2021

English Table of Contents 2021/1  

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Korniss Péter Photo Archive. In December 2020 photographer Korniss Péter donated the archive of his work from more than 5 decades (more than 34000 photos) – to Hungary’s Museum of Fine Arts. The well-organized archive is now housed in the Central European Art History Research Institute as the special Korniss Péter Archive. Amongst subjects of Korniss’ photography are: peasant life and tradition in Transylvania and Hungary, blue collar workers in Hungary, professional dancers and many more subjects. Also in December he was awarded the ‘Kriterion Wreath’ given to those who have presented Transylvanian culture to the world. A new volume of his photos was also published: “Korniss Péter Photography 1959–2017” in celebration of the event. Printed here are Grozdits Károly’s interview and an edited version of Barabási Albert-László’s laudation.

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Literature: A piece written in memory of the Transylvanian Hungarian painter and graphics artist Kusztos Endre (1925–2015). This tribute by Transylvanian writer and journalist Lokodi Imre won the grand prize in the prose, poetry and essay category in a literature contest organized by the Petőfi Literary Association upon the 100th anniversary of the Trianon Peace Treaty. It is full of beautiful, especially Transylvanian imagery including references to the hawthorn trees, bears, the round shadow of God’s straw hat, linden trees, shepherds, plum trees. “But a row of plum trees remind us of Endre bácsi and I see his memory heading down a bear’s path.” Published on November 23, 2020 at: helyorseg.ma

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Dance for children in traditional life of Jobbágytelke/Sâmbriaș, Transylvania. The researcher quotes mainly from interviews with folks from the village born before WWII. Dances for the ‘little ones’ were usually held separately from the adult dance events. Children meant elementary school children under the age of 14. Dances for kids were held around Carnival, Easter or in the summer. Fewer musicians played than for the adult dance events: perhaps violin, cimbalom, sometimes only a clarinet, flute, etc. The dance learning mainly occurred in a spontaneous way. Sometimes adults would come to watch, then perhaps show the kids something. The musicians and location were paid for the same way as the adult dance events: in hand made straw hats. The kids’ dances were held in people’s homes, in barns, perhaps outdoors in good weather, often danced barefoot. Mostly children were not allowed at the adult dance events. They ‘kids dance’ started at 2pm or so and lasted until dark. By Dóka Krisztina, includes bibliography.

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Táncház 50 is a series of articles, stories and memories from earlier years of the dance house movement. In the first article written by a journalist in 1984 criticizes commentary in a book from the same time period which pronounced the dance house to be "defunct, extinct, finished…" The author of the piece printed here had written an overview of the status of the dance house movement across Hungary which he submitted to the various media. None of the media wanted to publish his overview of the dance house claiming it was not a currently relevant topic and that the movement was "not a community forming factor". One weekly newspaper rejected his article claiming that the existence of folk culture (meaning folk music, dance, craft, folklore) was ’globally questionable’. His report of the nation-wide status of the dance house movement was published finally in a periodical called "Táncművészet" [dance culture]. By Dezső László first published in 1984 in the second issue of the Téka Füzet. As a memory folk dancer, dance teacher, researcher Redő Júlia looks back over the years offering a few of her memories and impressions of the dance house movement. She remembers going to the Kassák Klub dance house in the 1970s as a kid with her parents. Juli also remembers an evening in 1994 at the Molnár utca dance house when a group of the best traditional musicians from Transylvania’s Kalotaszeg region arrived to Budapest so the ethnomusicologists could document their music. One of the musicians, Berki Ferenc ’Árus Feri’’s now famous and fondly remembered comments are printed here. Bagi István recalls the Fonó’s Utolsó Óra [Final Hour] series of Wednesday night dance houses with traditional musicians and singers from Transylvania. In particular, a time when Zerkula János (traditional fiddler from Tranyslvania’s Gyimes region) played, and the same evening was inspired to dance to music played by Laka Kicsi Aladár (traditional fiddler from another area of Transylvania). Bagi István also remembers two traditional singers from Transylvania Szilágyi Anna and Takács Anna whom he became acquainted with at the Fonó.

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New publication: [The mystery of movement – Papers honoring the work of Fügedi János]. Edited by: Pál-Kovács Dóra, Szőnyi Vivien. L’Harmattan. Budapest. 2020. This publication is a collection of papers celebrating and discussing the theme of dance notation and the work of Fügedi János – Hungary’s leading expert on dance notation and a director of the dance research department at the Hungarian Institute of Musicology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The volume includes academic studies by 26 contributors all of whom are experts on the subject matter or are from closely related fields. The majority of the studies are written in Hungarian; with some in English from international contributors. The book is divided into 4 chapters and includes Fügedi János’ selected bibliography. Report by Székely Anna.

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New CD: Salamon Soma: Tudat alatt (Fonó, 2023 FA 527-2). The fragments of the melodies stuck in the folk musician's mind are assembled into a strange new matter. Soma Salamon is known from many Hungarian folk and world music formations, as Magos, Erdőfű, Fanfara Complexa, Buda Folk Band. As an active performer, ethnomusicologist, he is involved in many dimensions of traditional music, and for many years a constant in the Hungarian folk scene. His first individual EP is a solo project in the literal sense of the word, as the author is the sole contributor to the album. In addition, the genre classification of his visionary music is not easy either: it's neither a folk music, nor adaptation, as there are no existing folk tunes on the album. A meditation of a wind musician, steeped in tradition and personal impressions, wandering in the forest of his own thoughts. „If you ask what kind of music it is, I don't know the answer. Curious I was, I set off, along a dim, unknown path, towards myself. Before I turned back, strange tunes joined by my side. They have no age, their merit is a mystery. They break and fuse, hold together and scatter. If you listen to them in one, they have a story perhaps. Fleeting thoughts, forgotten memories: strange drawings of my subconsious.”

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Kékfestő – Traditional Hungarian textile printing and indigo dying. This is a description of the small indigo textile printing and dying workshop in Kecskemét, Hungary created by the authors of the article. Also described is the group they have founded: Friends of Hungarian Indigo Textile Dying, in the framework of which they organize meetings and relevant workshops for those interested in the craft. A summary is included of their travels to a peninsula in the Gujarat region of India where many traditional textile crafts are practiced. By Hungarian textile artists Vidák István and Nagy Mari.

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The Nomad Generation during Hungary’s Kádár era/’Kádár’s Arcadia’. By ethnographer, writer Zelnik József – Part 1. Written in 2012 this is an intellectual philosophical piece discussing Hungary’s back to the roots ’Nomad Generation’ and the dance house movements and their place in Hungarian history. He discusses what the re-discovery of folk art and its celebration in dance and music – meant in the early years of the movement. This long article examines the cultural/social/political environment in which the ’renaissance of Hungarian folk arts’ appeared. He discusses ’what really happened over the last half century in Hungary’. In this process he mentions the Bible, Satan, Israel and the Jews, Trianon, Áczél György, Makovecz, many ’isms (social-, liberal-, human-, commun-, progressiv-, utopia-, modern-, etc), the political philosophy of Eric Vogelin, ’gnostic movements’ and Csoóri Sándor (poet, writer, 1930-2016 – ’the true intellectual leader of the dance house movement’). Excerpt from his final comments: ”….through free [recreational] folk dancing, the [dance house] movement found the freedom that was prohibited from social life [of the period] …”

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New Publication: Bonchida folk music I–II. Virágvölgyi Márta and Árendás Péter. Two volumes totaling 380 pages include ethnographic background material and technical studies of playing technique of the Transylvanian traditional musicians of the village of Bonchida/Bonțida. The focus is on the repertoire of four lead fiddlers, it also includes playing technique for accompaniment and a DVD. Published as part of a series by the Óbudai Népzenei Iskola and Zenei Anyanyelv Alapítvány with support from the Csoóri Sándor Fund. Budapest 2020. Recommended by Koncz Gergő.

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Opinion: on the dance house movement’s and Hungarian folk culture’s relationship to the digital world and technology, especially during the Corona virus pandemic. "...a digital revolution didn’t occur in folk culture…they haven’t been prepared for using social media, their messages get lost in the digital labyrinth....” He points out all the advantages of communication, marketing and outreach and ‘being trendy’ via social media and the internet as a means for spreading the word of Hungarian folk culture. He feels reform in these areas is necessary so that Hungarian children can grow up knowing about their culture... By Gundy Kristóf.

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New Publicaton: Korniss Péter: HOSSZÚ ÚTON/THE LONG ROAD – Szék/Sic 1967–2022; photographer Korniss Péter’s most recent photo album. For the last 55 years Korniss has returned regularly to photograph the people and life in the Transylvanian village of Szék. Korniss was born (in 1937) not far away from Szék in the Transylvanian city of Kolozsvár/Cluj Napoca, where he spent his childhood – then his family moved to Budapest in 1949. He didn’t visit the village of Szék until 1967. His haunting photographs document traditional life and changes the community has seen. Published by Brokart, Csíkszereda, Romania 2023. ISBN 9786068994628. Printed here is Bartis Attila’s forward from the book.

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P. Vas János’ column: Old writings still interesting today. Superstition and beliefs from all over the Hungarian language area - related to the parts of the body (the heart, nails, hair, teeth, bones, skull, shadow, foot prints, freckles, hair care, bathing, etc). From a book by Fazekas and Székely published by Magvető Kiadó, Budapest. 1990. (based on Szendrey and Szendrey’s Dictionary of Superstitions)

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On History’s Path – Kóka Rozália tracks the fates of Székely Hungarian families relocated from Bukovina: Fabián Margit was born in the village of Andrásmező/Tomislavci in the Bacska region of northern Serbia in 1943 during WW II. Her family were Székely Hungarians recently arrived in Serbia from Bukovina. Less than 2 years after she was born Margit’s family had to flee from Serbia. They ended up in Hungary’s Tolna County, where she was able to study beyond elementary school to teachers training college. Eventually she became an active ethnographer focusing her collection work and publications on the customs and traditions of Bukovina Székely Hungarians. She came from a tradition preserving family known as good singers. List of publications included.

