2

English Table of Contents 2021/2  



Page 3
Remembering Mrs Pulika János, Tankó Gizella (1933–2021 Feb. 1.) of Gyimesközéplok/Lunca de Jos, Harghita County, Romania. She met her husband traditional fiddler Pulika János when she was 14. Ten years older than her, he was already making his living as a local traditional fiddler. They eloped when she was 16. By the time she was 21 she had 4 children. Then according to custom in Gyimes, she learned to play hit cello (in Hungarian „ütőgardon”), so she could accompany her husband when he played at local events. The traditional band in Gyimes consists of two musicians: a fiddler with usually his wife playing hit cello. Together they played for balls, work parties, weddings, christenings, and other celebrations in the Gyimes region. Her husband died in 1989. Hungary recognized her as an excellent traditional musician with the title of „Master of Folk Arts” in 2009. She was an exceptionally kind woman, well known by the táncház movement. By András Orsolya.

Page 5
Farewell to Czilika György „Gyuszi” 1958–2021 traditional musician from Bogartelke/Băgara, Kalotaszeg Region, Transylvania (Cluj County, Romania); known as the last of the great lead fiddlers of the Czilika family dynasty of musicians. His son became a classical musician. Czilika György played at weddings, village balls, christenings in his region of Transylvania: Magyarvista/ Viștea, Türe/Turea, Bogártelke/Băgara, Nádasdaróc/ Dorolțu and Inaktelke/Inucu in Cluj County. From the mid 1990s he was often invited to Hungary to play for dance house events. His music is preserved on at least 3 recordings and on you tube.. Having the honor of accompanying him, the typical Czilika style ornamentation and his clear, honest and kind blue eyes are rememberd. By Henics Tamás.

Page 8
Interview with Ágoston Béla musician, composer and recipient of a Halmos Béla Program grant supporting creative work for folk musicians (especially welcome support for musicians during the COVID pandemic). Ágoston Béla is more than a folk musician however, he is active in jazz, world and underground rock music as well. He plays saxophone, bagpipe, clarinet, etc and his projects include bands named: Zuboly, Agostones, Mágustones, FLEMM, Aborder Klezmer Band and others. This grant allows him to work on a piece called „Csongor és Tünde”, an ’ethno operetta’ and not his first work in this genre. By Dömötör Endre.

Page 10
A bit of ethnography for the radio. A piece on the rules for living the old peasant life; all areas of life were regulated. Certain kinds of work were done on certain days of the week and there were the days when work was forbidden. Across Hungary baking bread and washing clothes was forbidden on Friday and Saturday. In many places spinning and sewing was not to be done on Friday or on Tuesday. A young man could go courting only on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. A second piece tells about magic and spells. There were recipes for attracting a sweetheart, sending away a witch or a storm, casting a spell on someone, curing the ill. One example: it was said that the bones of a frog caught on Saint George’s Day worked very well for attracting a lover. Many of the things needed to cast spells or to cure the ill had to be collected either at dawn or at midnight, from 9 places, or from the cemetery, in silence and so on. By Pócs Éva from „Kis Magyar néprajz a rádióban” RTV, Minerva, Budapest. 1978.

Page 12
The playing technique of the fiddlers from Transylvania’s Gyimes region (Part I.). The study begins with a statement on why the author chose this topic (his travels from Budapest to the region, etc). It provides a brief description of the region and summary of history and population, then describes the traditional band, the instruments and fiddling techniques. Includes bibliography. This study was submitted in 2018 as part of the author’s application for the title of Young Master of Folk Arts. By Mihó Attila.

Page 16
„Science for the movement – the Jászberény example” This is a review of books by Bathó Edit recently published (in 2020) by the Jászberény Cultural Foundation. Bathó Edit, director of the Jász Museum since 1994, has apparently done outstanding work researching folk culture in her own area – Hungary’s Jászság Region. Putting the research to good use, she has also been instrumental in preserving and reviving tradition in the area. Her work and the publications are commended. By Juhász Katalin.

Page 18
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.

Page 20
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.

