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Music

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The noted composer Franz (or Ferenc) Liszt (1811-86) liked to describe himself as part Gypsy, and some of his works, notably Hungarian Rhapsodies, echo that people’s music.

Ferenc Erkel (1810-93) is the father of Hungarian opera and two of his works – the stirringly nationalist Bank Ban and Laszlo Hunyadi – are standards at the State Opera House in Budapest. Erkel also composed the music for the Hungarian national anthem.

Imre Kalman (1882-1945) was Hungary’s most celebrated composer of operettas. The Queen of the Csardas is his most popular - and extravagant work.

Bela Bartok (1881-1945) and Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967) made the first systematic study of Hungarian folk music, travelling and recording throughout the linguistic region. Both integrated some of their findings into their own compositions – Bartok in Bluebird’s Castle, for example, and Kodaly in his Peacock Variations. Bartok composed and made a further study of Balkan folk music - Kodaly went on to establish his own method of musical education with initial emphasis on voice instruction.

Gypsy and Hungarian folk music are often confused and it’s important to know the difference. Gypsy music as it is known and played in Hungarian restaurants from Budapest to Boston is urban schmaltz and based on recruiting tunes (verbunkos) played during the Rakoczi independence war. At least two fiddles, a bass and a cymbalom (a curious stringed instrument played with sticks) are de rigueur, if you want to hear this saccharine csardas music, the restaurants in Budapest’s Castle District can oblige, or you can buy a tape by Sandor Lakatos or his son Deki.

To confuse matters even further, real Gypsy music does not use instruments but is sung a cappella (though sometimes it is backed with guitar and percussion), a very good tape of Hungarian Gypsy folk songs is Magyarorszagi Cigany Nepdalok (Hungarian Gypsy Folk Songs), produced by Hungaroton. The best modern Gypsy group is Kalyi Jag (Black Fire), led by Gusztav Varga. The group plays all sorts of unconventional instruments and gives performances from time to time at Budapest tanchazak (dance houses).

The tanchaz is an excellent place to hear Hungarian folk music and, incidentally, to learn how to dance. It’s all good fun and they’re easy to find in Budapest, where the dance/house revival began about 20 years ago. Hungarian folk musicians play zithers, hurdy-gurdies, bagpipes and lutes on a five-note scale. There are lots of different groups but ones to watch out for are Meat and Muzsikas (especially when Marta Sebestyen sings).

Traditional Yiddish music is less known than Gypsy music but is of similar origin, having once been closely associated with Central European folk music. Until WWI, Jewish klezmer dance bands were led by the violin and cymbalom, but the influence of Yiddish theatre and the first wax recordings inspired a switch to the clarinet which predominates today. In 1990 the Budapest Klezmer Band was formed to revive this happy mix of jazz and the bigband sound.