and the Piarist School in Beszterce.
Pozsony produced the first music drama experiments in the country, though the work of Gáspár Pacha and József Chudy; it was the latter's 1793 Prince Pikkó and Jutka Perzsi that is generally considered the first opera in a distinctively Hungarian style. The text of that piece was translated from Prinz Schnudi und Prinzessin Evakathel by Philipp Hafner
. This style was still strongly informed by the Viennese Zauberposse style of comedic play, and remained thus throughout the 19th century. Though these operas used foreign styles, the "idyllic, lyric and heroic" parts of the story were always based on verbunkos, which was becoming a symbol of the Hungarian nation during this time. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that Ferenc Erkel wrote the first Hungarian language opera, using French and Italian models, thus launching the field of Hungarian opera.
and Zoltán Kodály
At the end of the 19th century, Hungarian music was dominated by compositions in the German classical style, while Viennese-style operetta
s gained immensely in popularity. This ended beginning in about 1905, when Endre Ady
's poems were published, composer Béla Bartók was published for the first time, and Zoltán Kodály began collecting folk songs. Bartók and Kodály were two exceptional composers who created a distinctively Hungarian style. Bartók collected songs across Eastern Europe, though much of his activity was in Hungary, and he used their elements in his music. He was interested in all forms of folk music, while Kodály was more specifically Hungarian in his outlook. In contrast to previous composers who worked with Hungarian idioms, Kodály and Bartók did not conflate Roma and ethnic Hungarian music, specifically seeking out the latter at the expense of the former. Their work was a watershed that incorporated "every great tradition of the Hungarian people" and influenced all the later composers of the country.
. Under Communism, "(c)ommitment and ideological affiliation (were) measured by the musical style of a composer; the ignominious adjectives 'formalistic' and 'cosmopolitan' gain currency ... (and the proper Hungarian style was) identified with the major mode, the classical aria
, rondo
or sonata form
, the chord sequences distilled" from Kodály's works. Music was uniformly festive and optimistic, with every deviation arousing suspicion; this simplicity led to a lack of popular support from the public, who did not identify with the sterile approved styles. The most prominent composers of this period were Endre Szervánszky
and Lajos Bárdos
.
Beginning in about 1955, a new wave of composers appeared, inspired by Bartók and breathing new life into Hungarian music. Composers from this era included Ferenc Szabó
, Endre Szervánszky
, Pál Kadosa
, Ferenc Farkas
and György Ránki
. These composers both brought back old techniques of Hungarian music, as well as adapting imported avant-garde
and modernist elements of Western classical music. György Ligeti
and György Kurtág
are often mentioned in the same sentence. They were born near each other in Transylvania and studied in Budapest
in the 1940s. Both were influenced by Stockhausen. Kurtág's modernism borrowed many influences from the past. By contrast Ligeti invented a new language with chromatic tone clusters and elements of parody. Both were multi-lingual and became exiles. This is reflected in the texts for their works. The foundation of the New Music Studio in 1970 helped further modernize Hungarian classical music though promoting composers that felt audience education was as important a consideration as artistic merit in composition and performance; these Studio's well-known composers include László Vidovszky
, László Sáry
and Zoltán Jeney
.
s and the Roma music of various styles. Nagymező utca, the "Broadway
of Budapest
", was a major center for popular music, and boasted enough nightclubs and theaters to earn its nickname. In 1945, however, this era abruptly ended and popular music was mostly synonymous with the patriotic songs imposed by the Russian Communists. Some operettas were still performed, though infrequently, and any music with Western influences was seen as harmful and dangerous. In 1956, however, liberalization began with the "three Ts" (tűrés, tiltás, támogatás, meaning toleration, prohibition, support), and a long period of cultural struggle began, starting with a battle over African American
jazz
. Jazz became a part of Hungarian music in the early 20th century, but did not achieve widespread renown until the 1970s, when Hungary began producing internationally known performers like the Benko Dixieland Band and Bela Szakcsi Lakatos. Other renowned performers from the younger generation are the Hot Jazz Band and the Bohem Ragtime Jazz Band.
in droves, in spite of condemnation from the authorities. Three bands dominated the scene by the beginning of the 1970s, Illés
, Metró
and Omega
, all three of which had released at least one album. A few other bands recorded a few singles, but the Record-Producing Company, a state-run record label
, did not promote or support these bands, which quickly disappeared.
In 1968, the New Economic Mechanism
was introduced, intending on revitalizing the Hungarian economy, while the band Illés won almost every prize at the prestigious Táncdalfesztivál
. In the 70s, however, the Russians cracked down on subversives in Hungary, and rock was a major target. The band Illés was banned from performing and recording, while Metró and Omega left. Some of the members of these bands formed a supergroup, Locomotiv GT
, that quickly became very famous. The remaining members of Omega, meanwhile, succeeded in achieving stardom in Germany, and remained very popular for a time.
Rock bands in the late 1970s had to conform to the Record Company's demands and ensure that all songs passed the inspection of the Song Committee, who scoured all songs looking for ideological disobedience. LGT was the most prominent band of a classic rock
style that was very popular, along with Illés, Bergendy and Zorán
, while there were other bands like The Sweet and Middle of the Road who catered to the desires of the Song Committee, producing rock-based pop music
without a hint of subversion. Meanwhile, the disco
style of electronic music
produced such performers as the officially sanctioned Neoton Familia
, and Beatrice
and Szűcs Judit, while the more critically acclaimed progressive rock
scene produced bands like East, V73, Color and Panta Rhei
.
In the early 1980s, economic and cultural depression wracked Hungary, leading to a wave of disillusioned and alienated youth, exactly the people that rock, and the burgeoning worldwide field of punk rock
, spoke to the most. Major bands from this era included Beatrice, who had moved from disco to punk and folk-influenced rock and were known for their splashy, uncensored and theatrical performances, P. Mobil
, Bikini, Hobo Blues Band, a bluesy duo, A. E. Bizottság
, Európa Kiadó
, Sziámi and Edda művek
.
The 1980s saw the Record Production Company broken up because Hungary's authorities realized that restricting rock was not effective in reducing its effect; they instead tried to water it down by encouraging young musicians to sing about the principles of Communism and obedience. The early part of the decade saw the arrive of punk and New Wave music
in full force, and the authorities quickly incorporated those styles as well. The first major prison sentences for rock-related subversion were given out, with the members of the punk band CPg
sentenced to two years for political incitement.
By the end of the decade and into the 1990s, internal problems made it impossible for the Hungarian government to counter the activities of rock and other musical groups. After the collapse of the Communist government, the Hungarian scene become more and more like the styles played in the rest of Europe.
's increasing popularity in the worldwide musical mainstream. The political freedom and cultural boom of western culture opened the way for the clubbing scene, with several venues starting all around the country, especially in Budapest
and around Lake Balaton
.
The 1990s also marked the creation of several dance formations, notably Soho Party, Splash
, Náksi & Brunner and also rave formations such as Emergency House and Kozmix. Notable techno and house DJ-s are Sterbinszky
, Budai, and Newl. The workings of the scene culminated in events like Budapest Parade, the largest such street festival in Hungary, that was held yearly from 2000 to 2006, attracting more than half million visitors. The history of Electronic Dance Music and Techno culture in Hungary is documented in Ferenc Kömlődy's book "Fénykatedrális", (1999 in Hungarian).
A thriving underground scene was marked by the start of Tilos Rádió
in 1991, the first free independent community station, starting out as a pirate radio
. The station soon developed strong ties with the first alternative electronic formations, and inspired to start many others. Bands like Korai Öröm and Másfél (also check Myster Mobius) started, playing ambient, psychedelic music. Anima Sound System
, one of the most influential bands on the scene, was created in 1993 playing dub and trip-hop influenced by acid jazz and ethnic music. Several other bands and formations followed, like Colorstar and Neo
. Neo has won a worldwide reputation for their unique electro-pop style and the "Mozart of pop music" award (Cannes, 2004) they received for their soundtrack album called "Control". Apart from Anima, ethnic and folk influenced the scene in many ways, exemplified by formations like Balkan Fanatik, or Mitsoura. One of the most successful Hungarian electronic musician is Yonderboi
, who recently co-created Žagar
, gaining wide reputation in the country. In the past few years, dubstep
has gained popular attention as well, nation-wide.
Experimental and minimal scene is in its early age, although several crews and DJs are working, organizing numerous events. Notable performers include c0p, Cadik, Ferenc Vaspöeri and Isu.
, and there are also other famous ones including FankaDeli, Sub Bass Monster, Dopeman
, and LL Junior. Mainstream hip-hop is extremely popular among the Roma youth.
Bëlga
started as an offshoot hiphop project at Tilos Rádió
. As lyrical innovators and phenomenal parodists, they gained wide popularity for an extremely explicit criticism of Budapest
public transport company BKV
, as well as hilarious wordplays and self-irony. Their lyrics are significant beyond the hip-hop scope as a cultural documentation of turn-of-the-millennia Culture of Hungary
.
Hungarian Slam sessions are rare and few, and still a novelty for the mainstream, but are gaining popularity with literary performers, emcees and audiences alike.
and metal are flourishing styles of music in Hungary. Metal bands are formed all over the country. Dominant styles are death metal
, black metal
and thrash
. There are also power metal
, folk metal
and heavy metal
groups, including Dalriada
and Thy Catafalque
.
Hardcore
and metalcore
are most common in Budapest and Western Hungary, in towns like Győr
, Csorna
, Szombathely
and Veszprém
, but Eastern Hungary and Debrecen
is getting into a more and more important place in the hardcore scene. The first Hungarian acts that tagged themselves Hardcore
like AMD, Leukémia
, Marina revue emerged in the late '80s, and were followed by a number of acts, constituting a scene that flourishes since the early 90s. Notable bands were Dawncore and Newborn of the late '90-s gaining also some international success. Members of these bands went on to form Bridge to Solace and The Idoru
. Other important, active bands: Hold X True, Fallenintoashes, Embers
, Subscribe, Shell Beach
, Hatred Solution, Stillborn (Hatebreed tribute). An internationally known band is Ektomorf
, infusing heavy ethnic content with harsh vocals.