Page 26
Farewell to Dr. Gerzanics Magdolna. Born in Ungvár (today in Ukraine) in 1934, she died on February 3rd, 2021 in Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany. She grew up in Zala County, Hungary and was a Hungarian enthnographer, folk music researcher, journalist, former director of the Vass Lajos Folk Music Association. She remained active until her last days. She always supported the Transcarpathian Hungarians. Her doctoral dissertation for ELTE University’s Department of Ethnography examined folk music tradition, customs and folk arts of 3 Hungarian, 3 German and 3 Slovak villages in Komárom- Esztergom County. Printed here is the final correspondence between her and Kóka Rozália who interviewed her for the series on women’s lives. The interview appeared in folkMAGazin 2008 issues 2 and 3.

Page 26
Obituary: Almási István 1934-2021 Transylvanian ethnomusicologist, member of the Hungarian Academy of the Arts. Almási István was born in Kolozsvár/Cluj Napoca, Tranylvania. He was educated in Transylvania and worked until retirement as a scientific researcher at the Institute of Folklore (of the Romanian Academy of Sciences) in Kolozsvár. His work included collection, research and publication on folk music from areas of Transylvania known in Hungarian research as: Érmellék, Szilágyság, Lápos mente, Aranyosszék, Kis-Küküllő – Maros köze, Nyárád mente, Homoród mente, Háromszék. His most recent publications were: A népzene jegyében (2009) and Most jöttem Erdélyből (2019). From announcement by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Musicology.

Page 27
Obituary: Dr. Paksa Katalin folk music researcher at the Hungarian Institute of Musicology since 1971. She began her 50 year career working under ethnomusicologists Bálint Sándor and Vargyas Lajos. Her work embraced all areas of ethnomusicology: collection, transcription, categorization, comparison of Hungarian and neighboring ethnic groups, monographic music history examination, research on traditional folk performance, ornamentation, connections between folk and composed music. She was born in Zalaegerszeg, then studied in Pécs and at the Hungarian Academy of Music. She died on February 13th 2021 at the age of 77. By Matyovszky Márta (zaol.hu).

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 30
On the Path of History – Kóka Rozália’s series. (Part I.) Rudolf László was born in Bátaszék in Hungary’s Tolna County in the 1950s. His mother was from Józseffalva/Vornicenii Mici in Bukovina. He spent his childhood amongst his mother’s family who had all come from Bukovina. László was a good student. He finished both elementary and secondary school in Bátszék, loved the books of Jules Verne and was a local chess champion. Good in mathematics, he received a scholarship to study engineering in the city of Donetsk, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). After finishing his degree he returned to Hungary and worked for a time at power plants until he was drafted for the compulsory 2 years of Hungarian military service. Afterwards he got work as a computer programmer in the town of Szekszárd. The first time he went with his mother to Bukovina in Romania to visit her home village of Józseffalva was in 1981. He left there in tears. To be continued. From a conversation recorded on February 25, 2021.

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.

Page 38
Conversation with Kelemen László – director of the Hungarian Heritage House (HHH). This year the HHH marks 20 years since it was established. Kelemen László was a key person in the process of rethinking/reformulating the institutions that became the HHH as a government institution with Kelemen as director. His goal has been to build a secure structure to house the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble and various folk archives, provide a „home” for the dance house movement and support education towards keeping folk culture alive. He talks about the importance of developing and using ‘virtual’ means for information sharing and stresses re-teaching/reintroduction as the next important phase – meaning a process of reintroducing folk arts (music, dance, song, crafts, story-telling) back into their original habitat. Kelemen’s mandate as director runs out this year and he wants to hand things over to the younger folks. He intends to obtain a PhD from the Academy of Music and return to his native Transylvania to develop the already established Transylvanian branch of the HHH. By Csinta Samu.

Page 42
Food and tradition: Meals as ritual – blessings for food and drink from the Old Testament to the school cafeteria – Part I. Traditions from the Jewish and Christian cultures based on historical and ethnographic data are discussed, including; blessings for before the meal in the old testament tradition, Christian blessings for meals, blessings for the table in Hungarian folk culture, blessing the food in the religious liturgy (Christian), the „Saint John blessing” for wine and weddings. By Juhász Katalin.