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Agócs Gergely: [Variants of Hungarian folk melody types found amongst the folk music of the Northern Caucasian ’Nogaj’ ethnic group] – Part 1. Over the last 22 years ethnomusicologist Agócs Gergely has been exploring and documenting the folk music of the ’Nogaj’ people in the foothills region of the Northern Caucausus in an effort to find possible parallels to Hungarian folk music. He finds that 70% of the Nogaj traditional melody types fit into the morphological system of Hungarian folk music. Agócs has documented some 2800 folk melodies there. Since 2014 he has been working with ethnographer and Turkologist Somfai Kara Dávid on analysing the documented material. In this study Agócs offers examples of parallel melodies from Hungarian and Nogaj traditional music culture. An interesting note is that many from the oldest generation of his informants had been born in tents and had memories of nomadic life practicing large animal husbandry. They spent winters at the foot of the Caucausus, summers some 1500-2000 kilometers north in wooded plains areas. First published in [Myth and History II] – a collection of studies published in celebration of ethnographer Hoppál Mihály’s 80th birthday – European Folkore Institute. Edited by Hoppál Bulcsú, Szabados György. Budapest, 2022.

English Table of Contents 2021/2  

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New-release: CD for children by Korpás Éva

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Kóka Rózália: final part in her series on the folk custom of kiböjtölés – ’fasting out’. She examines this custom practiced by Bukovina Székely Hungarians which involves several days or weeks of fasting and praying to rid oneself of bad luck or bad feelings, or to wish approriate punishment on someone who has wronged you. Here actual quotes from interviews with informants are provided giving specific examples on ’fasting out’ with helpful intentions - such as wishes for: healing, good luck, for someone’s safe return to home, knowing a time of death. Examples are also provided for ’fasting out’ to wish harm on someone for: stealing, causing harm, slander (defamation), abuse, injury caused, disappointment or desertion in love and murder. Between 1968 and 1970 Kóka Rozália collected 150 stories about this custom from Bukovina Székely Hungarians settled in Hungary’s Tolna, Baranya and Bács-Kiskun Counties.

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Poems by Bálint-Fecske Emese

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Hungarian food and tradition – A short history of the wafer from the communion wafer through a thin waffle-like unleaved biscuit snack known as ’Molnárkalács’. The Hungarian village of Borsodnádas is known for making this wafer-thin cracker-like snack food. This writing traces the roots of this tradition going back to the ancient greeks and eucharist wafers used in religious ceremony. Making of wafers for religious use was done in cloisters. In Hungary the church cantor or wife of the deacon made them. Since the end of the 20th century it has been the task of the bishopric. Old secular wafer recipes have been found in France from the 1300s and in Holland from the 1500s where they are referred to as ’wafel’. Wafers gained popularity in France in the 1700s as ingredients changed with secular use. In Hungary the oldest iron wafer cooking forms are from the 16th century. Hungarian cookbooks from the 18th and 19th centuries include recipes for wafer making. By ethnographer Juhász Katalin.

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György Martin, the Bartók in Ethnochoreology – House of Music Hungary (2023/10/29 )

György Martin is one of the most influential figures in Hungarian and, what’s more, international folk-dance research, someone whose work can be compared to that of Bartók and Kodály. The House of Music Hungary and the Hungarian Heritage House are holding a joint professional day to honour the memory of György Martin. The evening will feature the dancers and orchestra of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, György Martin's foster son Péter Éri and his children Katalin Éri and Márton Éri, and their fellow musicians. As a special guest, Ulf-Arne Johannessen, one of the most outstanding representatives of the Norwegian dance tradition, which has much in common with Hungarian dance, will also step up onto the stage.

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Folk music in Western India’s Kutch District of the Gudjarat Province. While not ethnomusicologists, the writers of this account are textile folk artists who travel to India often. Here they provide observations and impressions of a concert they attended in the city of Bhuj some 6 years ago. By Nagy Mari, Vidák István.

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Tradition related to death in the village of Lészped/Lespezi in Romanian Moldavia as described by Hungarian Csángó Moldavian informants from the village. These are rural customs of an impoverished agrarian culture, where everything to do with death occurred in the home, until the 3rd day when a procession carried a dead relative to mass, then to the cemetery for burial. Subject matter presented: Signs/superstitions of impending death, dying, customs for preparing the body, crying/wailing for the dead, the funeral procession from the house to the church for mass then burial, remembering the dead, the feast at home after the burial, the grieving period. Rather than visiting the dead in the cemetery, everyone ‘visits’ the dead in their thoughts, dreams, in family conversation... By Halász Péter.

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An article about the dance house in Budapest from the beginning of the seventies, by Csoóri Sándor. (Originaly was published in Tükör, 9th of January, 1973.)

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Csatári Bence's article about the history of the dance house movement and its role in Hungarian cultural life. (Originaly was published on orszagut.com, 20th of October 2020)

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The first ever European Folk Day will take place on Saturday, 23rd September 2023.

From grassroots communities to national organisations, and from individual musicians to companies involved in traditional arts at any level, anyone can get involved.
European Folk Day is by you, for you, for us…

The traditional arts are an essential element of European cultural identity and diversity. They are a source of wealth of a magnitude we can only begin to imagine.

There are millions of us who work, create and actively participate in this fundamental element of our culture. It’s time to celebrate that!

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Series called Táncház 50 – articles, stories and memories from earlier years of the dance house movement. Folk dancer, dance teacher, researcher Redő Júlia remembers she went (in the mid 1990s) to the Roma community of Őrkő in Transylvania (a district of the city of Sepsiszentgyörgy/Sfântu Gheorghe, Romania) to collect and learn the Gypsy dance there. Finally she writes about going to Gyimes (also in Transylvania) in 1990 and watching the people there dance. As a dancer her recollections and descriptions are centered around the finer points of the dancing she observes and how that nourishes her own dancing when she performs, teaches or just dances.

Page 28
Life in Old Bukovina (Kóka Rozália’s column). The story of a man called Ambarus, a farmer, the kind of person who named his dog named Friend; a peaceful man who loved animals, his fellow man, God and nature. His wife, on the other hand, carried two swords and used them often… One day Ambarus went out to plow. At lunch time he sat down and ate the scanty lunch his wife packed for him, afterwards he was just about to enjoy the one precious cigarette that had been doled out to him, but first he needed a drink of water. Tragically he dropped his cigarette down the well. By Lőrincz Gergely.

Page 34
Left-handed Transylvanian stringed instrument players. Classical music training obliges left-handed musicians to adapt to the right-handed playing format. However, left-handed Transylvanian village musicians did not have to adapt to the rules of the right-handed classical music world. Their approaches to adapting their instruments have been varied – no particular rule had to be followed: the village musicians have done whatever works for them to get the sound they need. This is a list of left-handed traditional violinists, viola/kontra, cello and double bass players. The list was formed on the basis of personal observation during collection work, and from collection results, photos and recordings in archives at the Hungarian Heritage House. By Árendás Péter.

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The Nomad Generation during Hungary’s Kádár era/’Kádár’s Arcadia’. By ethnographer, writer Zelnik József – Part 2. Written in 2012 this is an intellectual philosophical piece discussing Hungary’s back to the roots ’Nomad Generation’ and the dance house movements and their place in Hungarian history. He discusses what the re-discovery of folk art and its celebration in dance and music – meant in the early years of the movement. This long article examines the cultural/social/political environment in which the ’renaissance of Hungarian folk arts’ appeared. He discusses ’what really happened over the last half century in Hungary’. In this process he mentions the Bible, Satan, Israel and the Jews, Trianon, Áczél György, Makovecz, many ’isms (social-, liberal-, human-, commun-, progressiv-, utopia-, modern-, etc), the political philosophy of Eric Vogelin, ’gnostic movements’ and Csoóri Sándor (poet, writer, 1930-2016 – ’the true intellectual leader of the dance house movement’). Excerpt from his final comments: ”….through free [recreational] folk dancing, the [dance house] movement found the freedom that was prohibited from social life [of the period] …”

Page 42
Conversation with Andrásfalvy Bertalan (born 1931) the last living member of the group of Hungarian folk dance researchers who starting in the 1950s did significant documentation work on traditional dances on location in Hungary and in Hungarian communities in surrounding countries. Mr. Andrásfalvy talks about the period when the dance research group was forming and the beginning of the revival movement. These are Andrásfalvy’s accounts of the early days of doing traditional dance collection work in the field. He mentions working with Martin, Maácz, Belényesi Márta, the Pesovár brothers, Kallós, and others. From an interview done by Sebő Ferenc and Dénes Zoltán in 2005 which was recently broadcast on Sebő’s program on Bartók Rádió in May of 2023.

English Table of Contents 2021/3  

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Conversation with photographer, documentary film maker Dénes Zoltán – Part I.. Much of his work has been on subjects related to the dance house movement, though he has also been involved in projects documenting architecture in Hungary and ethnography of the peoples of Asia. He worked with film director Szomjas György until his death in 2021 on the series of portrait films on traditional village musicians which then expanded to key figures of the dance house movement. He also frequently works with Sztanó Hédi. Dénes Zoltán first came in contact with the táncház in the mid 1970s. He played in the band that accompanied the folk dance ensemble in Székesfehérvár for 10 years (until 1985), then went on to photography. By Grozdits Károly.

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P. Vas János’ column: Old writings still interesting today. Superstition and beliefs from all over the Hungarian language area – related to predictions and dreams. From a book by Fazekas and Székely published by Magvető Kiadó, Budapest. 1990. (based on Szendrey and Szendrey’s Dictionary of Superstitions)

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Karibi éjszaka [Carribean night] – Széki Soós János’ column. A story about a Hungarian tourist on holiday in the Carribean begins when he is listening to local Puerto Rican music. After the Puerto Rican band, came another band that played international standards. The musicians were Hungarians of course. Our tourist describes other Hungarians he met including the musicians and also a prostitute from the café. Excerpt from the novel „Iker” [Twin] by Simó Márton.