Extreme hardcorepunk and grindcore bands from Hungary include Jack (crustgrind), Human Error(crustcore), Step On It (allschool hardcore), Another Way (fastcore), Gyalázat (crustpunk).
The change of regime in 1989 brought a new situation, and bands now revolted against corruption and the Americanization of the country. They felt that the new system retained the bad things from the previous one, but lacked that good things that many expected. In lyrics, they often mention the newly appearing organized crime, and the still low standard of living.
Today the Hungarian punk scene is low profile, but vibrant with several active bands, often touring the country and beyond. Summer brings a slew of punk and alternative festivals where they can all be sampled. Top venues playing punk music around Budapest include Vörös Yuk, Borgödör, Music Factory and A38 Hajó.
Major bands include Auróra
, the oldest Hungarian punk band with twenty-five years of history, come from the northwest Hungarian town of Győr
and their originally street punk music has been recently updated with a ska-punk flavor, HétköznaPI CSAlódások (also called PICSA), a simplistic but powerful punk band, most popular in the end of ’90s. They, similarly to Junkies, Fürgerókalábak, and Prosectura, are part of the new wave of punk bands that had risen in the mid-late ’90s in Hungary. Out of the newer bands, two northeast Hungarian bands are the most known, both playing California punk: Alvin és a mókusok come from Nyíregyháza
, while Macskanadrág are from Salgótarján
.
, the capital and music center of Hungary, is one of the best places to go in Hungary to hear "really good folk music", says world music author Simon Broughton. The city is home to an annual folk festival called Táncháztalálkozó
("Meeting of the Táncházak", literally "dance houses"), which is a major part of the modern music scene. The Budapest Spring Festival along with the Budapest Autumn Festival are large scale cultural events every year. The Budapesti Fesztivál Zenekar
(Budapest Festival Orchestra) has recently been awarded the Editor's Choice Gramophone Award. Long-standing venues in Budapest include the Philharmonic Society (founded 1853), the Opera House of Budapest (founded 1884) the Academy of Music, which opened in 1875 with President Franz Liszt and Director Ferenc Erkel and which has remained the center for music education in the country since.
Several musical festivals have been launched since the early 1990s propelled by increasing demand of the developing youth culture. Aside from country-wide events like Sziget Festival or Hegyalja Festival, local festivals started to emerge since the first half of the first decade of the new millennium, with the aim to showcase known bands in all regions of Hungary.
Growing out of a low-profile student meeting in 1993, Sziget Festival became one of the largest open-air festival in the world, taking place each summer in the heart of Budapest, the 108 hectare Óbudai island. Visited by hundreds of thousands from all over Europe, it is the largest cultural event in Hungary, inviting world-class performers from all genres.
Also having a history from 1993, VOLT Festival is the second-largest music festival in the country, held each year in Sopron
. With a colorful mix of musical styles, and popularity increasing each year, is considered to be the "cheaper version" of Sziget. Also founded by the Sziget management, Balaton Sound
is a festival of mainly electronic music, held yearly in Zamárdi
, next to Lake Balaton
. With prestigious performers and exclusive surroundings, it tries to position itself as a high-standard event.
Hegyalja Festival, held in Tokaj
, the historic wine-region of the country, is the largest such event in the Northern part. Visited by 50.000 guests each year, it showcases mainly hard rock and rock formations, but many more genres are present. BalaTone, another major event near lake Balaton is held in Zánka
. Magyar Sziget, held in Verőce
, has a nationalist theme, with mainly right-wing performers, bands representing the recently emerged nationalistic rock, folk and folk-rock.
As a tradition, each larger University (or more precisely, its students' union
) holds a periodical music festival, "University Days", of various size, the largest one is PEN (of the University of Pécs
). Examples of smaller, local festivals are SZIN
held in Szeged
, the free Utcazene Fesztivál held on the streets of Veszprém
, Pannónia Fesztivál in Várpalota
, or the recently (2008) started Fishing on Orfű, held on the beach of the Orfű
lake.
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
has made many contributions to the fields of folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, popular
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
and classical music. Hungarian folk music is a prominent part of the national identity and continues to play a major part in Hungarian music. Hungarian folk music has been influential in neighboring areas such as Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, southern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and especially in southern Slovakia and the Romanian region of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, both home to significant numbers of Hungarians. It is also strong in the Szabolcs-Szatmár
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg is an administrative county in north-eastern Hungary, bordering Slovakia, Ukraine and Romania. It shares borders with the Hungarian counties Hajdú-Bihar and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén...
area and in the southwest part of Transdanubia
Transdanubia
Transdanubia is a traditional region of Hungary.-Traditional interpretation:The borders of Transdanubia are the Danube river , the Drava and Mura rivers and the foothills of the Alps roughly along the border between Hungary and Austria .Transdanubia comprises the counties of Győr-Moson-Sopron,...
, near the border with Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
. The Busójárás carnival in Mohács
Mohács
Mohács is a town in Baranya county, Hungary on the right bank of the Danube.-History:Two famous battles took place there:# Battle of Mohács, 1526# Battle of Mohács, 1687...
is a major Hungarian folk music event, formerly featuring the long-established and well-regarded Bogyiszló orchestra
Bogyiszló Orchestra
The Bogyiszló Orchestra is a Hungarian folk orchestra that plays dance music, and was associated with the Busójárás carnival in Mohács....
.
Hungarian classical music has long been an "experiment, made from Hungarian antedecents and on Hungarian soil, to create a conscious musical culture [using the] musical world of the folk song". Although the Hungarian upper class has long had cultural and political connections with the rest of Europe, leading to an influx of European musical ideas, the rural peasants maintained their own traditions such that by the end of the 19th century Hungarian composers could draw on rural peasant music to (re)create a Hungarian classical style. For example, Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
and Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
, two of Hungary's most famous composers, are known for using folk themes in their music. Bartók collected folk songs from across Eastern Europe, including Romania and Slovakia, whilst Kodály was more interested in creating a distinctively Hungarian musical style.
During the era of Communist rule in Hungary (1944–1989) a Song Committee scoured and censored popular music for traces of subversion and ideological impurity. Since then, however, the Hungarian music industry has begun to recover, producing successful performers in the fields of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
such as trumpeter Rudolf Tomsits
Rudolf Tomsits
Rudolf Tomsits was a Hungarian jazz musician who played the trumpet and the flugelhorn. He played, as part of a quartet, at the Montreux Jazz Festival at the age of 23....
, pianist-composer Károly Binder
Károly Binder
Károly Binder is a great Hungarian jazz pianist and composer. He is the head of the jazz department at the Music Teachers Training Institute of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest...
and, in a modernized form of Hungarian folk, Ferenc Sebő
Ferenc Sebo
Ferenc Sebő is a Hungarian folklorist and musician, best known as the bandleader for the Sebő Ensemble, a band that produced many future stars, including Márta Sebestyén . The Sebő Ensemble was one of the best-known groups of the Hungarian roots revival in the 1970s.-References:...
and Márta Sebestyén
Márta Sebestyén
Márta Sebestyén is a Hungarian folk vocalist, as well as a composer and actress.Sebestyén's mother is a composer, and was a music student of Zoltán Kodály. Her father was an economist and author. When Sebestyén was seven years old, her father, returning from a trip to the U.S...
. The three giants of Hungarian rock, Illés
Illés
Illés was a Hungarian rock/beat band , and was one of the biggest groups of the 1960s and early 1970s rock boom in Hungary...
, Metró
Metro (band)
Metro may refer to the following bands:* Metro * Metro...
and Omega
Omega (band)
Omega is one of the most successful Hungarian rock bands.-Biography:Formed in Budapest in September, 1962 by the winds player László Benkő on organ and János Kóbor as a singer and rhythm guitarist, they initially performed covers of British and American rock songs, frequently changing the lineup of...
, remain very popular, especially Omega, which has followings in Germany and beyond as well as in Hungary. Older veteran underground bands such as Beatrice
Beatrice
Beatrice is a name derived from the Latin name Beatrix. It is a feminine form of the late Latin name Viator which meant "voyager, traveler". It was also a common name amongst early Christians, though the spelling was altered by association with the Latin beatus, meaning "blessed". The French form...
from the 1980s also remain popular.
Characteristics
Finno-Ugric peoples
The Finno-Ugric peoples are any of several peoples of Europe who speak languages of the proposed Finno-Ugric language family, such as the Finns, Estonians, Mordvins, and Hungarians...
and Eastern Turkish
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
peoples during the fifth to eighth centuries CE. This makes the origins of their traditional music unique in Europe. According to author Simon Broughton, the composer and song collector Kodály identified songs that "apparently date back 2,500 years" in common with the Mari people of Russia; and, as well as the Mari, the ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl
Bruno Nettl
Bruno Nettl is an active ethnomusicologist and musicologist.Bruno Nettl was born in Czechoslovakia in 1930, moved to United States in 1939, studied at Indiana University and the University of Michigan, and has taught since 1964 at the University of Illinois, where he is Professor Emeritus of...
indicates similarities in traditional Hungarian music with Mongolian
Music of Mongolia
Music is an integral part of Mongolian culture. Among the unique contributions of Mongolia to the world's musical culture are the long songs, one of the greatest features of the Mongolian music, overtone singing and morin khuur, the horse-headed fiddle...
and Native American music
Native American music
American Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...
al styles. Bence Szabolcsi, however, claims that the Finno-Ugric and Turkish-Mongolian elements are present but "cannot be attached to certain, definite national or linguistic groups". Nonetheless, Szabolcsi claims links between Hungarian musical traditions and those of the Mari, Kalmyk
Music of Kalmykia
Kalmykia is a national republic within the Russian Federation. The music of Kalmykia has its roots in the musical culture of Oirats, slightly influenced by Turkic, Caucasian and Russian music and instrumentation. Traditional instruments include the dombra, which is used to accompany dance music...
