43rd National Táncház Festival & Fair • 5–7 April 2024
Issue:
Starting page: 40
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Lajtha László – the folk music researcher: Part 6. Excerpts from the exhibition of photos and documents that was in the upper foyer of the Hungarian Heritage House in Budapest, curated by Pávai István and recently published in book form. Lajtha (b.1892 – d.1963) was a composer and folk music researcher who began folk music collection work after 1910 working with Bartók and Kodály. Here are choice quotes from various years (1927–1963) wherein Lajtha comments on the nature of and differences between ’real’folk music and and composed folk-like music. For example: ”[...] Folk art artificiallly kept alive can be of great national value and importance, but it no longer has ethnographic value. [...] Folk song like all folk culture is alive as long as it is in continuous transformation.”