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Between Sets, Behind Bows

What does folk music currently sound like? What is it like to be a folk musician nowadays? What is it like to play music for yourself? What is it like to play for others? What happens between two dance schedules? What is life like behind the bow? These are the questions we try to answer for the soundscape that was so characteristic of the Carpathian Basin and which has now become part of our lives, although we were not ourselves born into it. The concert will start with an informal discussion moderated by István Berecz.

House of Music Hungary production

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From the programmes of National Dance Theatre

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Agócs Gergely: [Variants of Hungarian folk melody types found amongst the folk music of the Northern Caucasian ’Nogaj’ ethnic group] – Part 2. Over the last 22 years ethnomusicologist Agócs Gergely has been exploring and documenting the folk music of the ’Nogaj’ people in the foothills region of the Northern Caucausus in an effort to find possible parallels to Hungarian folk music. He finds that 70% of the Nogaj traditional melody types fit into the morphological system of Hungarian folk music. Agócs has documented some 2800 folk melodies there. Since 2014 he has been working with ethnographer and Turkologist Somfai Kara Dávid on analysing the documented material. In this study Agócs offers examples of parallel melodies from Hungarian and Nogaj traditional music culture. An interesting note is that many from the oldest generation of his informants had been born in tents and had memories of nomadic life practicing large animal husbandry. They spent winters at the foot of the Caucausus, summers some 1500-2000 kilometers north in wooded plains areas. First published in [Myth and History II] – a collection of studies published in celebration of ethnographer Hoppál Mihály’s 80th birthday – European Folkore Institute. Edited by Hoppál Bulcsú, Szabados György. Budapest, 2022.

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New publication: Zsíros Tibor: [Pictures, Memories of Moldavia and Transylvania 1974–1990]. Fekete Sas, 2021 Budapest. ISBN 978 615 6168 139 includes CD. Selected photographs and the forward to this book are printed in this issue of folkMAGazin. In the forward, geophysicist Zsíros Tibor describes his first trip to Transylvania in 1974 with some of the conditions and challenges of travelling there, also describing the amazing humanity of the people he met there.

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New CD

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Awards given by the government on the 20th of August 2023.

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Series called Táncház 50 – articles, stories and memories from earlier years of the dance house movement. Folk dancer, dance teacher, researcher Redő Júlia writes about going to Gyimes (in Transylvania) in 1990 and watching the people there dance. As a dancer her recollections and descriptions are centered around the finer points of the dancing she observes and how that nourishes her own dancing when she performs, teaches or just dances.

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Interview with rock musician, music, film, theatre producer Jantyik Csaba about his work with the late Szomjas György (1940–2021). Halmos Béla introduced Jantyik Csaba to Szomjas about a 10 years ago. After that Csaba worked closely with Szomjas on many projects including documentary films, both the theatre production and the film entitled „Betyárjaték”; on a total of 35 films and other projects. Csaba was a fan of Szomjas’ ’city films’ first of all, then through their work together, became familiar with the folk music side of Szomjas’ work. By Grozdits Károly.

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Sebő Ferenc: The Dance House and Science – This piece begins with the following paragraph: "With this presentation I would like to recall the bustling, agitated period at the begining of the 1970s that was heavy with argument and hard work. What resulted was a renaissance of instrumental folk music, the emergence of a new form of entertainment – the dance house, and as a side effect the staged folk dance movement saw a renewal.” Sebő’s presentation is organized under the following headings: music, the dance house movement’s connection to related fields of science, folk dance, the results of folk dance research and collection. This article from 2012 was presented at a conference celebrating of the 40th anniversary of the first dance house held in Budapest in 1972. Presentations from the conference were then published in a volume entitled: "Meg kell a búzának érni".

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Conversation with folk singer Horváti Kata – main character in the late Szomjas György’s film „Vagabond” (2003). This film was a documentary/fiction film about the dance house movement. „It was important for the main characters in the film to be played by young people from the dance house – not actors….with only slight exaggeration, half the dance house movement was in the film and everyone participated as if it were another dance house event, another adventure.” The film was shown at festivals in Berlin, Moscow, Leeuwarden and in Budapest. Alongside his other projects Szomjas’ continued making documentary films about important figures of the dance house movement until his death. By Grozdits Károly.

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Gypsy music? Peasant music? Folk music! The Hungarian State Folk Ensemble’s 70th Anniversary. Important changes in the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble began in 1981 when Timár Sándor was named artistic director. Timár arrived from his post as director of the Bartók Ensemble with the goal of transplanting his new model for staging folk dance/folklore to update the State Ensemble’s repertoire. Until that time the State Ensemble had been functioning on the original model used since it was established in 1951. „…it would be great if the three artistic bodies of the ensemble [dance corps, chorus, musicians] were able to use Hungarian folk dance, music and song in its original form – the simpler natural form…” This article continues by tracing the succession of the folk musicians from the dance house movement that have played for the ensemble since 1981. By Árendás Péter, Szecsődi Barbara and Vavrinecz András.

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Life in Bukovina – from the writings and drawings of Lőrincz Gergely from the village of Istensegíts/Țibeni. Told in Bukovinan Hungarian dialect, this story is about the birth of a baby boy, Istánka, born in the fall during the potato harvest. His father was sent for the midwife who lived on the lower edge of the village. On the way home, he stopped by the pub – not to drink – but to get a bottle of pálinka which was part of the pay for the midwife’s services. It was hoped that the baby boy would be as good a handy man as the grandfather he was named for. In fact the little boy had a gift for drawing, but the hard work needed for survival in a Bukovinan village perhaps 100 years ago – didn’t allow time for a child to cultivate such artistic talents. But Istánka became a good man who appreciated the beautiful things in life. He married the most beautiful girl in the village who also had a beautiful soul. Kóka Rozália’s column.

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On the Path of History – Kóka Rozália’s series. Part 2. Rudolf László was born in Bátaszék in Hungary’s Tolna County in the 1950s. His mother was from Józseffalva/Vornicenii Mici, Bukovina. He grew up amongst his mother’s family – all Székely Hungarians from Bukovina. He went to Bukovina for the first time in 1981 with his mother to visit her home village. He was deeply moved and returned to the village many, many times over the next four years. As a result he became interested in tracing the family tree of his Bukovina relatives. A computer programmer by trade he developed his own computer program for mapping family trees out from Józseffalva’s church birth, death and marriage records. Later the project extended to mapping out family trees of the whole village. Then he took on the same project for other Bukovina Székely villages, working from church records with his computer program. In the process he also amassed a sizable collection of photographs and became active in an international organization of people from Bukovina. From a conversation recorded on February 25, 2021.

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Conversation with photographer, documentary film maker Dénes Zoltán – Part II.. Much of his work has been on subjects related to the dance house movement, though he has also been involved in projects documenting architecture in Hungary and ethnography of the peoples of Asia. He worked with film director Szomjas György until his death in 2021 on the series of portrait films on traditional village musicians which then expanded to key figures of the dance house movement. He also frequently works with Sztanó Hédi. Dénes Zoltán first came in contact with the táncház in the mid 1970s. He played in the band that accompanied the folk dance ensemble in Székesfehérvár for 10 years (until 1985), then went on to photography. The number of films listed in his filmography (see article in Hungarian) is impressive. By Grozdits Károly.

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P. Vas János’ column: Old writings still interesting today. Superstition and beliefs from all over the Hungarian language area – regarding common health problems such as: toothaches, jaundice, erysipelas or St. Anthony's fire, abscesses, etc. "When does a person get jaundice? For example after peeking in the window of a house where someone has just died, or if he happens to step in water used to wash the dead, or when he uses the brush of someone who just passed away, or when the coins used to cover the eyes of the dead happen to come into someone’s hands." From a book by Fazekas and Székely published by Magvető Kiadó, Budapest. 1990. (based on Szendrey and Szendrey’s Dictionary of Superstitions)

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Interview with Pávai István – esteemed honorary director of the Hungarian Heritage House. Mr. Pávai talks about his career and work as an ethnomusicologist, starting in his native Transylvania, and then after he relocated to Budapest in 1994 to work with the folk music collections of the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography and the Institute of Musicology. When the Hungarian Heritage House was established in 2001 (20 years ago!) he also joined the staff there. He has been instrumental in the folk music collection project known as „Utolsó Óra/Final Hour”, has developed and initiated cataloging, archival procedures and related data bases for the collections of all three institutions, has curated important exhibitions at the Hungarian Heritage House honoring the folk music collection work of Bartók Béla, Kodály Zoltán, Lajtha László and Vikár Béla and authored the accompanying publications. The list of his other publications is lengthy. By Csinta Samu.

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Announcement for an exhibition at the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography presenting rarely seen photographs of Hungarian gypsies from the 1950s from the estate of Erdős Kamill (1924–1962). Erdős’s method, referred to as ’both progressive and subjective’, reflects his unique relationship to the Gypsy communities near his home in eastern Hungary and other parts of Hungary. The exhibition came about through combined efforts of the National Museum of Ethnography and the Erkel Ferenc Museum of Gyula, Hungary and can be seen in Budapest until February 4, 2024.

English Table of Contents 2021/4  

Page 3
Remembering Zsoldos István „Pista bácsi” Forrószeg, Szék/Sic, Transylvania (Romania) 1934 October 4 – 2021 May 9. Zsoldos István had an outstanding knowledge of the local traditional dances, particularly the men’s dance known locally as „tempo”. This study sums up Pista bácsi’s descriptions of his generation that produced a large number of excellent men dancers in the village. He spoke of „the golden age of Szék dance and music” as the period when he was young. In the early 1930s an unusually large number of boys were born who reached the age of 12-14 during WWII. One of the Szék musicians described the Forrószeg dance house of the time to be like a beehive. The „sponsors” taught the boys to dance. „…from the end of the 1940s to the end of the 1950s there were weekends in Szék when 6-8 dance events were held at the same time.” Musicians and others known as excellent dancers are described, as well as Pista bácsi’s wedding in 1959. By dance ethnographer Varga Sándor.