3

English Table of Contents 2021/3  



Page 3
A life dedicated to the service of the Moldavian Csángó Hungarians. Domokos Pál Péter 1901–1992 was a Hungarian Székely gentleman from Várdotfalva (today part of Csíkszereda/Miercurea Ciuc, Transylvania). He was a Széchenyi-award winning Hungarian teacher, historian, ethnographer who researched the history and culture of the Hungarian Csángó people of Moldavia. His first trip to Moldavia to visit the Csángó people was in 1928, when inspired by Bartók’s book „A magyar népdal”, he went to collect traditional songs from the Csángó Hungarians there, as an area Bartók been unable to visit. Thus began his life-long mission making sure that the Moldavian Csángó Hungarians would be neither forgotten, nor neglected by Hungary nor completely assimilated by the Romanians. Following Domokos, Jagamas János, Veress Sándor, Balla Péter, Lükő Gábor and Kallós Zoltán did important ethnographic collection work in the region. The Csángó Moldavian ethnic group has constantly been under threat of assimilation practices by from the Romanian government and the Orthodox church. This interview was done in 1985 for a Radio Free Europe program and is published here by Domokos Mária.

Page 8
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.

Page 11
New publication: Marton László Távolodó: Érintés II. (World Music 2000–2020). Somos Kiadó, 2021. Budapest. ISBN: 978-615-81718-0-9. Marton László Távolodó is a well-known world music reviewer and journalist, concert and music producer, and member of the jury for World Music Charts Europe. This is his second book in Hungarian on international and Hungarian world music. The book is organized in four sections: America, Africa, Europe, Hungary. Printed here is the preface of the book by the author Marton László Távolodó.

Page 12
Interview with Balogh Melinda – Melinda won support from the Halmos Béla Program for development of a theatre production about the travels of Kőrösi Csoma Sándor (Transylvanian philologist and orientalist 1784–1842) who travelled from Transylvania to India searching for traces of the Hungarian people. Melinda is a folk singer whose solo record „Napkerék” (2019) presenting traditional songs and music of the Transylvanian Roma, has been very well received. She started out from Kecskemét, danced for 10 years with the Jászság Ensemble, and has sung with every local band along the way. She works with a group called BaHorKa incorporating folk song, tales and music into stage performances. Here she also talks about her creative process for developing the new theatre production. Interview by Dömötör Endre.

Page 14
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.

Page 18
The playing technique of the fiddlers from Transylvania’s Gyimes region (Part II.). The second part of the study provides a list of 29 fiddlers known in the region between the late 1800s and the present, with basic data on each one. It describes differences between the Gypsy musicians and the ‘peasant musicians’ of Gyimes and makes a technical comparison of the two playing styles. Includes bibliography. This study was submitted in 2018 as part of the author’s application for the title of Young Master of Folk Arts. By Mihó Attila.

Page 22
Traditional ceramics in Hungarian Csángó communities in Moldavia. In places where the land wasn’t sufficient for growing food, the population was forced to try to support themselves through various traditional household crafts such as ceramics. Making pottery was possible of course only in places where soil, tradition and market demand supported it. Procedures of making clay from the earth, throwing the pots, types of pots made, decorating, firing, glazing, barter compensation and sale of the pottery are described. The ceramics of Gorzafalva/Oituz in Bacău County, Romania are concentrated on, as this is where the craft survived the longest. The last Hungarian Moldavian Csángó potter Aszalós Viktor was born in 1936. By Halász Péter.

Page 25
Old writings still relevant today – P. Vas János’ column. The famous storytellers spoke well and had a good memory. They were well-respected in the village communities, during peasant work, and in military service. People longed to listen to storytellers. News of a good storyteller spread far and wide; people came to learn from them. A storyteller didn’t create a story alone: hundreds of years of anyonymous, talented and excellent storytellers passed the tales down. What was referred to as the ’Hungarian method’ or the ’Budapest school’ for studying traditional storytellers and their tales was developed between the two world wars and was actually based on the Russian method. Ortutay Gyula 1978 from „Kis magyar néprajz a rádióban” [a bit of ethnography for the radio]. Minerva. Budapest, 1978.

