A s historical turmoil hasdestroyed much of the evi-dence (sheet music and instru-ments) of early Hungarian musical life,research relies on secondary sourcesand the findings of other disciplines(such as archaeology and linguistics).Because Hungarian composed musicemerged from folk music, onlyresearch on the latter allows us toglean some information about the ear-liest periods. Folk music retainedancient melodies, or at least their style,for a long time. A close look at themelodic line, ambit, number of sylla-bles, embellishments and ways of per-forming folk songs allows theresearcher to tell with relative preci-sion which historic period a folk songcomes from. Even if folk songs haveundergone minor changes in recentcenturies, certain original characteris-tics are still recognisable.

The so-called new style of folksongs, which became dominant at theturn of the 19th century, is nothing likeany versions of the old style. Thenew style has an arched melodic line,strict composition, long phrases andextended register. By contrast, folksongs belonging to the old style, evenif of widely varying date of origin,theme, rendering or territorial appear-ance, have a descending melodic line.

Thus laments from the era beforeMagyars settled in the CarpathianBasin in 896 AD (the event usuallyreferred to as the Conquest), mediae-val pipe-players and swineherdsdances and 18th-century melodies inmajor and minor all belong to the oldstyle category.

There are hardly any records aboutthe music of the time before the foun-dation of the Hungarian State in 1000.We can only guess how shamanistic

songs or those retelling bygone deedssounded. Music to mourn the dead Transylvanian pentatonic laments anddiatonic laments from variousHungarian-speaking areas datesback to pre-Conquest times. Melodiesof laments were originally also usedfor singing ritual or epic texts, the lat-ter describing the lives, deeds anddeath of heroes.

As from the second half of thetenth century, Hungary graduallybecame part of Europes variegatedcultural texture. Our forebears stroveto adopt a foreign musical idiom andrefined musical achievements withoutrejecting indigenous patterns.Conversion to Christianity had far-reaching consequences as it trans-planted plainsong, a valuable genre ofunisonous music. Equally important

Brief History of Music in Hungary

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS BUDAPEST

No. 1/2001

With its lively musical life and internationally renowned perform-ers, Hungary ranks high among the countries, some of them manytimes its size, which boast of centuries-old musical traditions.Home to just about ten million people, it is often called a greatpower in music. Despite the tragic turns in its history, its musi-cians have always managed to manifest their talent and link theirhomeland to European musical life.

Sheet music of church songs on the pages of mediaeval Hungarian codices

A

was the influence of mediaevalschools, for they imparted respect formusica among all learned people ofthe age. Students had a music lessonevery day, where they were taughthundreds of songs for church service.Thus they learned to read music andsome theory of music. In that respectthe school system was uniform acrossthe country: practically the same litur-gy and musical curriculum weretaught at schools that were attached tocathedrals and those run by the tiniestof villages. That gave rise to aHungarian version of Gregorian chant.Several richly ornamentedcollections of choralpieces and codices wereproduced using a special,Hungarian method ofmusical notation. We cansafely state that musicformed part of the erudi-tion of all learned personsof Hungary in the MiddleAges. Although schoolingwas not compulsory, thejoint daily singing ofchurch songs createdthe foundations for ashared musical culture.

Records are scantierabout the secular music ofthat age. As no sheet musichas come down to usabout secularmusic, we canonly rely on writ-ten references andcontemporane-ous folk music.The names ofpersons andplaces men-tioned in mediaevaldocuments oftenrefer to music instruments and musi-cians jobs (as, for instance, Spos[pipe-player], Dobos [drummer] andIgricfalva [village of minstrels]), whichindicates that music was a part of cele-brations and entertainment.Hungarian monarchs invited to theircourt foreign musicians, noted min-strels and German minnesingers.Gaucelm Faidit and Peire Vidal aresupposed to have arrived at the courtof King Imre (reigned between 1196

and 1204) alongside the kings youngAragonese wife. Oswald vonWolkenstein (1377-1445) visitedHungary during the reign ofSigismund (who was king of Hungarybetween 1387 and 1437). Thus themost refined achievements of lyricmusic of the age of chivalry were alsoappreciated in Hungary.