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A short piece about a trip to the village of Ördöngösfüzes/in Transylvania’s Mezőség region in the mid 1980s. The village is well-known amongst dance house movement folks for its beautiful dances and music. This is a humble description of amateur dance and music collection efforts at a wedding there. They soon ran out of super 8 film and empty cassettes, so they „watched the dancers, drank the beer and were present at the event.” They had hoped to see some kind of unusual wedding dance tradition. The local people told them such a thing would occur at dawn. They were surprised/disappointed when well into morning the next day people stood up excitedly to dance what is known as the ’stork dance’, in Hungarian „gólyatánc” – a couple dance from the layer of dances danced by the bourgeoise from the end of the 19th century (perhaps something similar to this: ) By Szávai József.

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Concerts in december in the House of Music.

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New publication: Máder László: Népdalszótár [Hungarian Folk Song Dictionary]. Akkord Zenei Kiadó Kft. 2021. [In Hungarian] Highly recommended for those interested in understanding the true meaning of Hungarian folk song texts. Many expressions in Hungarian folk song texts are not understandable for young people today because so many words are no longer in everyday use. Sources used for the dictionary were by folk music researchers Kodály Zoltán, Vargyas Lajos and Járdányi Pál. Review by Vavrinecz András.

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Digital folk dance 2021 – In February of 2021 the Hungarian Heritage House with the Hungarian Academy of Dance sponsored a discussion of good practices for online dance teaching. Sixteen projects were submitted and an online conference was held on March 27th. It was attended by 140 people. A jury of folk dance teaching experts judged the entries. Submitted projects covered folk dance teaching for all age groups from pre-school aged children through adults. The initiative was prompted by online teaching requirements during the COVID pandemic. Entries by Gordos Anna, Tóth Bence and Kozma Gergely were praised. Reports by Sándor Ildikó, Kozma Gergely, Tóth Bence and Verhóczki Milán.

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From the programmes of National Dance Theatre

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New CD of Paár Julcsi: „Fox Dance"

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Galambos Tibor (Budapest, 1931. Sept. 16.) professional dancer, choreographer, documentary filmmaker, cultural and arts manager, director of Budapest’s Fészek Arts Club for 40 years. This article pays tribute to the life work of Galambos Tibor upon his 90th birthday. He danced professionally for 20 years (SZOT, Honvéd, Budapest Folk Dance Ensembles), started the Néptáncantológia (folk dance Anthology – yearly showcase of the best folk dance choreographies), was active in establishing „Táncművészet” magazine, the Táncszövetség, Táncfórum and the National Dance Theatre. Choreographer of 69 stage productions (for the Vasas, Avas, Vadrózsák, Erkel Ensembles), he is still active with the Erkel Ferenc Folk Dance Ensemble. He has produced and co-directed 28 films documenting works, masters, contemporary life and artistic vision in the Hungarian dance world. By Galambos’ student, Dr. Ónodi Béla.

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Tükrös Archive – Album Release Concert in Liszt Academy – Solti Hall

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New Publication – Nagy Károly Zsolt: Kunkovács

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Traditional hunting practices amongst the Moldavian Hungarians. In Moldavian Hungarian communities we can’t speak about upper-class sport of hunting with guns. Peasant methods of trapping, snaring, digging pits were used; aided by dogs, smoke, poison, homemade traps and metal traps made by Gypsy metal smiths, but rarely guns. They hunted fox, badger, rabbits, perhaps something like a weasel, mice, wild cats, birds, deer, stags, wild boar, wolves, more rarely bear. Wolves and wild boar were caught in pits with many sharpened stakes placed in the bottom of the pit that impaled and hopefully killed them. The main goal was to procure food. Badgers for example had good meat, their fat was preferred over pig fat and their tough skin made good shoes (local moccasins) and bags. The study begins by describing how to capture wild bee families… Information from many sources, time periods and personal collection over many decades is summarized here. By Halász Péter.

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On the Path of History – Kóka Rozália’s series. Interview with folk singer Fábián Éva – Part 1. Éva is a singer well-known from Kalamajka and Egyszólam ensembles. She was born in the Hungarian town of Szekszárd in 1959 and grew up in the village of Györe both in Hungary’s Tolna County. Her entire family (on both sides) were Székely Hungarians from the village of Andrásfalva/Măneuți in Bukovina. Éva tells about stubbornly insisting on being allowed to take music lessons as a young child. During elementary school, she competed every year in a folk song competition in the nearby town of Bonyhád. Back then the singing and music came instinctively without conscious knowledge of her Bukovina roots. Once following the advice of a singing teacher, Éva’s father gathered family members together and asked them to sing, thus providing Éva with a vocabulary of songs from her Bukovina relatives that she could sing at the competitions. She went to secondary school in Szekszárd and studied to be a pre-school teacher, where she attended 8 hours of singing lessons a week and learned excellent methods for teaching singing. Éva didn’t become actively conscious of her Bukovina heritage until 1975 when she was pursuaded to attend a camp for Bukovina Hungarians organized by Kóka Rozália… To be continued.

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Conversation with Sebő Ferenc one of the founders of the Hungarian Heritage House (HHH) – A good description of the background of this institution and discussion of the institutions that preceded it. The precursor institutions all had similar goals to the HHH, but the various political and cultural movements over the years naturally influenced their work, structures, and usage of folk material. The Institute of Folk Culture – the Népművészeti Intézet - was established in 1951 with the goal of directing the amateur folk movements. Despite political-philosophical views of the time, an enormous amount of field collection work was able to be accomplished in the early 1950s. 1956 naturally ‘brought change in the ideological winds’ and the institution was renamed Institute of People’s Recreation/Education, the „Népművelési Intézet”, where folk arts didn’t get the same emphasis as before, however a „folk dance department” was established, the task of which was to serve the folk dance movement, and field collection work was able to continue here. In 1964 the dance department was closed and their archives sent over to the Hungarian Academy of Science. In the beginning of the 1970s when the dance house movement took the „folk dances and music down from the stage” and began using them for [urban] recreational purposes, a new phase of tradition preservation began. Everyone was surprised by its popularity. Sebő negotiated with four governments before they were finally able to establish the present HHH, which could supply „appropriate government funding to secure tradition preservation in every form”. Specifically, at the time (20 years ago) that meant an institution which would embrace and support the Hungarian State Folk Dance Ensemble and the revival movement (the dance house movement) with archives, research and recreational work toward preserving Hungarian folk traditions. By Csinta Samu.

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Dances of Tyukod (Szabolcs-Szatmár County, Hungary). This article provides background information from dance collection fieldwork done in the area (mainly from 2000, 1960-61, and the 1950s) meant to assist those preparing for the 25th National Solo Dance Festival or anyone interested in traditional dances of the region. The dances concentrated on are: „magyar verbung” (which was danced as a solo men’s dance, as well as in a couple), „magyar szóló” – though the difference between the two remains unclear. Magyar verbung (sometimes also called verbunk) was danced to tunes that began on the lower strings of the fiddle. The dance is individual and improvised, everyone dances their own combinations of figures, but one main rule was that it began with and included „bokázó” (a heel clicking step). Specific tunes mentioned for these dances are: „Szól a füge madár”, „Ritka búza”. Influence/possible influence of a dance master and dance school in 1910 in Szatmárnémedi is mentioned. Some young men in Tyukod were taught by their fathers to dance in one place (not to travel the entire dance space). The names Gyenge Gáspár, Kajus László, Kiss Tibor, Szuromi Mária are mentioned as good dancers. By Busai Norbert.

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New release

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"My heart is playing...”
A Celebration of Folk Music – concert by Márta Sebestyén
In this iteration of the gala series celebrating Hungarian folk music since 2008, it will be a concert by Márta Sebestyén that brings together many of the players from the scene. This time the legendary singer, active since the '70s, will take the stage with the children of her colleagues, the umpteenth generation of the Hungarian dance house movement, proving that "the love of folk music is no passing fancy.” In addition to the Erdőfű Band, Söndörgő and the Béla Szerényi and Sons Hurdy-Gurdy Band, we will also get to hear the Palatka Gypsy Band and, hailing from Ireland, Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny, along with many other guests. We can look forward to a true folk music festival.

Page 48
Two Hungarian textile artists who visited Delhi, India in January 2020 describe street vendors and street food. Street vendors sell from dawn til late into the night. They sell fruit and vegetables, flowers (most popular: marigolds, roses), pastries, sweet potatoes, incense, leaves, prepared foods, drinks (tea, buffalo milk), fresh pressed fruit juices, other street foods. They take their wares to places where the most people come and go: train stations, bus stations, the old town, subway entrances. Mostly the vendors were men selling from four wheeled carts, though other interesting solutions were seen. By Nagy Mari and Vidák István.

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A Peasant Boy Emigrates – Part 1. Lives of Bukovinan Hungarians – Kóka Rozália’s column. It was early January 1957 when three Bukovina Székely Hungarian boys decided to leave Hungary and find the world, since it seemed like the Soviets would be ruling Hungary for a long time. They set out from the village of Csátalja on Hungary’s southern border and crossed over into Serbia where they were sent to a camp in Stara Moravica and received scanty provisions from the Red Cross. Later single men were seperated out and sent to a camp in the Balkan Mountains where German SS soldiers had been imprisoned after WWII. Most of this story is about the time they spent there, the kind of people they met, the local Serbians and conditions in the camp. They were bored and waiting, but they were allowed to fish and swim in the Drina River. After a time those in the camp who had relatives abroad who would pay their tickets and sponsor them, began to leave. Those with no relatives or contacts had to wait for work opportunites, and there weren’t many for uneducated farmers. Finally in October of 1957 our protagonist signed a contract to go to Belgium and work as a miner. They were taken by train through Zrenjanin, then Titel and on to the west. From the writings and drawings of Lőrincz Gergely.