Page 26
Szomjas György – who chronicled a world destined to be forgotten. A discussion of the work of the late film director Szomjas György (1940–2021) as regards to the dance house movement and folk music. Sebő Ferenc talks about a trip to Transylvania with Szomjas György in 1972. Sebő also notes two of Szomjas’ feature films important for their use of folk music: „Talpuk alatt füyül a szél” and „Rosszemberek” – both so-called outlaw (betyár) films. In addition to his other film work, Szomjas „became the chronicler of the dance house movement…his value in this area is undisputed and imperishable. He took on the task of dealing with [the dance house] in film. He noticed and listened to everyone [from the movement, from the period] who was worth listening to.” Interview with Sebő Ferenc by Grozdits Károly.

Page 26
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.

Page 29
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.

Page 30
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.

Page 33
New publication: Hajnáczky Tamás: Bura Károly cigányprímás – Aktivista, revizionista, vizionarista [Bura Károly – Gypsy violinist, activist, revisionist, visionary] Noran Libro Kiadó, 2021. Budapest ISBN 978-963-517-203-0. A small monography introducing the life and career of the legendary Hungarian Gypsy lead violinist Bura Károly (1881–1934). It follows the path of Bura Károly’s life during the stormy period of history when the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy fell apart, and then when the Hungarian Gypsy musicians (along with their compatriots) lived through the traumas of the Treaty of Trianon. The book tells the history of the Hungarian Gypsy musicians who had to endure political measures and the ‘storms of history’ while their active lives were important in building both Hungarian and Gypsy culture. Historical science has largely overlooked the lives of people from the Gypsy ethnic group. Hajnáczky’s forward from the book and a recommendation by Elena Marushiakova are printed here.

Page 34
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.

Page 36
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.

Page 40
Timár Sándor’s folk dance and folklore collection work in Elek, Hungary. Famous in the Hungarian dance house movement for his folk dance teaching methods and choreography, Timár began doing folk dance collection and doumentation work with the Romanians in the village of Elek (in Eastern Hungary) in 1954. He first concentrated on dance traditions there in the period between the two world wars. This article discusses the various films he made and Timár’s field notes. He returned to Elek to do collection work several times in 1954–55. Again in the mid 60s, in 1972, in the 1980s and twice in 1992. Timár founded the Bartók Ensemble in 1958 but continued doing folk dance field collection work with the help of his colleagues and students. Article includes table of his collection trips, and location of field notes and films stored in the archives. By Timár Mihály.

Page 44
Laposa Julcsi young folk fiddler from Hungary’s Zala County collaborated with Kaláka Band on a book-recording – the 4th in a series called „NÉPI hang-színek” [FOLK sound-colors]. This volume features music and customs of the spring and summer. Julcsi is from a younger generation that grew up on Kaláka’s music and felt honored to be able to collaborate with them. Julcsi is used to working in authentic folk music, this project with Kaláka dips into world music. The goal of the series is to playfully introduce and hand over culture to children within a cultural/recreational framework. The tunes are presented in keys easily sung and played on the flute. The publication won support from the Halmos Béla Program, Fonó Music Hall and City of Zalaegerszeg. Interview by Kertész Dalma.

Page 46
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.

Page 50
Meals as ritual part two: Blessings for food and drink from the Old Testament through the school cafeteria. This describes various traditional Hungarian blessings/graces for the meal - covering the following subject areas: Kun language table blessing, sung Saint John’s blessings, sung Calvinist table blessings, sung Catholic table blessings, Székely table blessings, humour and table blessings. By ethnographer Juhász Katalin.

4

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.

Page 6
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.

Page 7
Telázsi Band – Méra, Kalotaszeg, Transylvania. In mid June 2021, Henics Tamás (photographer, Ladikos music festival founder and director, musician, medical researcher) who lives in Western Hungary/Austria was finally able to go to the Kalotaszeg village of Méra (in Romania) after a year and a half of COVID restrictions. His friends in Méra greeted him with live music played by a newly formed traditional band: Telázsi Band which grew out of members of the local Kalotaszeg Folk Dance Ensemble. Tamás says they are ready to play for any local dance event – be that sheep’s milk measuring events, hiring of shepherds, weddings, christenings, etc. By Henics Tamás.

Page 7
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.

Page 8
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.