The fundamental economic andsocial changes that ushered in the LateMiddle Ages also affected musical life.New towns

sprang up independently of churchcentres, and the public grew moreappreciative of cultural achievements.Plainsong singing was still popular, yetpolyphonic works also spread. Asearly as the 13th-14th centuries,Gregorian chants were performed intwo voices and enriched with insertedverses. As polyphony developed, asecond and third part with indepen-dent cadence was added to the origi-nal one. Motets composed according

to the latest style of the Netherlandswere also played in the royal court andfor church dignitaries.

Matthias Corvinus (reignedbetween 1458 and 1490) was an afflu-ent and erudite monarch. His royalchapel employed 40 singers and, asnoted by the head of the chorus of theVatican after visiting the royal seat inBuda, it rivalled that of the Holy See orBurgundy in size and quality of perfor-mance. Instrumental chamber musicwas also played in Matthias court butthe scores have regrettably perished.

The works played and themusicians and singers are

believed to have beenmainly Italian and

Flemish. They includ-ed the Flemish com-poser JacquesBarbireau (c. 1408-1491), Pietro Bono(1417-1497), themost outstandingItalian lutenist of histime, and thefamous singer-composer Johan-nes Stockem. He isthought to have

stayed at Matthiascourt between 1481

and 1487. It was that colour-ful musical culturethat the OttomanTurkish occupa-tion of Hungary(1524-1686) shred-ded. The countrywas forcibly divid-ed into three parts,and musical life all

but ceased in thecentral areas that had

been seized by the Turks. Even plain-song singing survived there for just afew more decades before falling intosilence for good at the beginning ofthe 17th century.

Elsewhere in Hungary unisonoussinging gained momentum around1540 with the advent of the firstProtestant reformers. Initially the oldLatin liturgical songs were translatedinto Hungarian, and later on longhymns sung in church by the whole

2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC IN HUNGARY

Sebestyn Stulhoff completed the construction of the organ of the BenedictineAbbey of Tihany in 1770

congregation in the vernacularbecame prevalent.

A new unisonous genre, the versechronicle, gained popularity at thattime. Historical events, exhortativebiblical parables and romances weresung in long chronicles. Most of theverse chronicles were perpetuated infolk tradition. It is a welcome fact thattwo printed records have also comedown to us. That written by thefamous singer-lutenist SebestynTindi was printed in 1554.

During the 16th and 17th centuriesmonophony gained currency in themusic of Hungarian-speaking territo-ries. The more refined tendencies ofcomposed music, which emerged dur-ing the Late Middle Ages, could onlysurvive in some isolated localities, asfor instance, in the court of successiveprinces of Transylvania. At that timethe Principality of Transylvania formedthe eastern part of Hungary. Treadinga carefully line between Austria andTurkey, Transylvania gained a mea-sure of independence, and it wasinstrumental in cultivating Hungariannational consciousness. In fact, thedesire to perpetuate national con-sciousness was one of the motivationsbehind the effort to run a royal courtthat revived the mediaeval atmos-phere. The princes of Transylvania Zsigmond Jnos (reigned between

1559 and 1571), Istvn Bthori(reigned between 1581 and 1586) andespecially Zsigmond Bthori (reignedbetween 1588 and 1598) were wide-ly known as sponsors of the arts. Thatis why numerous famous foreignmusicians spent some time at theircourt and/or dedicated their works tothem. They included Palestrina (c.1525-1594) and Girolama Diruta (c.1550-?), author of the first collection ofexercises for the organ. GiovanniBattista Mosto (c. 1550-1596), a pupil

of Lasso of Italian origin, spent severalyears in Transylvania. He entitled hisfirst published collection of madrigalsMadrigals of Alba Iulia, which was toindicate that he had originally com-posed the richly embellished poly-phonic works for the court chorus inTransylvania.

The outstanding lutenist and com-poser Blint Bakfark (1506?-1576) alsolived in that era. The first collection ofhis works came out in Lyon (1553),and the second in Cracow (1565). He

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC IN HUNGARY 3

Joseph Haydn directed musical life in the Esterhzy Mansion, Fertd

Francis Joseph I, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary, was in the audience when Liszt, who had earned renown through-out Europe, gave a concert in the Castle district of Buda

was proud to refer to hisTransylvanian origin in the title of hisworks. He was a celebrated lutenistvirtuoso, who enjoyed the favour ofseveral rulers across Europe, and evenpoets sang his fame. His art con-tributed to making instrumental musicwidely recognised in Hungarian-speaking territories.

For the educated burghers of thedynamically developing border townsof the Austrian-dominated northernand western parts of Hungary,European