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New Year's Greeting – Families Greeting the New Year
Ringing in the New Year is a long-established tradition for the Hungarian Heritage House. Taking the spotlight in 2024 will be families engaged with folk music, folk dance, and folk art, whether as micro-communities, dance ensembles, or families that continue to actively produce folk art. Setting the overall theme of the evening will be the violin duos of Béla Bartók, as performed by violinist Barnabás Kelemen and his son Gáspár Kelemen. These tunes, accompanied by dance productions, will take us through the most beautiful regions of the Carpathian Basin.

English Table of Contents 2021/5  

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Are the Hungarians a nomadic, or an agrarian people? – Part 1. The skewed picture of Hungarians – reasons for historical tragedies and current problems. This study examines and argues these statements: The arrival of the Hungarian tribes to the Carpathian Basin put an end to the spread of the flourishing Slav religions. The Hungarians massacred everyone that came into their path, then settled down in their places. Was this really how it happened? Allegedly, even in 1996 certain Slavic neighbors referred to the Hungarians as ’thieving nomads’. A lecture given in 2006 by ethnographer, university professor, politician Andrásfalvy Bertalan who celebrates his 90th birthday on the 17th of November 2021.

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P. Vas János’ column: Old writings still interesting today. Superstition and beliefs from all over the Hungarian language area – related to the Christmas season and New Years. One example: if a girl wants to marry and her family raises pigs, she should go barefooted out to the pigpen during the Christmas midnight mass and kick the planks of the pigpen. If the pig oinks once, then the girl will marry within the year; but if the pig oinks twice it will be two years before the girl marries, and so on. From a book by Fazekas and Székely published by Magvető Kiadó, Budapest. 1990. (based on Szendrey and Szendrey’s Dictionary of [Hungarian] Superstitions)

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Adding sound to silent films documenting Hungarian folk dance: The film archives of the Hungarian Institute of Musicology contain an extensive collection on traditional dances of the Hungarian language regions. This article discusses the process of synchronizing existing silent films of dance – with the sound recordings of the music that were documented simultanously. Most of the silent films were made on 16 and 8 mm film. A professional film scanner which allows digitalization frame by frame and software to restore the the images are used for the process. This article summarizes process, problems and background behind the work being done for the Dance Research Department of the Hungarian Institute of Musicology. List of the archive films already synchronized with the music is included – many are available online at the link provided in the article in Hungarian, and on YouTube. The work is being done by Galát Péter, Antal Áron and Vavrinecz András in cooperation with colleagues of Dance Research Department of the Institute. The project receives support from the Csoóri Sándor Program and Martin György Folk Dance Association. Report by Galát Péter.

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List of those who received Erdélyi Zsuzsanna-award in 2021

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List of those who received Prima Junior award in 2021

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The Secret of the Chest – Danceplay not only for children
Performance of Fitos Dezső Company – Klebersberg Kultúrkúria, 2023. december 27.

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This is the speech that officially opened the Vas County Village Museum on August 20, 1973 in Szombathely, Hungary. The speech was given by Hungarian ethnographer and politician Dr. Ortutay Gyula. „The museum presents traditional architecture of all the ethnic groups in the county … Hungarian, Slovenian (»Vend«), Croatian and German.” Names of the sub-regions of Vas County represented at the museum are: Őrség, Hegyhát, Völgység, Kemenesalja, Rábavölgy, Kőszeghegyalja, Kisalföld, Vendvidék. First published in Vasi Szemle 1974/1.

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From the programmes of National Dance Theatre

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Nights of Dance Houses – Photo riport by Orbán Miklós.

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Novák Ferenc received the Kriterion Wreath Award. This Hungarian Transylvanian cultural award is given to exceptional personalities whose work has brought news of Transylvania to the world. Novák Ferenc „Tata” was born in Transylvania in 1931. Though he has lived the greater portion of his life in Hungary, the experiences of his Transylvanian childhood have greatly influenced his art and work. Novák was a founder of the Bihari Folk Dance Ensemble, artistic director and choreographer of the Honvéd Ensemble (now the National Folk Dance Ensemble) for some 30 years, and was amongst those who started the dance house movement. „His life and work has touched the lives of so many”. From the laudation at the award ceremony on October 9, 2021 at the Hungarian Heritage House in Budapest – by Korniss Péter.

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On the Path of History – Kóka Rozália’s series. Interview with folk singer Fábián Éva – Part 2. Éva is a singer well-known from Kalamajka and Egyszólam ensembles. She was born in 1959. She grew up in the village of Györe in Hungary’s Tolna County. Her family (on both sides) were Bukovina Székely Hungarians originally from the village of Andrásfalva/Măneuți. Éva’s interview continues with more about her early work as a nursery school teacher, the Kalamajka children’s dance houses, being a member of/working with Kalamajka and Egyszólam ensembles, the fate of the Kalamajka Ensemble, her joy in the fact that her son became a folk musician, some stories from her Bukovina family history.

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New publication: Fábián Éva mesél [Fábián Éva story teller]. This publication summarizes the knowledge of story teller Fábián Éva. She is well-known in the dance house movement also as singer with Kalamajka Ensemble and Egyszólam. Éva teaches both story telling and singing and is a frequent leader of children’s programs at the Hungarian Heritage House. The book in printed form with accompanying DVD (including a portrait film) will not be commercially released – it is available only to those in the teaching and story telling profession. However, the publication is available to the general public online via Hagyományok Háza (Hungarian Heritage House).

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Folk music concert in the Academy of Music

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Announcement for All Hungarians Dance/Minden Magyarok Tánca – a performance featuring selected dance material and choreography to be held in Budapest within the framework of the 2024 National Dance House Festival on Sunday April 7. Participation in the event is open to Hungarians who are folk dancers living in the diaspora, bringing them together in one performance. This year’s material will be dances of the Transylvanian town of Szék. Leaders, choreographers this year are Kádár Ignác and Nagypál Anett. Participants must register by e-mail before March 31, 2024. Dance material and details of the performance will be posted a few weeks before the event. The event is sponsored by the Táncház Association, the Élő Forrás Tradition Preserving Association and Hunyor Folk High School Association. Announcement by Kovács Norbert Cimbi, Berán István.

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The invitation to dance – in Hungarian tradition (Part 1.) This study examines customs, history and practices for inviting a partner to dance in a non-specified time in the past in traditional village society. It is organized under the following headings: the moment of inspiration [desire to dance]; learned and voluntary expresssion of invitation to dance; unwritten rules and the working reality – women’s and men’s roles; expressing the desire to dance; how men invite women to dance; the woman’s initiation/accepted individual methods; gestures and methods for inviting a partner to dance. For the most part, in traditional village communities: „the boy makes the moves, the girl waits”. Two levels of invitation to dance are discussed: invitation to the dance event and invitation to dance while already at a dance event. The author worked from 150 examples of related documentation found in a Hungarian Heritage House archive – the „Médiatár”. By Redő Júlia.

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Ildikó Sándor & Friends: Waiting for Easter, Greeting Spring – programme of House of Music

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Master hurdy-gurdy player and instrument maker Szerényi Béla has become a member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts. He has been playing hurdy-gurdy since 1986, was a student of traditional musician and instrument maker Bársony Mihály of Tiszaalpár, holds numerous awards for his artistry and craft. Excerpts from presentations given at the event when he took his chair amongst the members of the Academy on September 3, 2021 at the Pesti Vigadó, Budapest.

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Lakatos Károly – Hungarian story teller from Pálpataka/Valea lui Pavel in Transylvania’s Székelyföld region (Harghita County, Romania) received the title Master of Folk Arts in August 2021. Lakatos Károly was born in 1949, one of 8 children of a Székely Hungarian family in an isolated rural area of western Harghita County – where he still lives. Archaic traditions have survived longer in this remote area given that electricity and paved roads are newer additions. He has earned a living by raising Hungarian long-horned cattle, forestry work and making wooden toys and decorations. Lakatos Károly’s story telling falls under the ‘creative’ category (as opposed to the ‘reproducing or duplicating’ type). He creates his own stories using traditional story motifs. To date, 157 of his stories have been recorded. He was discovered by the folklore researchers about five years ago. His repertoire is currently being prepared for publication. One of his tales: „The Blacksmith and Mary” accompanies this report by Magyar Zoltán.

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Awards given by Dankó Rádió in 2023

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Zalán Csenki & fellow musicians: Cobza Rennaisance
Presented by Liszt Academy

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New publication: Csernók Klára – Árendás Péter: „Szilágysági népzene. Kanalas Imre dallamai” [Folk Music of Transylvania’s Szilágyság Region. Melodies played by Kanalas Imre] Hagyományok Háza. Budapest 2021. This volume presents tunes played by lead fiddler Kanalas Imre (1934–2018) from the village of Selymesilosva/Ilișua in the Tövishát district of the Szilágyság Region. It contains 59 traditional melodies known locally as: figurázó, verbunk (men’s dances), asztali nóta (table songs) and csárdás, ugrálós (couple dances) – that were documented in 1995 and 1996. The book intended for teaching/learning, also presents viola and double bass accompaniment. Includes sound and video material.

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Announcement for a soldier’s folk song competition – the competition is named after singer Balogh Márton (1946–2010) folk singer-solisist with the Honvéd Ensemble known for his characteristic voice quality and the old soldier and hussar songs he sung. Any Hungarian man or boy over the age of 14 may enter the competition and must sing at least one of Balogh Márton’s tunes. Following regional competitions, the final national competiton juried by professionals in the field and a gala program will be held in October 2024 at the Honvéd Cultural Center in Budapest. The competition is sponsored by Vitézi Ének Foundation and the Traditional Hungarian Hussar and Soldier’s Association.