, Ostyak
Ostyak
Ostyak on its own or in combination, can refer, especially in older literature, to several Siberian peoples and languages:* Ostyak:** Khanty people** Khanty language* Yenisei Ostyak:** Ket people** Ket language* Ostyak-Samoyed:...
, northwest Chinese
Music of China
Chinese Music has been made since the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...
, Tatar
Music of Tatarstan
Tatarstan is an autonomous republic within Russia, where the largest ethnic group is the Tatars. Their traditional music is a mixture of Turkic and Finno-Ugric elements, reportedly bridging Mongolian and Hungarian music. Nonetheless, the most distinguishing feature of Tatar music is the pentatonic...
, Vogul, Anatolian Turkish
Music of Turkey
The music of Turkey includes diverse elements ranging from Central Asian folk music and has many copies and references of Byzantine music, Greek music, Ottoman music, Persian music, Balkan music, as well as more modern European and American popular music influences...
, Bashkirian
Bashkirian
The Bashkirian is in the ICS geologic timescale the lowest stage or oldest age of the Pennsylvanian, the youngest subsystem of the Carboniferous...
, Mongol
Music of Mongolia
Music is an integral part of Mongolian culture. Among the unique contributions of Mongolia to the world's musical culture are the long songs, one of the greatest features of the Mongolian music, overtone singing and morin khuur, the horse-headed fiddle...
and Chuvash musics. These, he claims, are evidence that "Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n memories slumber in the depths of Hungarian folk music and that this folk music is the last Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
link in the chant of ancient Eastern
Eastern world
__FORCETOC__The term Eastern world refers very broadly to the various cultures or social structures and philosophical systems of Eastern Asia or geographically the Eastern Culture...
cultural relations".
According to Broughton, traditional Hungarian music is "highly distinctive" like the "Hungarian language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, which invariably is stressed on the first syllable, lending a strongly accented dactylic
Dactyl (poetry)
A dactyl is a foot in meter in poetry. In quantitative verse, such as Greek or Latin, a dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight...
rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
to the music". Nettl identifies two "essential features" of Hungarian folk music to be the use of "pentatonic scale
Pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave in contrast to a heptatonic scale such as the major scale and minor scale...
s composed of major second
Major second
In Western music theory, a major second is a musical interval spanning two semitones, and encompassing two adjacent staff positions . For example, the interval from C to D is a major second, as the note D lies two semitones above C, and the two notes are notated on adjacent staff postions...
s and minor third
Minor third
In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...
s" (or "gapped scales") and "the practice of transposing
Transposition (music)
In music transposition refers to the process, or operation, of moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval.For example, one might transpose an entire piece of music into another key...
a bit of melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
several times to create the essence of a song". These transpositions are "usually up or down a fifth
Perfect fifth
In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is a musical interval encompassing five staff positions , and the perfect fifth is a fifth spanning seven semitones, or in meantone, four diatonic semitones and three chromatic semitones...
", a fundamental interval
Interval (music)
In music theory, an interval is a combination of two notes, or the ratio between their frequencies. Two-note combinations are also called dyads...
in the series of overtones
Harmonic series (music)
Pitched musical instruments are often based on an approximate harmonic oscillator such as a string or a column of air, which oscillates at numerous frequencies simultaneously. At these resonant frequencies, waves travel in both directions along the string or air column, reinforcing and canceling...
and an indication perhaps of the "influence of Chinese musical theory
Music of China
Chinese Music has been made since the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...
in which the fifth is significant".
According to Szabolcsi, these 'Hungarian transpositions', along with "some melodic, rhythmical and ornamental peculiarities, clearly show on the map of Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
the movements of Turkish people from the East to the West". The subsequent influence on neighboring countries' music is seen in the music of Slovakia
Music of Slovakia
The music of Slovakia has been influenced both by the county's native Slovak peoples and the music of neighbouring regions. Whilst there are traces of pre-historic musical instruments, the country has a rich heritage of folk music and mediaeval liturgical music, and from the 18th century onwards,...
and, with intervals of the third
Third
Third may refer to:*3 , such as the 3rd of something -see also Ordinal number *Fraction , such as 1/3*1/60 of a second, or 1/3,600 of a minute *Third World, economically underdeveloped nations...
or second
Second
The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock....
, in the music of the Czech Republic
Music of the Czech Republic
- Traditional and Classical :The traditional music of Bohemia and Moravia has been well documented and influenced the work of composers like Leoš Janáček, Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, and Bohuslav Martinů. Janáček made his recordings at an auspicious time...
. Hungarian and other Finno-Ugric musical traditions are also characterized by the use of an ABBA binary musical form
Musical form
The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...
, with Hungary itself especially known for the A A' A' A variant, where the B sections are the A sections transposed up or down a fifth (A'). Modern Hungarian folk music evolved in the 19th century, and is contrasted with previous styles through the use of arched melodic lines as opposed to the more archaic descending lines.
Music history
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
in the 11th century. By that time, Hungary had begun to enter the European cultural establishment with the country's conversion to Christianity and the musically important importation of plainsong
Plainsong
Plainsong is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. Though the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church did not split until long after the origin of plainchant, Byzantine chants are generally not classified as plainsong.Plainsong is monophonic, consisting of a...
, a form of Christian chant. Though Hungary's early religious musical history is relatively well documented, secular music remains mostly unknown, though it was apparently a common feature of community festivals and other events. The earliest documented instrumentation in Hungary dates back to the whistle
Whistle
A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
in 1222, followed by the kobzos in 1326, the bugle
Bugle (instrument)
The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure, since the bugle has no other mechanism for controlling pitch. Consequently, the bugle is limited to notes within the harmonic series...
in 1355, the fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
in 1358, the bagpipe in 1402, the lute
Lute
Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....
in 1427 and the trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
in 1428. Thereafter the organ came to play a major role.
The 16th century saw the rise of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
(a region inhabited by Hungarians, never occupied by the Turks) as a center for Hungarian music. It also saw the first publication of music in Hungary, in Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. At this time Hungarian instrumental music was well known in Europe; the lutenist and composer Bálint Bakfark
Bálint Bakfark
Bálint Bakfark ; 1507 – August 15 or August 22, 1576) was a Hungarian composer and lutenist of the Renaissance...
, for example, was famed as a virtuoso player. His compositions pioneered a new style of writing for the lute based on vocal polyphony. The lutenist brothers Melchior and Konrad Neusiedler were also noted, as was Stephan Monetarius, the author of an important early work in music theory, the Epithoma utriusque musices.
During the 17th century, Hungary was divided into three parts: an area controlled by the Turks; an area controlled by the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
s; and Transylvania. Historic songs declined in popularity and were replaced by lyrical poetry, whilst minstrels were replaced by court musicians. Many courts or households maintained large ensembles of musicians who played the trumpet, whistle, cimbalom, violin or bagpipes. Some of these ensemble musicians were German, Polish, French or Italian; the court of Gábor Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, included a Spanish guitarist. Little detail about the music played during this era survives, however. Musical life in the areas controlled by the Ottoman Turks declined precipitously, with even the formerly widespread and entrenched plainsong style disappearing by the end of the 17th century. Outside of the Ottoman area, however, plainsong flourished after the establishment of Protestant missions in around 1540, while a similarly styled form of folk song called verse chronicles also arose.
During the 18th century, some of the students at colleges such as those in Sárospatak
Sárospatak
----Sárospatak is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, northern Hungary. It lies northeast from Miskolc, in the Bodrog river valley. The town, often called simply Patak, is an important cultural centre.- History :The area has been inhabited since ancient times...
and Székelyudvarhely were minor noble
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
s from rural areas who brought with them their regional styles of music. Whilst the choirs in these colleges adopted a more polyphonic style, the students' songbooks indicate a growth in the popularity of homophonic songs. Their notation, however, was relatively crude and no extensive collection appeared until the publication of Ádám Pálóczi Horváth’s Ötödfélszáz Énekek in 1853. These songs indicate that during the mid to late 18th century the previous Hungarian song styles died out and musicians looked more to other (Western) European styles for influence.
The 18th century also saw the rise of verbunkos
Verbunkos
Verbunkos is an 18th-century Hungarian dance and music genre. Erroneously, this genre was sometimes attributed to Gypsies, because usually they were the musicians, although the Magyars themselves were sometimes performers,as well....
, a form of music initially used by army recruiters. Like much Hungarian music of the time, melody was treated as more important than lyrics, although this balance changed as verbunkos became more established.
Folk music
Hungarian folk music changed greatly beginning in the 19th century, evolving into a new style that had little in common with the music that came before it. Modern Hungarian music was characterized by an "arched melodic line, strict composition, long phrases and extended register", in contrast to the older styles which always utilize a "descending melodic line".Modern Hungarian folk music was first recorded in 1895 by Béla Vikár, setting the stage for the pioneering work of Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
and László Lajtha
László Lajtha
László Lajtha was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and conductor.-Career:Born to Ida Wiesel, a Transsylvanian-Hungarian with some Saxon-German ancestry as the name Wiesel indicates and Pál Lajtha, an owner of a leather factory...
in musicological collecting. Modern Hungarian folk music began its history with the Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
Empire in the 18th century, when central Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an influences became paramount, including a "regular metric structure for dancing and marching instead of the free speech rhythms of the old style. Folk music at that time consisting of village bagpipers who were replaced by string
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
-based orchestras of the Gypsy, or Roma people.
In the 19th century, Roma orchestras became very well known throughout Europe, and were frequently thought of as the primary musical heritage of Hungary, as in Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's Hungarian Dances and Rhapsodies
Rhapsodies
Rhapsodies may refer to:* Rhapsodies, Op. 79 , a solo piano piece* Rhapsodies , a 1979 album by British rock keyboardist Rick Wakeman...