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Short stories of a folk dance teacher.

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From the programmes of National Dance Theatre

English Table of Contents 2021/6  

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Kóka Rozália’s series: Moldavian Csángó Hungarian tales. After collecting folklore in Moldavia for 26 years, in 1995 Kóka Rozália went back again to collect tales for the first time. In the village of Pusztina/Pustiana she collected from two woman: Barta Mihályné and László Istvánné. She published their tales in her 2004 book: "Aranytojás” [Golden Egg].

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Musician Kerényi Robi has been an important figure in Budapest’s Gyimes and Moldavian dance house life since the late 1980s. In December 2023 Robi’s 60th birthday was celebrated at Budapest’s Marczibányi tér’s Guzsalyas dance house. Many friends and musicians came out to help celebrate. Printed here is the speech given by his long-time friend, colleague and co-founding member of Tatros Band and Guzsalyas dance house, Sándor Ildikó.

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Two short stories by Kincs István 1867–1942, priest, journalist, children’s writer: lived in Western Hungary. Sometime in the 1860s there was colony of Hungarian hussars stationed in the Czech city of Pardubitz/ Pardubice. The hussars were sad and homesick and continuously escaping from the barracks. It was decided that the cure would be to send them a band of Gypsy musicians from Hungary to lift their spirits. The second story is about Gypsies of the village of Nagyabony/Veľké Blahovo (today in southwestern Slovakia near the Hungarian border). The vajda of the Nagyabony Gypsies was a musician. When their favorite person Kossuth Lajos left Hungary, the Gypsy vajda decided they should leave too. As they prepared to leave, a letter arrived for the Gypsy vajda. They couldn’t read but assumed it was a letter from Kossuth calling them to go play for him in exile. When they found out it was only a letter calling them to Pardubitz to play for the Hungarian hussars stationed there – they decided not to go.

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New Publication: Andrásfalvy Bertalán: Mátyás és a török basa [Mátyás and the Turkish Pasha]. Forty five Hungarian folk tales collected by Andrásfalvy Bertalan from eleven story tellers in nine communities mostly in Hungary’s Tolna County. The collection work was done between 1950 and 1963. The publication includes an audio book. The volume was funded by the Hungarian National Cultural Fund and Petőfi Cultural Agency, with professional support from Eötvös Loránd University, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungarian Institute of Musicology, Pécs Museum of Ethnography. In Hungarian. Published by Magyar Versmondók Egyesülete, 2021, Budapest.

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New CD: Magos: Bartók 1914 – Egy erdélyi gyűjtőút nyomában
Released by Fonó in 2023. (FA-531-2)

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Young Masters of Folk Art. This article briefly discusses the process of application to earn this title and procedure of assessment by juries of folk arts experts. The article concentrates on applicants for the title of Young Master of Folk Arts in the folk dance category. The author himself is a folk dancer who holds this title and who has been serving on the juries for this section since 2017. This year he was surprised when for the first time since he’s been involved in the jurying process, the decision of the jury of folk dance experts was overridden by the committee at the Ministry and the title was bestowed on a dancing couple that had not been amongst those chosen by the jury of dance experts. In light of this, the jury member who wrote this report resigns from further related jury service. He states that when the decision of the jury of dance experts is not respected, there is no need to continue. By Dr. Ónodi Béla, certified dance teacher, university professor, Young Master of Folk Arts.

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The 25th National Solo Folk Dance Festival was held October 29-31 in Békéscsaba, Hungary. This two day dance competition for adult folk dancers is held every 2 years. A jury of folk dance experts rates the dancers and decides on awards. Busai Norbert was president of the jury this year. The best men dancers recieve Golden Spur awards, the women Golden Pearl awards. There are first time winners, second time winners and ’eternal’ holders of these awards. This year 14 special awards were also given. Dancers compete with three dances: two compulsory dance progressions and one improvised dance of the dancer’s choice. Entrants either dance solo, or in a couple. „This year for the first time in six years, there wasn’t a difference in level of dancing expertise between the compulsory performance and the improvised performance…The tempo of dance technique development is at times frightening...” List of winning dancers in the Hungarian article. Report by Fodor Zsófia, photos by Majnik Zsolt.

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Grecsó Krisztián: This article discusses the 50 year old adult level solo folk dance competition held every two years in the town of Békescsaba in Eastern Hungary and its YouTube channel (Országos Szólótáncfesztivál) which has current as well as archive video footage of competitors at this festival over the years. The author recommends specific videos of three dancers: Balogh Béla, Gál László, Kökény Richárd. While not the main point of the article, he makes an observation on the method used for documenting the dancers in the competition: „At first I thought that the fixed camera position would be disturbing, but upon comparison with examples from the recent televised Páva folk competition where the camera flies like a peacock, dips and turns, shows the background lighting…..[I realized] we see everything BUT what the dancer is really doing…” First published in Élet és Irodalom 2024 February 16.

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Short stories of a folk dance teacher.

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Four new recordings: reviewed and recommended. „…So, the question is: Can the new folklore – created by this or that folk or world music project or band, for concerts, festivals and dance houses – be sent out to anyone outside of these circles? Here are four records that deserve recommendation to a wider circle...” The four records are: Kalász Banda: „Mozgásban” (Fonó 2021); Szabó Dániel and band: „Pázsint – Népzene Székelyföldről és a Felső-Maros mentéről” [Folk Music from Transylvania’s Székelyföld and Upper Maros Region] (Fonó 2021); a children’s record by Paár Julcsi’s Hangoló project: „Kerekutca” (Fonó 2021); Nagy Gábor and Pál István with Csizmadia Anna: „Ördögmuzsika” (self released 2021). Reviews by Rácz Mihály on langolo.hu 2021.10.28.

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Children’s story telling competitions in Transylvania’s Gyimes Valley. A series of children’s story telling contests grew out of a trip Kóka Rozália took to Gyimes in the spring of 2014 to perform at a celebration there. She was befriended by a 10 year girl who asked if she had brought any books with her. As a result of this question Rozália returned to Hungary and collected 1500 story books which she took to Gyimes in October of the same year. The first story telling contest was held February 21st, 2015. It was organized by local schools, teachers and clergy in the Gyimes Region and supported by the Lakatos Demeter Csángó Magyar Cultural Association, the folk arts section of the Hungarian Academy of Arts, and Hungarian educators from the nearby town of Csíkszereda/Miercurea Ciuc, Romania. Further story telling contests were held in the fall of 2015 and the spring of 2016. In 2017 the event grew into a story telling and folk song contest, and was held again in 2018 and 2019. The 2020 contest was cancelled because of the COVID epidemic. Report by Kóka Rozália. First published in the journal „Művelődés –Gyimesek” 2021/1-2. Kolozsvár, Romania.

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New publication: Jávorszky Béla Szilárd: 80 Szomjas év [80 Szomjas years]. Kossuth Kiadó, Budapest 2021 – in Hungarian. This is a book on the life of the late Hungarian film director Szomjas György (1940–2021). The author worked with Szomjas in the weeks before he died, with Szomjas telling his own life story in seven sessions recorded on dictaphone. Szomjas planned the book together with Jávorszky, who writes: „It is Szomjas’ memoir – it is his book and his story”. Szomjas’ films are visual documents of Hungarian popular life. He directed fiction films, documentaries and TV programs. Music was important or took a main role in most of his films. He loved both rock and roll and folk music. A portion of his work documented Hungarian traditional music – both Budapest’s revival folk movement and the traditional village master musicians. This book was released on November 26, 2021.

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Applauding the work of folk singer, story teller Fabián Éva upon becoming a member of the Hungarian Academy of the Arts on March 11, 2024. Éva is from a Bukovina Hungarian Székely family. Born in 1954 in the village of Györe in Hungary’s Tolna County, early on she became known for her singing voice, humor and personality. Her Bukovina heritage was a foundation for her work. She is a pre-school teacher, sang with both Kalamajka and Egyszólam ensembles and continues teaching and mentoring. Her folk tales have entertained generations of children at schools, children’s dance houses, folk camps. By folk musician, colleague and friend Juhász Zoltán.

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Interview with Transylvanian Hungarian writer, journalist Simó Márton upon his 60th birthday and recent publication of his book „A boldogabb ember” [A Happier Man] – Part II. The interview ends with these comments: „…I thought in December 1989 that we were on the way to a good democratic life, a better life….who would have thought that Pan European thought was so empty…that Americanization was so unhealthy?...here we are at the doorstep of so many different poles of world order – and at the edge of another clash thereof. I would like to understand the present. I hope for the soonest and most humane future that humans deserve...”

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On the Path of History – Kóka Rozália’s series. Jakab Éva – singer, school teacher, chorus leader from Tolna County, Hungary. Jakab Éva was born in 1960 in the town of Bonyhád. All of her relatives are Bukovina Székely people hailing mainly from the Bukovina village of Andrásfalva/Măneuți. As a child Éva spent summers with her grandmother in the village of Aparhant (Tolna County, Hungary) doing the customary farm chores of a Székely Bukovina family. When the time came, her family permitted her to continue her education, so she went to secondary school and then to teachers training school. This is the story of her life’s path as a teacher who was also a good singer and chorus leader. She led choruses in many different communities in Tolna County (Kölesd, Kéty, Kisdorog, Aparhant, Kakasd, Nagymányok, Tevel). She was encouraged to discover the songs of her Bukovinan heritage. When her chorus had a successful performance at a Bukovina Festival in Hungary, they went on to perform at festivals in Transylvania and in Transylvanian villages where Bukovina Székely people had once lived.

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Conversation with Both Miklós – new director of the Hungarian Heritage House. After 20 years with Kelemen László as head of the Hungarian Heritage House (HHH), this government funded institution has named a new director: Both Miklós. Besides the main center in Budapest, HHH has been expanding into a network of related institutions. New director Both Miklós is a musician who has been involved in the dance house movement since the mid 1990s. He began working at HHH in 2019, already knowing many of the other employees there for years. He plans to reorganize inner workings of the institution, forming groups with an administrator in each group, thus freeing up the other colleagues to concentrate on work in their area of folklore. Both Miklós names three types of people that participate in ’the movement’: there are the researchers; the performers – the dancers and musicians that perform folk material that has been collected by the researchers; and the organizers. He intends to encourage cooperation between other folklore organizations. By Csinta Samu.

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Kóka Rozália’s series: Moldavian Csángó Hungarian tales. After collecting folklore in Moldavia for 26 years, in 1995 Kóka Rozália went back again to collect tales for the first time. In the village of Pusztina/Pustiana she collected from two woman: Barta Mihályné and László Istvánné. She published their tales in her 2004 book: "Aranytojás” [Golden Egg].

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Continued from folkMAGazin 2024/1 – Two more chapters from an old tale of Gypsy musicians from Nagyabony/Veľké Blahovo (today’s Slovakia) and a colony of Hungarian Hussars in the Czech town of Pardubitz/Pardubice. It took two more letters to convince the Gypsy musicians to go to Pardubitz to cheer up the homesick Hungarian Hussar regiment. When the band of Gypsies arrived the Hussars shed tears of happiness and even their horses were dancing in celebration. However Pardubitz already had a brass band that served the town’s musical needs. A stand-off between the Gypsy musicians and the brass band occured during an event. The Gypsy musicians won-over the crowd and the city began to truely accept them. However, just as they were hired to play at the city’s best coffee house – the Gypsy musicians suddenly went back to their home village of Nagyabony. By Kincs István (1867–1942) priest, journalist, children’s writer: lived in Western Hungary.

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Folk Dance House Day 2024
Budatelke: De ungurime
Gyergyó: Marosszéki, lassú és gyors csárdás
Felső-Maros mente: Forduló és verbunk
Széki lassú, magyar és csárdás
Palatkai ritka és sűrű magyar, páros táncok
Magyarszováti magyar, sűrű magyar, lassú cigánytánc, szökős
Búzai lassú magyar, lassú énekkel és sűrű csárdás
Szatmári verbunk, oláhos, hallgató és csárdások

Featuring: Enyedi Ágnes, Sőregi Anna, Takács Anna (vocals), Virágvölgyi Márta, Pál István 'Szalonna' (violin), Halmos Attila, Harlet Ioan „Nucu”, Kodoba Florin, Kodoba Florinel, Mihó Attila (violin), András Orsolya (gardon), Juhász Zoltán (recorder), Fekete Antal 'Puma', Árendás Péter (kontra), Liber Endre (cimbalom), Tóth Máté (double bass), a Zeneakadémia Népzene Tanszékének hallgatói, Magos zenekar, Dűvő zenekar
A műsort szerkesztette: Kelemen László, Árendás Péter

Traditionally, the Folk Dance House Day is celebrated nationwide in Hungary on the anniversary of the first urban folk dance house. The concert at the Liszt Academy is part of a national event series, which has been organized jointly since 2022 by the Hungarian Heritage House, the Folk Music Department, and the Liszt Academy Concert Centre. The event explores the relationship between generations of the folk dance house movement – from a musical perspective. The fourth generation of folk dancers has grown up in the course of the more than five decades since the revival of the Hungarian folk dance house movement. Each generation sets new goals that are rooted in the work of their predecessors, while wishing to change it at the same time. A common point, however, is that each generation draws from the values of traditional peasant culture. Today, institutions such as the Hungarian Heritage House and the Folk Music Department of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music support this process, bringing generations closer to the sources of inspiration as much as possible.

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Tokos - Fokos - Pósfa: Completely Unexpected Situations in Folk Music

Colleagues, now, who will play and on what? It’s a good question, and at this concert the answer is far from certain! Highland (Pósfa), Transylvanian (Tokos), Vojvodinan (Fokos) – are three hard-working bands, each masters of their own genre, renowned and emblematic groups in their own regions. But how will they get along together on one stage? A border-crossing game of cross-border bands develops on stage at the House of Music Hungary, with a lot of humour and very few points of certainty, apart from the common language of Hungarian folk music that is. Anything can happen during this magical game of musical chairs: the cimbalom player from Vojvodina is forced to play the violin and the Transylvanian contras accompany him on the cimbalom; improvised musical blocks, melodies that match, marvellous musical moves played in a randomly mixed musical line-up. An interactive concert? For the musicians concerned it certainly is! Apart from Tokos, Fokos and Pósfa, there is one more figure playing on stage: serendipity... and the game master… István Berecz

English Table of Contents 2021/x  

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Karsai Zsigmond 1920–2011
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Karsai Zsigmond’s birth
folkMAGazin presents selected letters and documents from his estate

Page 2
"Special thanks to Szőkéné Károlyi Annamária for preparation of the selected documents and photographs from Karsai Zsigmond’s estate and making them available for this publication."

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Martin György: On Karsai Zsigmond – Master of Folk Arts – excerpts from the book:
Karsai Zsigmond, Martin György: "The dance life and dances of Lőrincréve". Hungarian Institute of Musicology, 1989 Budapest
Excerpts from the excerpts translated here:
“Karsai Zsigmond was born in the Transylvanian village of Lőrincréve [today Leorinț, Alba County, Romania] in 1920. Growing up in the typical rural community of that time, he didn’t leave his village until 1942 when he was called into military service and stationed in Chișinău, Moldavia. Granted sick leave, he escaped to Kolozsvár /Cluj Napoca and found work painting scenery for a theatre there. Then in the fall of 1943, he went to Budapest, where he was accepted to the Academy of Art to study painting and also joined an association of young college and university students from Szekélyföld (Transylvania). Since childhood he had wanted to be a painter. He also participated in the Szekely student association’s folk dance group where [choreographer, dancer, dance researcher] Molnár István noticed him and filmed Karsai dancing the dances of his native village. This was the first documentation of traditional dance from Karsai’s region of Transylvania. After the war he found work in the village of Pécel east of Budapest, married a girl from there, settled in the village [and lived there for the rest of his life]. His life was spent painting and travelling all over Hungary and beyond presenting the folk dance, songs and culture of his native village of Lőrincréve.”
„Karsai’s dance knowledge is a condensation of the dance tradition of his native village. He was suddenly cut off from his village in one of the most remote regions [of Transylvania] at the most impressionable period of his youth. Karsai’s dance knowledge preserves tradition of his village [as it was before WW II.] The lives of people who remained in the village changed quickly to accomodate the local changes, preserving much less from the memories of their youth. When Karsai visits with relatives and contemporaries from his native village they are amazed to find the memories from this youth more alive in Karsai, than at home. Living in a foreign land, his [extraordinary] memory has preserved a complete and correct picture of the past."
"We are especially lucky that since 1943 it has been possible to continuously document every facet of Karsai’s dance knowledge. Four decades of continuous research offers a special and rare opportunity to examine documentation more than 3000 beats long, of more than 60 dance improvisations.…..Because of Karsai’s example the researchers and choreographers have been amazed….[Through Karsai] the pontozó has become [a key dance] in Hungary’s folk dance movement, dancers have grown up on it, choreographies made. [Documentation of Karsai’s dancing has] contributed to the general analaysis of structure and form of [Hungaraian] dance."
"When [ethnographer] Kiss Lajos heard about Karsai’s extraordinary memory and propensity for preservation, he documented several types of melodies - some 800 recordings of Karsai’s huge vocabulary of songs and tunes – comprising the most extensive, most complete folk song monography from one person at the time."
"From the end of the 1950s, Karsai often visited his native village and began to do his own scientific research there…with other ethnographers he was able to document the dances and songs not only of his relatives, but also of the Romanians of the village, musicians of the area and traditions of neighboring villages.”
"Karsai’s unique dance and music dialect is the most beautiful example of Hungarian and Romanian folk culture living side by side. It was Karsai who first drew the researchers’ attention to the existence of another important men’s dance type - the Romanian haidau.”
"In his new home, cut off from his native community Karsai preseved the pontozó men’s dance completely intact. For lack of a partner from his home, the couple dance was not as well preserved as his men’s dance."
Karsai was invited to the Hungarian State Folk Dance Ensemble, to the Hungarian Academy of Dance, and by Russian choreographer Igor Moiseyev to demonstrate his dancing. He appeared on Hungarian TV countless times, traveled to the USA, Canada, Africa also to present his dance and culture. He recieved the title of "Master of Folk Art” in 1964.
By Martin György Budapest 1983 July.

Page 7, 10, 14, 18, 23, 26, 30 and back cover
full page sized photographs of Karsai dancing. Photographed by Falvay Károly in 1989 in Pécel, Hungary. They are printed here by permission of Falvay Attila.

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Szőkéné Károlyi Annamária: About the Karsai Zsigmond estate – much of which is housed in the manuscript archives of the Hungarian Institute of Musicology .
Szőkéné describes her work as colleague of the Hungarian Institute of Musicology and coordinator of a planned series of books on Karsai and his folk knowledge. At the time of this publication only one of the series had been published, two others have been prepared in manuscript form. The first book of the series on Karsai’s painting was published in 2010 by the Institute of Musicology.
"Karsai Zsigmond was much loved and respected by a great many people for his integrity and lifework...”
"Karsai had saved a half century’s worth of correspondence, announcements, etc…more than 3000 items…"

Pages 11-29
This publication contains the above mentioned full page photographs, other photographs, and 49 examples of Karsai’s correspondence, invitations , announcements in relation to his art work, his dancing, singing, teaching and performances at various events between 1960 and 1997.