, which used Hungarian Roma music as representative of Hungarian folk music Hungarian Roma music is often represented as the only music of the Roma, though multiple forms of Roma music are common throughout Europe and are often dissimilar to Hungarian forms. In the Hungarian language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, 19th-century folk styles like the csardas
Csárdás
Csárdás is a traditional Hungarian folk dance, the name derived from csárda . It originated in Hungary and was popularized by Roma music bands in Hungary and neighboring lands of Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Burgenland, Croatia, Ukraine, Transylvania and Moravia, as well as among the Banat...
and the verbunkos
Verbunkos
Verbunkos is an 18th-century Hungarian dance and music genre. Erroneously, this genre was sometimes attributed to Gypsies, because usually they were the musicians, although the Magyars themselves were sometimes performers,as well....
, are collectively referred to as cigányzene, which translates literally as Gypsy music.
Hungarian nationalist composers, like Bartók, rejected the conflation of Hungarian and Roma music, studying the rural peasant songs of Hungary which, according to music historian Bruno Nettl, "has little in common with" Roma music, a position that is held to by some modern writers, such as the Hungarian author Bálint Sárosi. Simon Broughton, however, has claimed that Roma music is "no less Hungarian and... has more in common with peasant music than the folklorists like to admit", and authors Marian Cotton and Adelaide Bradburn claimed that Hungarian-Roma music was "perhaps... originally Hungarian in character, but (the Roma have made so many changes that) it is difficult to tell what is Hungarian and what is" the authentic music of the Roma.
The ethnic Csángó
Csángó
The Csango people are a Hungarian ethnographic group of Roman Catholic faith living mostly in the Romanian region of Moldavia, especially in the Bacău County...
Hungarians of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
's Seret Valley have moved in large numbers to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, and become a staple of the local folk scene with their distinctive instrumentation using flutes, fiddles, drums and the lute.
Verbunkos
Verbunkos
Verbunkos is an 18th-century Hungarian dance and music genre. Erroneously, this genre was sometimes attributed to Gypsies, because usually they were the musicians, although the Magyars themselves were sometimes performers,as well....
was the most popular style in Hungary. This consisted of a slow dance followed by a faster dance; this dichotomy, between the slower and faster dances, has been seen as the "two contrasting aspects of the Hungarian character". The rhythmic patterns and embellishments of the verbunkos are distinctively Hungarian in nature, and draw heavily upon the folk music composed in the early part of the century by Antal Csermak, Ferdinand Kauer
Ferdinand Kauer
Ferdinand August Kauer , was an Austrian composer and pianist.-Biography:Kauer was born in Klein-Thaya near Znaim in South Moravia. He studied in Znaim, Tyrnau, and Vienna, and later settled in Vienna around 1777. In 1781 he joined Karl von Marinelli's newly formed company at Vienna as leader and...
, Janos Lavotta and others.
Verbunkos was originally played at recruitment ceremonies to convince young men to join the army, and was performed, as in so much of Hungarian music, by Roma bands. One verbunkos tune, the "Rákóczi March
Rákóczi March
The "Rákóczi March" is the unofficial state anthem of Hungary.The first version of this march-song was probably created around 1730 by one or more anonymous composers, although tradition says that it was the favourite march of Francis Rákóczi II...
" became a march that was a prominent part of compositions by both Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
and Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
. The 18th-century origins of verbunkos are not well known, but probably include old dances like the swine-herd dance and the Hajduk
Hajduk
Hajduk is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, highwaymen or freedom fighters in the Balkans, Central- and Eastern Europe....
dance, as well as elements of Balkan, Slavic and Levantine music, and the cultured music of Italy and Vienna, all filtered through the Roma performers. Verbunkos became wildly popular, not just among the poor peasantry, but also among the upper-class aristocratics, who saw verbunkos as the authentic music of the Hungarian nation. Characteristics of verbunkos include the bokázó (clicking of heels) cadence
Cadence
Cadence may refer to:Music:*Cadence , a melodic configuration the end of a phrase, section, or piece of music*Cadence Magazine, a monthly review of jazz, blues and improvised music...
-pattern, the use of the interval of the augmented second, garlands of triplets, widely arched, free melodies without words, and alternately swift and slow tempi. By the end of the 18th century, verbunkos was in use in opera, chamber
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
music, and in song literature, and was regarded as "the continuation, the resurrection of ancient Hungarian dance and music, and its success signified the triumph of the people's art".
The violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist Panna Czinka was among the most celebrated musicians of the 19th century, as was the Roma bandleader János Bihari
János Bihari
János Bihari was an influential Hungarian Romani violinist. He is one of the founders of Romani academic music and the musical genre verbunkos....
, known as the "Napoleon of the fiddle". Bihari, Antal Csermák and other composers helped make verbunkos the "most important expression of the Hungarian musical Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
" and have it "the role of national music". Bihari was especially important in popularizing and innovating the verbunkos; he was the "incarnation of the musical demon of fiery imagination". Bihari and others after his death helped invent nóta
Nóta
Nóta is a form of 19th century Hungarian popular song. It is one of a number of styles collectively referred to as cigányzene, which literally means Gipsy music but is used to refer to a number of styles of Hungarian folk music that are played in a typical Gipsy musical style...
, a popular form written by composers like Lóránt Fráter
Lóránt Fráter
Lóránt Fráter was a popular 18th century Hungarian composer of folk music. His most common styles were Nóta and "Magyar songs," which were typically performed by Gypsy orchestras...
, Árpád Balázs
Árpád Balázs
Árpád Balázs is a classical music composer. He studied composition in Budapest and Rome, and presented a series about classical music on Hungarian television....
, Pista Dankó
Pista Dankó
Pista Dankó was a Hungarian-born bandleader and composer belonging to the Romani people. He primarily worked in the folk music styles popular in Hungary in the 19th century...
, Béni Egressy
Beni Egressy
----Béni Egressy was a Hungarian composer, librettist, translator and actor.- Biography :...
, Márk Rózsavölgyi
Márk Rózsavölgyi
Márk Rózsavölgyi Rosenthal, 1789 Balassagyarmat – 23 January 1848, Pest) was a Hungarian composer and violinist. He has been called "the father of csárdás".- Life and music :...
and Imre Farkas. Many of the biggest names in modern Hungarian music are the verbunkos-playing Lakatos family, including Sándor Lakatos and Roby Lakatos
Roby Lakatos
Roby Lakatos, the “devil’s fiddler”, is a Romani violinist from Hungary. He is renowned for his mix of classical music with Hungarian Romani music and jazz themes....
.
Roma music
Though the Roma are primarily known as the performers of Hungarian styles like verbunkos, they have their own form of folk music that is largely without instrumentation, in spite of their reputation in that field outside of the Roma community. Roma music tends to take on characteristics of whatever music the people are around, however, embellished with "twists and turns, trills and runs", making a very new, and distinctively Roma style. Though without instruments, Roma folk musicians use sticks, tapped on the ground, rhythmic grunts and a technique called oral-bassing which vocally imitates the sound of instruments. Some modern Roma musicians, like Ando DromAndo Drom
Ando Drom are a Roma music ensemble from Hungary, founded in 1984. "Ando drom" means "on the road" in the Romany language.They have devoted themselves to the preservation and continued evolution of the traditional music of their culture...
, Romani Rota and Kalyi Jag
Kalyi Jag
- Track listing :#"Son Of The Fire" #"Sunto Del Muro" #"Freely"#"Romungro" #"For You" #"For The Last Time" #"Always Believe In Yourself" #"Open Up Your Eyes" #"Save My Soul" #"The Way I Do"...
have added modern instruments like guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s to the Roma style, while Gyula Babos' Project Romani has used elements of avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...
.
Hungarian music abroad
Ethnic Hungarians live in parts of RomaniaRomania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and elsewhere. Of these, the Hungarian population of Romania (both in the region of Transylvania and among the Csángó
Csángó
The Csango people are a Hungarian ethnographic group of Roman Catholic faith living mostly in the Romanian region of Moldavia, especially in the Bacău County...
people) - being the more rural, outer rims of the kingdom of Hungary - has had the most musical impact on Hungarian folk music. The Hungarian community in Slovakia has produced the rootsy band Ghymes
Ghymes
Ghymes band - consisting of Hungarians living in Slovakia - was founded at the University of Education in Nitra in 1984, by musicians with different preliminary musical experiences from classical through rock and Renaissance music...
, who play in the táncház tradition. The Serbian region of Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
is home to a large Hungarian minority
Transylvanian folk music remains vital part of life in modern Transylvania. Bartók and Kodály found Transylvania to be a fertile area for folk song collecting. Folk bands are usually a string trio, consisting of a violin, viola and double bass, occasionally with a cimbalom; the first violin, or primás, plays the melody, with the others accompanying and providing the rhythm. Transylvania is also the original home of the táncház tradition, which has since spread throughout Hungary.
Táncház
TáncházTáncház
Táncház is a "casual" Hungarian folk dance event . It is an aspect of the Hungarian roots revival of traditional culture which began in the early 1970s, and remains an active part of the national culture across the country, especially in cities like Budapest...
(literally "dance house") is a dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
movement which first appeared in the 1970s as a reaction against state-supported homogenized folk music. They have been described as a "cross between a barn dance
Barn dance
A barn dance is any kind of dance held in a barn, but usually involves traditional or folk music with traditional dancing. It is a type of dance, originating in America and popular in Britain in the late 19th century and early 20th, derived from Schottische...
and folk club", and generally begin with a slow tempo verbunkos (recruiting dance), followed by swifter csárdás dances. Csárdás is a very popular Hungarian folk dance that comes in many regional varieties, and is characterized by changes in tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
. Táncház began with the folk song collecting of musicians like Béla Halmos and Ferenc Sebő
Ferenc Sebo
Ferenc Sebő is a Hungarian folklorist and musician, best known as the bandleader for the Sebő Ensemble, a band that produced many future stars, including Márta Sebestyén . The Sebő Ensemble was one of the best-known groups of the Hungarian roots revival in the 1970s.-References:...