On the inside of the back cover are reproductions of three of Karsai’s paintings: 3 self portraits (one of him dancing).

English Table of Contents 2021/y  

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Tata – Tribute to Novák Ferenc "Tata" as he celebrates his 90th birthday
Interviews with 16 people who have worked closely with him  by Herczku Ágnes, Grozdits Károly, Fodor Zsófia, Jávorszky Béla Szilárd and Berán István.
With photographs by Korniss Péter
Published March 2021

Hungarian choreographer, director, dancer, ethnographer Novák Ferenc “Tata” was born in the Transylvanian town of Nagyenyed /Aiud (Alba County, Romania) on March 27, 1931. He has received Hungary’s highest national honors in recognition of his work.
He has been founder, director and choreographer of the Bihari János Dance Ensemble (Budapest). He was dance corps leader, then from 1983 artistic director of the Honvéd Ensemble (Budapest). He was artistic director of the Szeged International Folk Dance Festival and has been guest choreographer and director at the Amsterdam Folklore Dance Theatre in The Netherlands. He has served as president of the Association of Hungarian Dance and was member of the Hungarian Academy of Arts from 1996-2012.

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Rossa László (b. 1941) is a Hungarian composer who worked with Novák in the Bihari and Honvéd Ensembles and also in the Netherlands. He spent 18 years as composer for the Honvéd Ensemble. "The creative process with Tata was through discussion or consultation – ideas and thoughts would come in conversation with him. The best times were talking at Tata’s place, sitting around his table – we did several works this way… these are my best memories.” – By Herczku Ágnes.

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Truppel Mariann and Makovinyi Tibor – were both solo dancers in the Honvéd Ensemble - Mariann for 18 years, Tibor for 26 years. "At the time in the Honvéd Ensemble authentic folk dance was not the strength, it was Tata’s concept instead – he thought in terms of theatre, dance theatre, but he didn’t let go of the authentic direction either...so, with the variety of the genre and multiple challenges for the performer…Tata filled my career with content. I don’t pass on his teaching methods, but his mentality, thoughts and life direction. He taught us to walk the world with our eyes open and to develop our own opinions...” By Herczku Ágnes.

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Rusorán Gabriella (Honvéd soloist for 22 years) and Turán János (member of Bihári Ensemble from 1984- 2006). "On tour it was compulsory to see the important sights wherever we went, he would take us, he planned these side trips into the travel schedule. He tried to educate us, to awaken our interests. He didn’t want us to be plain old uninformed folk dancers". By Herczku Ágnes.

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Rémi Tünde and Appelshoffer János both of these dancers consider the Honvéd Ensemble to have been their greatest education. Today they strive to carry on the spirit and mentality of their masters – Tata, Foltin Jolán and Zsuráfszky Zoltán in their work with Novák Péter (son of Novák Ferenc and Foltin Jolán) and Csoóri Sándor Sündi. By Fodor Zsófia.

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Horváth Zsófia was a soloist in the Honvéd Ensemble for many, many years. Novák gave her the opportunity to choreograph and she was encouraged by both Novák and Foltin Jolán. "Tata was adamant about getting outside opinion for his works in progress…and he would always voice his opinion on his students’ work, we didn’t always like what he said, at the time it may have seemed hurtful, insulting, but he was right…and he never expected us to imitate his work. He was always open to new ideas, he loved talking with young people…" By Fodor Zsófia.

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Juhász Zoltán – was a soloist from 1991-2016 with the Honvéd and then with the ensemble in its next form under Zsurafszky Zoltan. "… It was amazing how enthusiastic Novák was about the work, the choreographies, the roles. He did everything burning at 100%. It was a pleasure to watch him…he knew what he wanted, but always left 25% or even 50% open to whatever life may bring into the creative process…. Perhaps I only saw him dance once, on Pina Bausch’s birthday. He knew that he needed someone next to him like a Román Sándor, Hortobágyi Gyöngyvér, Makovinyni Tibor or Horváth Zsófia. He was amazingly good at choosing the people who could help him realize his ideas and dreams.” By Fodor Zsófia.

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Kiss Ferenc is a musician, arranger and composer who has worked with Novák - first back in 1973 in the Bihari Ensemble, and then off and on through the years with the Honvéd. He says he learned from Tata that, "one must not get stuck in the past, instead we must use the multitude of cultural phenomena that touch us as a tool…”. Kiss adds that "of course there has always been bitter argument around this in the dance house movement, and those arguments have never stopped.” By Grozdits Károly.

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Hortobágyi Gyöngyvér was Novák’s assistant for 10 years until 2010. She is now head of the folk dance department at the Hungarian Academy of Dance. "Tata always says, ’in art there is no democracy because that will just bring confusion’, while at the same time he never handled those in leading positions hierarchically, but as partners”. She describes Novák as "a facsinating person in his vehement, passionate, intense and dynamic way". By Grozdits Károly.

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Simoncsics János worked closely with Novák for more than a decade on the International Folk Dance Festivals in Szeged. Simoncsics was organizer, Novák was artistic director of the folk dance festival and gala performance which culminated the festival. "Under the old regime – until 1990 – the Szeged festivals were lavishly supported by the government. Today the festival’s budget is about one tenth of" what it was in the good old days. By Grozdits Károly.

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Román Sándor – Novák Ferenc’s work and artistic approach has greatly influenced the life, career, and world view of award winning performer, choreographer, theatre director Román Sándor. He worked with Novák in the Honvéd Ensemble for 20 years. "…Tata taught me that what I had learned as a student [in the folk dance department] at the Institute of Ballet is a language, a basic vocabulary - some use that language to make poems, some short stories, others entire novels. What kind of novel I write using it is up to me…." By Grozdits Károly.

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Hegedűs D. Géza is a celebrated Hungarian actor who worked with Novák in 1981 when he was cast in the main role of the rockballad/musical "Kőműves Kelemen”. He was inspired by the folk dances he had to learn for his part. To this day, he maintains the friendship with Novák that started during that production. Upon meeting Novák he was struck by "an unusually colorful personality, full of vitality, energy, good humor, with amazing knowledge and sense of purpose. One of the best things the director [of the production] Marton László did was to work with Novák - one of the greatest artists and choreographers of the period following the war…his greatness lies in how…he connected to folk music and dance folklore as live tradition...” By Jávorszky Béla Szilárd.

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Horváth Csaba is a dancer, director, choreographer. He was a soloist in the Honvéd Ensemble and worked with Novák for 5 years before spreading his wings to take off on his own creative path. He names Novák’s production of "Hungarian Elektra” as the work that influenced him the most. After seeing it in 1984 he knew he wanted to do that kind of dance theatre. Attracted to both dance theatre and authentic folk dance, he names Novák’s work "Tünderkert" (Hungarian and Romanian folklore treasures choreographed in parallel) - as an ’unforgettably uplifting experience’. He describes Novák’s work in "Kőműves Kelemen" and "István a Király" as ’important large scale projects that reached a larger audience, opening the eyes of many to the importance of traditions’. "…Tata always took an interest in his students’ work, sometimes with harsh criticism sometimes quieter, but he always expressed his opinion." By Jávorszky Béla Szilárd.

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Székely Tibor at the age of 22 in 1974 became the director of the facility that housed the Bihári Folk Dance Ensemble. In this capacity he worked closely with Novák for decades. He describes Novák as a man of "open thinking, great knowledge, wide vision, who hated suspicion, duplicity, insincerity…he worked with questions of modern man and fate - dreaming them up for the stage, a master and choreographer creating dance theatre, story telling ran in his veins, he was blessed with an exemplary sense of timing and balance.” Novák was dedicated to his dancers, and "…went all the way to the president of the country to fight for pensions for professional folk dancers. " By Jávorszky Béla Szilárd.

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Szögi Csaba is a dancer, choreographer, dance educator, theater director. He was Novák’s assistant for 8 years. He has worked with the Bihári, Honvéd, the Vasas Dance Ensemble in Dunaújváros, and the Central European Dance Theatre. He is presently director of the Bethlen tér Theatre in Budapest. "Tata still comes to our premieres, he’ll invite us all to a glass of wine afterwards and brings real, constructive criticism…the real master course [for me] was the 8 years (1979-88) when I was his assistant. To an important degree I have him to thank for where I’ve gotten to today. And not just as a dancer, choreographer, but as a person as well." By Jávorszky Béla Szilárd.

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Szörényi Levente - composer, guitar player, singer and song writer - is an emblematic figure in Hungarian pop music. He worked with Novák Ferenc in the early 1980s in the production of rock ballad/musical "Kőműves Kelemen", then also on productions of the Hungarian rock opera "István a Király" and rock ballad "Fehér Anna". "…Tata’s movement theatre raised the level of the ["Kőműves Kelemen"] production to incredible heights and the success we found together encouraged us take on István a Király – we needed his movement theatre to populate the huge space we used for the original production…he didn’t just choreograph, he directed the entire city park..and our connection became so close that we asked him to do the choreography for Fehér Anna". By Jávorszky Béla Szilárd.

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Jakab Péter finished the Hungarian Ballet Institute’s training for professional folk dancers in 1983. Most of that graduating class went to the Honvéd Ensemble to dance because they wanted to work with Novák. Declining Novák’s invitations to dance in the Honvéd, Jakab Péter went instead to the Hungarian State Folk Dance Ensemble where he danced for 4 years. But when Jakab decided he wanted to go to Amsterdam to dance in the professional international folk ensemble there under Ferdinand van Altena, Novák was the one who helped him get there. Jakab Péter danced there until 1997 and still lives there today. From time to time he returns to Hungary to do choreography, also working with the Honvéd. Novák worked with the dance group in Amsterdam often "…he was very well liked there…you had to get used to Tata, when he didn’t like something he would tell you, but those who put their heart and soul into the work - Tata would thank them in his own way…I wish him strength and good health and that he’ll continue to enjoy life just as he always has, without leaving anything out!" By Berán István.