, who collected rural instrumental and dance music for popular, urban consumption, along with the dance collectors György Martin and Sándor Timár. The most important rural source of these songs was Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, which is actually in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
but has a large ethnic Hungarian minority. The instrumentation of these bands, based on Transylvanian and sometimes the southern Slovak Hungarian communities, included a fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
on lead with violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, a kontra (a 3-string viola also called a brácsa), and bowed double bass, and sometimes a cimbalom as well.
Many of the biggest names in modern Hungarian music emerged from the táncház scene, including Muzsikás
Muzsikás
Muzsikás is a Hungarian musical group playing mainly folk music of Hungary and other countries and peoples of the region. Established in 1973, it has also played works by classical composers, especially Béla Bartók, who himself collected folk tunes...
and Márta Sebestyén
Márta Sebestyén
Márta Sebestyén is a Hungarian folk vocalist, as well as a composer and actress.Sebestyén's mother is a composer, and was a music student of Zoltán Kodály. Her father was an economist and author. When Sebestyén was seven years old, her father, returning from a trip to the U.S...
. Other bands include Vujicsics, Jánosi, Téka and Kalamajka, while singers include Éva Fábián
Eva Fabian
Eva Fabian is an American open water swimmer.-Swimming career:At the 2009 World Aquatics Championships, Fabian placed 10th in the 25 km....
and András Berecz. Famous instrumentalists include fiddlers Csaba Ökrös
Csaba Ökrös
Dr. Csaba Ökrös is a Hungarian handball player, coach and university professor. Currently, Ökrös serves as the head coach fo Váci NKSE, having taken the position from András Németh who re-joined his former club Hypo Niederösterreich in the autumn of 2011.Formerly, Ökrös worked for Testnevelési...
and Balázs Vizeli, cimbalomist Kálmán Balogh
Kálmán Balogh
Kálmán Balogh is one of the foremost Hungarian cimbalom players, descending from a famous dynasty of Hungarian Gypsy musicians. His virtuosity is matched only by his understanding and respect of his heritage. A graduate of Franz Liszt Academy of Music of Budapest, he has completed many successful...
, violinist Félix Lajkó
Félix Lajkó
Félix Lajkó is a Hungarian violinist, zither player and composer. He plays a variation of musical styles: traditional string music of the Pannonian plain, Romani music, folk music, classical music, rock, blues, jazz and improvised melodies...
(from Subotica
Subotica
Subotica is a city and municipality in northern Serbia, in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina...
in Serbia) and multi-instrumentalist Mihály Dresch
Mihály Dresch
Mihály Dresch is a Hungarian saxophone player, and one of the most interesting jazz and folk musicians on the current Budapest scene. Specifically his merger of the American free-jazz tradition with elements of traditional Hungarian folk has led to inspired, unexpected pieces of modern music...
.
Classical music
Hungary's most important contribution to the worldwide field of European classical music is probably Franz LisztFranz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, a renowned pianist in his own time and a well-regarded composer of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies
Hungarian Rhapsodies
Hungarian Rhapsody redirects here. For the 1979 Hungarian film Hungarian Rhapsody . For the 1928 German film Ungarische Rhapsodie.The Hungarian Rhapsodies, S.244, R106, is a set of 19 piano pieces based on Hungarian folk themes, composed by Franz Liszt during 1846-1853, and later in 1882 and 1885...
and a number of symphonic poems such as Les préludes
Les Préludes (Liszt)
Les préludes is the third of Franz Liszt's thirteen symphonic poems. Directed by Liszt himself, in April 1856 the score, and in January 1865 the orchestral parts, were published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig. Among Liszt's symphonic poems, Les préludes is the most popular...
. Liszt was among the major composers during the late 19th century, a time when modern Hungarian classical music was in its formative stage. Along with Liszt and his French Romantic tendencies, Ferenc Erkel's Italian and French-style operas, with Hungarian words, and Mihály Mosonyi
Mihály Mosonyi
Mihály Mosonyi was a Hungarian composer. Born Michael Brand, he changed his name to Mosonyi in honor of the district of Moson , with Mihály being the Hungarian equivalent of "Michael"...
's German classical style, helped set the stage for future music, and their influence is "unsurpassed even by their successors, because in addition to their individual abilities they bring about an unprecedented artistic intensification of the Romantic musical idiom, which is practically consumed by this extreme passion". Elements of Hungarian folk music, especially verbunkos, became an important elements of many composers, both Hungarians like Kalman Simonffy and foreign composers like Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
.
Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark, also known originally as Károly Goldmark and later sometimes as Carl Goldmark; May 18, 1830, Keszthely – January 2, 1915, Vienna) was a Hungarian composer.- Life and career :...
, composer of the Rustic Wedding Symphony
Rustic Wedding Symphony
Rustic Wedding Symphony, Op. 26 is a symphony in E flat major by Karl Goldmark, written in 1875, a year before his renowned Violin Concerto No. 1....
, composer and pianist Ernő Dohnányi
Erno Dohnányi
Ernő Dohnányi was a Hungarian conductor, composer, and pianist. He used the German form of his name Ernst von Dohnányi for most of his published compositions....
, composer and ethnomusicologist László Lajtha
László Lajtha
László Lajtha was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist and conductor.-Career:Born to Ida Wiesel, a Transsylvanian-Hungarian with some Saxon-German ancestry as the name Wiesel indicates and Pál Lajtha, an owner of a leather factory...
, and the piano composer Stephen Heller
Stephen Heller
----Stephen Heller was a Hungarian composer and pianist whose career spanned the period from Schumann to Bizet, and was an influence for later Romantic composers.-Biography:...
. A number of violinists from Hungary have also achieved international renown, especially Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
, Jenő Hubay
Jeno Hubay
Eugen Huber , better known by his Hungarian name Jenő Hubay , was a Hungarian violinist, composer and music teacher.-Early life:Eugen Huber was born into a German family of musicians in Pest, Hungary...
, Edward Reményi
Ede Reményi
Eduard Remenyi, Reményi Ede, born Eduard Hoffmann was a Hungarian violinist.He studied under Joseph Böhm at the Vienna Conservatory from 1842 to 1845...
, Sándor Végh
Sándor Végh
Sándor Végh was a Hungarian, later French, violinist and conductor. He was best known as one of the great chamber music violinists of the twentieth century.- Education :...
, Ferenc von Vecsey, de Zathurecky, Emil Telmányi
Emil Telmányi
Emil Telmányi, b. 22 June 1892 in Arad, then in the Kingdom of Hungary, d. 13 June 1988 in Holte, Denmark was a Hungarian violinist who invented the Bach bow, designed to play and sustain three or four notes on a violin for Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin...
and Leopold von Auer. Hungarian-born conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
s include Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...
; Adam
Ádám Fischer
Ádám Fischer is a Hungarian conductor of Jewish family origin. He is the general music director of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, with which he has recorded the complete Haydn symphonies for the Nimbus label, the first digital recording of the cycle...
, Gyorgy and Ivan Fischer
Iván Fischer
Iván Fischer is a Hungarian conductor and composer. Born in Budapest into a Jewish musical family, Fischer initially studied piano, violin, cello and composition in Budapest...
; Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
; Fritz Reiner
Fritz Reiner
Frederick Martin “Fritz” Reiner was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century.-Biography:...
; George Szell
George Szell
George Szell , originally György Széll, György Endre Szél, or Georg Szell, was a Hungarian-born American conductor and composer...
and Georg Solti
Georg Solti
Sir Georg Solti, KBE, was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. He was a major classical recording artist, holding the record for having received the most Grammy Awards, having personally won 31 as a conductor, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition to his...
.
Pianists of international renown: Géza Anda, Tamás Vásáry, George Cziffra, Annie Fischer, Kocsis, Ránki, Schiff and Jenö Jandó
Jeno Jandó
Jenő Jandó is a Hungarian pianist and Professor of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.He studied piano at the Liszt Academy with Katalin Nemes and Pál Kadosa, later going on to win many major international piano competitions, including the Georges Cziffra and Ciani Piano...
Hungarian opera
The origins of Hungarian opera can be traced to the late 18th century, with the rise of imported opera and other concert styles in cities like Pozsony, Kismarton, Nagyszeben and BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. Operas at the time were in either the German
German opera
Opera in German is the opera of the German-speaking countries, most notably Germany and Austria...
or Italian style
Italian opera
Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
. The field Hungarian opera began with school dramas and interpolations of German operas, which began at the end of the 18th century. School dramas in places like the Pauline School in Sátoraljaújhely
Sátoraljaújhely
Sátoraljaújhely or אוהעלי ) is a town located in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county in northern Hungary near the Slovak border. It is east from the county capital Miskolc.- History :...
, the Calvinist School in Csurgó
Csurgó
Csurgó is a town in Somogy county, Hungary. It is located at around .- Sightseeings :The town was important educational center of the Reformed Church in Hungary. Its Reformed Church College was visited by Mihály Csokonai Vitéz, the famous poet, too.The Árpád age church has characteristic...
and the Piarist School in Beszterce.
Pozsony produced the first music drama experiments in the country, though the work of Gáspár Pacha and József Chudy; it was the latter's 1793 Prince Pikkó and Jutka Perzsi that is generally considered the first opera in a distinctively Hungarian style. The text of that piece was translated from Prinz Schnudi und Prinzessin Evakathel by Philipp Hafner
Philipp Hafner
Philipp Hafner was an Austrian farce writer, born in Vienna. He also wrote under the pseudonyms K. Fiedelbogen, J. Wustio, and Phakipinpler...
. This style was still strongly informed by the Viennese Zauberposse style of comedic play, and remained thus throughout the 19th century. Though these operas used foreign styles, the "idyllic, lyric and heroic" parts of the story were always based on verbunkos, which was becoming a symbol of the Hungarian nation during this time. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that Ferenc Erkel wrote the first Hungarian language opera, using French and Italian models, thus launching the field of Hungarian opera.
Bartók and Kodály
Main articles: Béla BartókBéla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
and Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
At the end of the 19th century, Hungarian music was dominated by compositions in the German classical style, while Viennese-style operetta
Operetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s gained immensely in popularity. This ended beginning in about 1905, when Endre Ady
Endre Ady
Endre Ady was a Hungarian poet.-Biography:Ady was born in Érmindszent, Szilágy county . He belonged to an impoverished Calvinist noble family...
's poems were published, composer Béla Bartók was published for the first time, and Zoltán Kodály began collecting folk songs. Bartók and Kodály were two exceptional composers who created a distinctively Hungarian style. Bartók collected songs across Eastern Europe, though much of his activity was in Hungary, and he used their elements in his music. He was interested in all forms of folk music, while Kodály was more specifically Hungarian in his outlook. In contrast to previous composers who worked with Hungarian idioms, Kodály and Bartók did not conflate Roma and ethnic Hungarian music, specifically seeking out the latter at the expense of the former. Their work was a watershed that incorporated "every great tradition of the Hungarian people" and influenced all the later composers of the country.
Later 20th century
For the first half of the 20th century, Bartók and Kodály were potent symbols for a generation of composers, especially Kodály. Starting in about 1947, a revival in folk choir music began, ended as an honest force by 1950, when state-run art became dominant with the rise of CommunismCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. Under Communism, "(c)ommitment and ideological affiliation (were) measured by the musical style of a composer; the ignominious adjectives 'formalistic' and 'cosmopolitan' gain currency ... (and the proper Hungarian style was) identified with the major mode, the classical aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
, rondo
Rondo
Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...
or sonata form
Sonata form
Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...
, the chord sequences distilled" from Kodály's works. Music was uniformly festive and optimistic, with every deviation arousing suspicion; this simplicity led to a lack of popular support from the public, who did not identify with the sterile approved styles. The most prominent composers of this period were Endre Szervánszky
Endre Szervánszky
Endre Szervánszky was a Hungarian composer.-Biography:...
and Lajos Bárdos
Lajos Bárdos
Lajos Bárdos was a composer, conductor, and professor of music at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Together with Zoltán Kodály, he laid the foundations of 20th-century Hungarian choral music...
.
Beginning in about 1955, a new wave of composers appeared, inspired by Bartók and breathing new life into Hungarian music. Composers from this era included Ferenc Szabó
Ferenc Szabó
Ferenc Szabó was a Hungarian composer. As a communist, Szabó was obliged to emigrate through Berlin to the USSR . He became a respected figure in Soviet musical life, and found the opportunities to explore common ground between the concert hall and mass music-making on a far higher level...
, Endre Szervánszky
Endre Szervánszky
Endre Szervánszky was a Hungarian composer.-Biography:...
, Pál Kadosa
Pál Kadosa
Pál Kadosa was a piano teacher and Hungarian composer of the post-Bartók generation. His early style was influenced by Hungarian folklore while his later works were more toward Hindemith and expressively forceful idioms. He was born in Léva. He studied at the national Hungarian Royal Academy...
, Ferenc Farkas
Ferenc Farkas
Ferenc Farkas was a Hungarian composer.Farkas began his studies in composition at the Budapest Academy of Music , where his teachers were Leo Weiner and Albert Siklós. He later studied with Ottorino Respighi in Rome...
and György Ránki
György Ránki
György Ránki was a Hungarian composer.-Life:Born in Budapest, he studied composition with Zoltán Kodály at the Budapest Academy of Music from 1926-1930...
. These composers both brought back old techniques of Hungarian music, as well as adapting imported avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and modernist elements of Western classical music. György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
and György Kurtág
György Kurtág
György Kurtág is a Hungarian composer of contemporary music.- Biography :György Kurtág was born in Lugoj in the Banat region, Romania.In 1946, he began his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he met his wife, Márta, and also György Ligeti, who became a close friend...
are often mentioned in the same sentence. They were born near each other in Transylvania and studied in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in the 1940s. Both were influenced by Stockhausen. Kurtág's modernism borrowed many influences from the past. By contrast Ligeti invented a new language with chromatic tone clusters and elements of parody. Both were multi-lingual and became exiles. This is reflected in the texts for their works. The foundation of the New Music Studio in 1970 helped further modernize Hungarian classical music though promoting composers that felt audience education was as important a consideration as artistic merit in composition and performance; these Studio's well-known composers include László Vidovszky
László Vidovszky
The native form of this personal name is Vidovszky László. This article uses the Western name order.László Vidovszky is a Hungarian composer and pianist...
, László Sáry
László Sáry
László Sáry is a Hungarian composer and pianist. In the 1970s he began composing in a minimal style.-External links:**...
and Zoltán Jeney
Zoltán Jeney
Zoltán Jeney is a Hungarian composer.Jeney first studied piano and attended Pongrácz's composition classes at the Debrecen Secondary Music School, later continuing composition studies with Ferenc Farkas at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest , and the pursuing postgraduate studies with...
.
Popular music
Hungarian popular music in the early 20th century consisted of light operettaOperetta
Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...
s and the Roma music of various styles. Nagymező utca, the "Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
of Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
", was a major center for popular music, and boasted enough nightclubs and theaters to earn its nickname. In 1945, however, this era abruptly ended and popular music was mostly synonymous with the patriotic songs imposed by the Russian Communists. Some operettas were still performed, though infrequently, and any music with Western influences was seen as harmful and dangerous. In 1956, however, liberalization began with the "three Ts" (tűrés, tiltás, támogatás, meaning toleration, prohibition, support), and a long period of cultural struggle began, starting with a battle over African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. Jazz became a part of Hungarian music in the early 20th century, but did not achieve widespread renown until the 1970s, when Hungary began producing internationally known performers like the Benko Dixieland Band and Bela Szakcsi Lakatos. Other renowned performers from the younger generation are the Hot Jazz Band and the Bohem Ragtime Jazz Band.
Rock
In the early 1960s, Hungarian youths began listening to rockRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
in droves, in spite of condemnation from the authorities. Three bands dominated the scene by the beginning of the 1970s, Illés
Illés
Illés was a Hungarian rock/beat band , and was one of the biggest groups of the 1960s and early 1970s rock boom in Hungary...
, Metró
Metro (band)
Metro may refer to the following bands:* Metro * Metro...
and Omega
Omega (band)
Omega is one of the most successful Hungarian rock bands.-Biography:Formed in Budapest in September, 1962 by the winds player László Benkő on organ and János Kóbor as a singer and rhythm guitarist, they initially performed covers of British and American rock songs, frequently changing the lineup of...
, all three of which had released at least one album. A few other bands recorded a few singles, but the Record-Producing Company, a state-run record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, did not promote or support these bands, which quickly disappeared.
In 1968, the New Economic Mechanism
New Economic Mechanism
The New Economic Mechanism was a major economic reform launched in the People's Republic of Hungary in 1968.- Reform :The period from 1956–1968 was one of reform in Eastern Europe...
was introduced, intending on revitalizing the Hungarian economy, while the band Illés won almost every prize at the prestigious Táncdalfesztivál
Táncdalfesztivál
Táncdalfesztivál was a Hungarian music competition and exhibition show, airing on the National Television from 1966 to 1994. It was the premier chance for young talents to show their skills and become well known in the socialist Hungary...
. In the 70s, however, the Russians cracked down on subversives in Hungary, and rock was a major target. The band Illés was banned from performing and recording, while Metró and Omega left. Some of the members of these bands formed a supergroup, Locomotiv GT
Locomotiv GT
Locomotiv GT is a Hungarian rock band formed in 1971. It has been one of the most influential rock bands in Hungarian rock music. GT in the name of the band refers to Gran Turismo, the long journey that the band was looking forward to when it was formed...
, that quickly became very famous. The remaining members of Omega, meanwhile, succeeded in achieving stardom in Germany, and remained very popular for a time.
Rock bands in the late 1970s had to conform to the Record Company's demands and ensure that all songs passed the inspection of the Song Committee, who scoured all songs looking for ideological disobedience. LGT was the most prominent band of a classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
style that was very popular, along with Illés, Bergendy and Zorán
Zorán Sztevanovity
Zorán Sztevanovity , born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 4 March 1942) is a Hungarian musician , singer and composer of a Serbian origin. He has two children, Zoltán and Sandra.-Life and career:...
, while there were other bands like The Sweet and Middle of the Road who catered to the desires of the Song Committee, producing rock-based pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
without a hint of subversion. Meanwhile, the disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
style of electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
produced such performers as the officially sanctioned Neoton Familia
Neoton Família
Neoton Família was one of the most successful Hungarian pop-bands, spanning several decades, with changes in members and line-up. Most active from 1977 to 1989, they released albums and toured in several foreign countries, also producing many of the most known hit songs in the country.- Band...
, and Beatrice
Beatrice (band)
Beatrice is a Hungarian rock band.-Biography:Beatrice was originally formed in 1969 as a female rock band covering popular songs like "House of the Rising Sun" from The Animals...
and Szűcs Judit, while the more critically acclaimed progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
scene produced bands like East, V73, Color and Panta Rhei
Panta Rhei (band)
Panta Rhei were a Hungarian rock band, known for their progressive rock recordings and adaptations of classical music, for which they created synthesizers, such as the Muzix81 system...
.
In the early 1980s, economic and cultural depression wracked Hungary, leading to a wave of disillusioned and alienated youth, exactly the people that rock, and the burgeoning worldwide field of punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, spoke to the most. Major bands from this era included Beatrice, who had moved from disco to punk and folk-influenced rock and were known for their splashy, uncensored and theatrical performances, P. Mobil
P. Mobil
P. Mobil is one of the most popular Hungarian hard rock bands.-Vocals:*Györgyi Huszár 1973-1974*Miklós Serényi 1973-1974*Gyula Vikidál 1973-1976, 1976–1979*Gábor Szegváry 1976*Péter Tunyogi 1979-1997*Joe Rudán 1997-2007*László Baranyi from 2008...
, Bikini, Hobo Blues Band, a bluesy duo, A. E. Bizottság
A. E. Bizottság
A. E. Bizottság was a Hungarian underground band formed by a group of visual and multimedia artists and amateur musicians in the early 1980s. Their name translates as 'Albert Einstein Committee'...
, Európa Kiadó
Európa Kiadó
Európa Kiadó is a Hungarian underground rock band formed in 1981 in Budapest from the members of the then freshly disbanded URH: Llaszlo Kiss, Andras Salamon and lyricist-composer-guitarist-singer Jenő Menyhárt, joined by Jozsef Denes and Andras Gero. Soon keyboardist Gero and drummer Salamon...
, Sziámi and Edda művek
Edda muvek
Edda Művek is a highly successful Hungarian rock band formed in 1974 under the name "Griff". The word "művek" symbolizes the band originally starting off its career in Miskolc, a typical Central European industrial city also dubbed as "Steel City"...
.
The 1980s saw the Record Production Company broken up because Hungary's authorities realized that restricting rock was not effective in reducing its effect; they instead tried to water it down by encouraging young musicians to sing about the principles of Communism and obedience. The early part of the decade saw the arrive of punk and New Wave music
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
in full force, and the authorities quickly incorporated those styles as well. The first major prison sentences for rock-related subversion were given out, with the members of the punk band CPg
CPG
CPg is a controversial underground punk rock group formed by guitarist Zoltán Benkő and drummer Zoltán Nagy in Szeged, Hungary in 1979. Vocalist Béla Haska and bassist Zoltán Varga joined in 1981...
sentenced to two years for political incitement.
By the end of the decade and into the 1990s, internal problems made it impossible for the Hungarian government to counter the activities of rock and other musical groups. After the collapse of the Communist government, the Hungarian scene become more and more like the styles played in the rest of Europe.
Electronic music
Clubbing and electronic dance music started gaining popularity in Hungary following the change of regime in 1989 and corresponding to Electronic musicElectronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
's increasing popularity in the worldwide musical mainstream. The political freedom and cultural boom of western culture opened the way for the clubbing scene, with several venues starting all around the country, especially in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
and around Lake Balaton
Lake Balaton
Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of its foremost tourist destinations. As Hungary is landlocked , Lake Balaton is often affectionately called the "Hungarian Sea"...
.
The 1990s also marked the creation of several dance formations, notably Soho Party, Splash
Splash
Splash may refer to:* Splash , sudden disturbances on the surface of water* Splash, in erosion, is the detachment and airborne movement of small soil particles caused by the impact of raindrops on soils-Computing:...
, Náksi & Brunner and also rave formations such as Emergency House and Kozmix. Notable techno and house DJ-s are Sterbinszky
Sterbinszky
DJ Sterbinszky is a successful DJ of Hungary.Sterbinszky got his start at age 16 becoming resident DJ of several small clubs. Five years later he won the Hungarian Disco Mix Club Competition of 1993. This event earned him a prominent position in the trade...
, Budai, and Newl. The workings of the scene culminated in events like Budapest Parade, the largest such street festival in Hungary, that was held yearly from 2000 to 2006, attracting more than half million visitors. The history of Electronic Dance Music and Techno culture in Hungary is documented in Ferenc Kömlődy's book "Fénykatedrális", (1999 in Hungarian).
A thriving underground scene was marked by the start of Tilos Rádió
Tilos Rádió
Tilos Rádió is a community, non-profit, listener supported radio station in Budapest, Hungary.-Overview:Tilos Rádió was the first community radio station in Hungary, established as a pirate broadcaster in 1991. The station's programmers have always contributed on a voluntary basis...
in 1991, the first free independent community station, starting out as a pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
. The station soon developed strong ties with the first alternative electronic formations, and inspired to start many others. Bands like Korai Öröm and Másfél (also check Myster Mobius) started, playing ambient, psychedelic music. Anima Sound System
Anima Sound System
Anima Sound System is a Hungarian electronic band founded in 1993 in Szombathely. Anima is one of the first and most important Hungarian electronic acts, a unique fusion of Eastern-European folk music and modern electronic styles. The band is current under Mole Listening Pearls. The band soon...
, one of the most influential bands on the scene, was created in 1993 playing dub and trip-hop influenced by acid jazz and ethnic music. Several other bands and formations followed, like Colorstar and Neo
Neo
Neo is a prefix from the ancient Greek word for young "neos" which derived from the Proto-Indo European word for new "néwos".Neo may refer to:* Neo , the protagonist of the Matrix film series...
. Neo has won a worldwide reputation for their unique electro-pop style and the "Mozart of pop music" award (Cannes, 2004) they received for their soundtrack album called "Control". Apart from Anima, ethnic and folk influenced the scene in many ways, exemplified by formations like Balkan Fanatik, or Mitsoura. One of the most successful Hungarian electronic musician is Yonderboi
Yonderboi
Yonderboi is a Hungarian electronic music artist whose real name is László Fogarasi. He was born in Mernye, Somogy, Hungary in 1980.He experimented with music on his computer during high school. After his 16th birthday he sent a demo to "Juice Records". It was quickly followed by an EP called...
, who recently co-created Žagar
Žagar
Žagar is a headliner group of the Hungarian electronic music scene.Their sound is based on contemporary electronic music, jazz and indie rock adding with experimental scratches by DJ Bootsie...
, gaining wide reputation in the country. In the past few years, dubstep
Dubstep
Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"....
has gained popular attention as well, nation-wide.
Experimental and minimal scene is in its early age, although several crews and DJs are working, organizing numerous events. Notable performers include c0p, Cadik, Ferenc Vaspöeri and Isu.
Hip hop
Hip hop and rap have been developing in Hungary with two scenes, underground and mainstream, which is mostly popular among young people in Hungary. Underground rappers condemn the mainstream for "selling" their music and usually provide deeper message. Mainstream hip hop is dominated by the pioneer of Gangsta rap in Hungary, Ganxsta ZoleeGanxsta Zolee
Ganxsta Zolee Ganxsta ("Döglégy") Zolee Ganxsta ("Döglégy") Zolee (Budapest, 1966. Real name: Zana Zoltán, Hungarian rapper.-Discography:* Sex Action (1990)* Olcsó élvezet (1992)* Mocskos élet (1993)* Összeomlás (1994)* Terror (1995)* Sexact!on (1997)* Hetedik (1999)...
, and there are also other famous ones including FankaDeli, Sub Bass Monster, Dopeman
Dopeman
"Panic Zone" was the 1987 debut EP by American hip hop group N.W.A, whose songs were later featured on the compilation N.W.A. and the Posse, which was a reissue of 12" EPs and singles released by Macola Records, the then manufacturer and distributor of Ruthless Records, N.W.A's label.Apart from the...
, and LL Junior. Mainstream hip-hop is extremely popular among the Roma youth.
Bëlga
Belga
Belga may refer to:* Belga * A Belgian gold currency worth five Belgian francs for international transactions introduced in 1926, a Swedish merchant ship...
started as an offshoot hiphop project at Tilos Rádió
Tilos Rádió
Tilos Rádió is a community, non-profit, listener supported radio station in Budapest, Hungary.-Overview:Tilos Rádió was the first community radio station in Hungary, established as a pirate broadcaster in 1991. The station's programmers have always contributed on a voluntary basis...
. As lyrical innovators and phenomenal parodists, they gained wide popularity for an extremely explicit criticism of Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
public transport company BKV
BKV
BKV is the unified public transport company of Budapest, established in 1968...
, as well as hilarious wordplays and self-irony. Their lyrics are significant beyond the hip-hop scope as a cultural documentation of turn-of-the-millennia Culture of Hungary
Culture of Hungary
The culture of Hungary has a distinctive style of its own in Hungary, diverse and varied, starting from the capital city of Budapest on the Danube, to the Great Plain bordering Ukraine. Hungary was formerly one half of Austria-Hungary. Hungary has a rich folk tradition, for example: embroideries,...
.
Hungarian Slam sessions are rare and few, and still a novelty for the mainstream, but are gaining popularity with literary performers, emcees and audiences alike.
Hardcore, metal
Despite being unknown for common Hungarian people, hardcoreHardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
and metal are flourishing styles of music in Hungary. Metal bands are formed all over the country. Dominant styles are death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
, black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
and thrash
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
. There are also power metal
Power metal
Power metal is a style of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. The term refers to two different but related styles: the first pioneered and largely practiced in North America with a harder sound similar to speed metal, and a...
, folk metal
Folk metal
Folk metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. As the name suggests, the genre is a fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music...
and heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
groups, including Dalriada
Dalriada (band)
Dalriada is a folk metal band from Sopron, Hungary that was formed in 1998 as Echo of Dalriada, but shortened their name to Dalriada in late 2006. Their third studio album Kikelet and all subsequent albums were successful in the official Mahasz music charts with Szelek peaking at the second...
and Thy Catafalque
Thy Catafalque
-History:The band was formed by Hungarian musician Tamás Kátai, along with a fellow bandmate from a previous group, Gort. In their early years, the band started off playing black metal. As time progressed, so did the band's overall sound. They began adding in much more electronic and experimental...
.
Hardcore
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
and metalcore
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...
are most common in Budapest and Western Hungary, in towns like Győr
Gyor
-Climate:-Main sights:The ancient core of the city is Káptalan Hill at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Rába and Rábca. Püspökvár, the residence of Győr’s bishops can be easily recognised by its incomplete tower. Győr’s oldest buildings are the 13th-century dwelling tower and the...
, Csorna
Csorna
- People :David Gestetner, inventor of the Gestetner duplicating machine, was born in Csorna on March 20, 1854....
, Szombathely
Szombathely
Szombathely is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria...
and Veszprém
Veszprém
Veszprém is one of the oldest urban areas in Hungary, and a city with county rights. It lies approximately north of the Lake Balaton. It is the administrative center of the county of the same name.-Location:...
, but Eastern Hungary and Debrecen
Debrecen
Debrecen , is the second largest city in Hungary after Budapest. Debrecen is the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar county.- Name :...
is getting into a more and more important place in the hardcore scene. The first Hungarian acts that tagged themselves Hardcore
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
like AMD, Leukémia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
, Marina revue emerged in the late '80s, and were followed by a number of acts, constituting a scene that flourishes since the early 90s. Notable bands were Dawncore and Newborn of the late '90-s gaining also some international success. Members of these bands went on to form Bridge to Solace and The Idoru
The Idoru
The Idoru is an alternative rock band from Hungary. The group was formed in 2003 with Newborn ex-members Tibi and Big on guitar, Matt on bass, Laci from the band Very Bad Thing on drums and a young singer who is able to stretch the already existing boundaries of the company.-Band history:The band...
. Other important, active bands: Hold X True, Fallenintoashes, Embers
Embers
Embers is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English in 1957 and first broadcast on the BBC Third Programme on 24 June 1959. Donald McWhinnie directed Jack MacGowran – for whom the play was specially written – as “Henry”, Kathleen Michael as “Ada” and Patrick Magee as “Riding Master”...
, Subscribe, Shell Beach
Shell Beach
Shell Beach may refer to:* A shell beach is a term for a beach that routinely has numerous seashells washed up* Several real places that feature a shell beach:** Shell Beach, California** Shell Beach, Guyana** Shell Beach, Louisiana...
, Hatred Solution, Stillborn (Hatebreed tribute). An internationally known band is Ektomorf
Ektomorf
- Biography :Ektomorf was founded in 1993 in Mezőkovácsháza, Hungary, a small city near the Romanian border, by Zoltán "Zoli" Farkas. In the actual line-up Zoli - songwriter and mastermind of the band - is the only remaining founder member...
, infusing heavy ethnic content with harsh vocals.
Extreme hardcorepunk and grindcore bands from Hungary include Jack (crustgrind), Human Error(crustcore), Step On It (allschool hardcore), Another Way (fastcore), Gyalázat (crustpunk).
Punk
The origins of the Hungarian punk movement go back to the early eighties, when a handful of bands like ETA, QSS, CPG, and Auróra emerged as angry young men playing fast and raw punk rock music. Like many other musicians of their age, they often criticized the communist government. They were a part of the national movement to reject the oppressiveness, and particularly the censorship, of the communist regime. As their music was on the verge of acceptance both by the public and the authorities, concerts were held under tight police control, and often caused moral outrage. With band members often living under constant surveillance, prison was a serious possibility. Two members of the band CPG were found guilty and sent to prison for two years for allegedly unmoral lyrics. After their release, they had to leave Hungary, as did Auróra’s lead singer.The change of regime in 1989 brought a new situation, and bands now revolted against corruption and the Americanization of the country. They felt that the new system retained the bad things from the previous one, but lacked that good things that many expected. In lyrics, they often mention the newly appearing organized crime, and the still low standard of living.
Today the Hungarian punk scene is low profile, but vibrant with several active bands, often touring the country and beyond. Summer brings a slew of punk and alternative festivals where they can all be sampled. Top venues playing punk music around Budapest include Vörös Yuk, Borgödör, Music Factory and A38 Hajó.
Major bands include Auróra
Aurora (punk band)
Aurora is a punk band formed in Győr, Hungary in 1983.The band is the longest standing and best known band in the Hungarian punk scene.-Discography:*"1988" *"Viszlát Iván" *"Előre Kurvák, Gengszterek" *"Fel Támadás"...
, the oldest Hungarian punk band with twenty-five years of history, come from the northwest Hungarian town of Győr
Gyor
-Climate:-Main sights:The ancient core of the city is Káptalan Hill at the confluence of three rivers: the Danube, Rába and Rábca. Püspökvár, the residence of Győr’s bishops can be easily recognised by its incomplete tower. Győr’s oldest buildings are the 13th-century dwelling tower and the...
and their originally street punk music has been recently updated with a ska-punk flavor, HétköznaPI CSAlódások (also called PICSA), a simplistic but powerful punk band, most popular in the end of ’90s. They, similarly to Junkies, Fürgerókalábak, and Prosectura, are part of the new wave of punk bands that had risen in the mid-late ’90s in Hungary. Out of the newer bands, two northeast Hungarian bands are the most known, both playing California punk: Alvin és a mókusok come from Nyíregyháza
Nyíregyháza
- Tourist sights :Nyíregyháza also has several museums and exhibitions, showing the city's rich cultural heritage.* Collection of the International Medallion Art and Small Sculpture Creative Community of Nyíregyháza-Sóstó – periodic exhibitions of works of contemporary artists-Twin towns — Sister...
, while Macskanadrág are from Salgótarján
Salgótarján
Salgótarján is a city with county rights in Nógrád county, north-eastern Hungary.-Location:At the foot of Karancs mountain, in the Cserhát hills, 250 meters above sea level, north-east from Budapest, west from Miskolc...
.
Folk and Classical Music
BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, the capital and music center of Hungary, is one of the best places to go in Hungary to hear "really good folk music", says world music author Simon Broughton. The city is home to an annual folk festival called Táncháztalálkozó
Táncháztalálkozó
Táncháztalálkozó is an annual folk music, folk dance and táncház celebration held in Budapest, Hungary.-External links:* - Táncháztalálkozó - National Táncház Festival in Hungary Official Website* - Hungarian táncház site...
("Meeting of the Táncházak", literally "dance houses"), which is a major part of the modern music scene. The Budapest Spring Festival along with the Budapest Autumn Festival are large scale cultural events every year. The Budapesti Fesztivál Zenekar
Budapest Festival Orchestra
The Budapest Festival Orchestra was formed in 1983 by Iván Fischer and Zoltán Kocsis, with musicians "drawn from the cream of Hungary's younger players", as The Times put it...
(Budapest Festival Orchestra) has recently been awarded the Editor's Choice Gramophone Award. Long-standing venues in Budapest include the Philharmonic Society (founded 1853), the Opera House of Budapest (founded 1884) the Academy of Music, which opened in 1875 with President Franz Liszt and Director Ferenc Erkel and which has remained the center for music education in the country since.
Popular Music Festivals
Growing out of a low-profile student meeting in 1993, Sziget Festival became one of the largest open-air festival in the world, taking place each summer in the heart of Budapest, the 108 hectare Óbudai island. Visited by hundreds of thousands from all over Europe, it is the largest cultural event in Hungary, inviting world-class performers from all genres.
Also having a history from 1993, VOLT Festival is the second-largest music festival in the country, held each year in Sopron
Sopron
In 1910 Sopron had 33,932 inhabitants . Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001 the city had 56,125 inhabitants...
. With a colorful mix of musical styles, and popularity increasing each year, is considered to be the "cheaper version" of Sziget. Also founded by the Sziget management, Balaton Sound
Balaton Sound
Heineken Balaton Sound is one of Europe's largest open air electronic music festivals. Held annually since 2007 on the southern bank of the Lake Balaton, Hungary, it features live acts and DJ's from all around the world, from established artists to new names...
is a festival of mainly electronic music, held yearly in Zamárdi
Zamárdi
-Twin towns — Sister cities:Zamárdi is twinned with:- External links :*...
, next to Lake Balaton
Lake Balaton
Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of its foremost tourist destinations. As Hungary is landlocked , Lake Balaton is often affectionately called the "Hungarian Sea"...
. With prestigious performers and exclusive surroundings, it tries to position itself as a high-standard event.
Hegyalja Festival, held in Tokaj
Tokaj
Tokaj , is a historical town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary, 54 kilometers from county capital Miskolc. It is the centre of the famous Tokaj-Hegyalja wine district where the world famous Tokaji wine is produced.- History :...
, the historic wine-region of the country, is the largest such event in the Northern part. Visited by 50.000 guests each year, it showcases mainly hard rock and rock formations, but many more genres are present. BalaTone, another major event near lake Balaton is held in Zánka
Zánka
Zánka is a village in Veszprém county, Hungary.-Etymology:Zan is an ancient Hungarian personal name, and the original name of the settlement. The diminutive suffix -ka was added later.- History :...
. Magyar Sziget, held in Verőce
Veröce
Veröce may refer to*Virovitica*Veröce, Hungary, in Pest County, Hungary...
, has a nationalist theme, with mainly right-wing performers, bands representing the recently emerged nationalistic rock, folk and folk-rock.
As a tradition, each larger University (or more precisely, its students' union
Students' union
A students' union, student government, student senate, students' association, guild of students or government of student body is a student organization present in many colleges and universities, and has started appearing in some high schools...
) holds a periodical music festival, "University Days", of various size, the largest one is PEN (of the University of Pécs
University of Pécs
The University of Pécs is the Hungarian university with the largest number of students and faculties.-History:...
). Examples of smaller, local festivals are SZIN
Szin
Szin is a village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Hungary.- External links :*...
held in Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
, the free Utcazene Fesztivál held on the streets of Veszprém
Veszprém
Veszprém is one of the oldest urban areas in Hungary, and a city with county rights. It lies approximately north of the Lake Balaton. It is the administrative center of the county of the same name.-Location:...
, Pannónia Fesztivál in Várpalota
Várpalota
Várpalota is a town in Western Hungary, in the Transdanubian county of Veszprém. It was a mining town during the Socialist era, but the mines have been closed...
, or the recently (2008) started Fishing on Orfű, held on the beach of the Orfű
Orfu
Orfű is a village in Baranya county, Hungary. The settlement is a well-known pleasure resort.- External links :* *...
lake.
Funding
The Hungarian Ministry of Culture helps to fund some forms of music, as does the government-run National Cultural Fund. Non-profit organizations in Hungary include the Hungarian Jazz Alliance and the Hungarian Music Council.External links
Audio clips: Traditional music of Hungary. Musée d'Ethnographie de Genève. Accessed November 25, 2010.- Hungarian music summarized at the administrative website of Hungary
- Hungarian Folk Music Collection: Népdalok and Magyar Nóta (5000 melodies).