Page 10
Interview with Ács Gyula – Classical musician, folk musician, folk music collector, composer, conductor, teacher who has received Halmos Béla Program funding for composition of a piece based on Hungarian folk music. Since 1984 Ács Gyula has worked with the Avas, Kisbojtár, Szinvavölgyi Vasas Folk Dance Ensembles, he founded Borókás Band, and was a member of Vörös Rébék folk rock band. He has composed classical works based on folk music for the Reményi Ede Chamber Orchestra. He is now nearly finished composing a cycle of songs called „Tetratónia” for which he recieved the grant funding. The inspiration came from tetratonic songs amongst the ’old style’ layer of Hungarian folk songs – from a ’small-ranged old Turkish layer’. These have inspired the cycle of songs Ács is working on. They will be sung by Török Tilla, some have already been recorded. By Dömötör Endre.

Page 12
Széki Soós János: Crown of Thorns – part II. Széki Soós János is from the village of Szék in Transylvania’s Mezőség region. His short stories provide vivid pictures of life there and personalities in the village. This story is about a time soon after the changes of 1989, when the Ceaușescu style milicia still had power, but it was beginning to crack and the people were fed up. A man named Szép Laji was jailed temporarily when he told off the local policeman who ordered him to stop singing in the pub… „the police don’t serve to protect us, instead they dominate and take advantage…” The local police had actually been confiscating the villagers’ jewelry, which was eventurally found and returned to them.

Page 14
Conversation with the late Almási István (1934-2021). Almási was a Hungarian folk music researcher from the Transylvanian city of Kolozsvár/Cluj Napoca. This conversation touched on: the fiddler Csoma Ferenc from the Mezőség village of Esztény/Stoiana; the 6 years Hungarian composer Erkel spent in Kolozsvár/Cluj Napoca from 1828; Bereczky János’ book on ’new style’ melodies in Hungarian folk music; ’new style’ as opposed to ’old style’ Hungarian folk music; Bartók and Kodály on ’new style’ folk music. Almási István said, „technically in terms of style if one wanted to collect good [traditional] music, it could be found only amongst the Gypsies”. Another quote from Almási: „Today ’new style’ folk songs are discouraged for performance at folk singing competitions. But this isn’t the competitor’s mistake, it’s the organizers’. I insist that there are beautiful ’new style’ folk songs…Why do they prohibit ’new style’ songs? The folk song competitor isn’t going to be the one preserving the ’old style’ songs. She/he is not the authentic carrier…” By Fehér Anikó (from 2016, Kolozsvár/Cluj, Romania).

Page 16
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.

Page 18
Two articles on the first national dance house festival, the „Táncháztalálkozó”. One is a conversation with Nyikos István – who was the first organizer of the festival. The festival was held for the first time on March 28th, 1982 at the Sport Arena in Budapest as a part of Budapest’s Spring Festival. Nyikos István worked at the time as adminstrative director for the Radnóti Stage and was involved in the dance house movement. He, Romhányi László (director of Budapest’s Thália theatre at the time) and folk musician Jánosi András formulated a plan for the first festival. There were some 1000 performers from all over Hungary at the first festival. It was about 9 years after the first dance house was held in Budapest and dance houses were popping up like mushrooms all over the country. Romhányi with Halmos Béla planned and directed the evening gala program. The massive yearly national dance house festivals have been organized ever since using basically the same format as the first one. Interview by Grozdits Károly. [Dance House Woodstock in the Sport Arena: Folk Arena] – a review of the first dance house festival that appeared in Új Tükör on May 2, 1982 XIX. 18. „…[dance house] is a form of recreation that still exists today in Transylvania, but these days in Hungary it is reteaching culture – a folk dance event that has become a means for getting aquainted and having fun...” By Deme Tamás.

Page 21
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.

Page 35
Old writings still relevant today – P. Vas János’ column. More selections from from „Kis magyar néprajz a rádióban” [A bit of ethnography for the radio]. Minerva. Budapest, 1978. Two pieces discussing the Hungarian words „had” (army, forces, troops, war, host, crowd, band pack) and „nemzetség” (family, clan, kin). ’Nemzetség’ in peasant life meant the system of family relations – meaning blood relations on the father’s side, including ancestors already dead and those still alive. While the expression ’nemzetség’ meant a system of family relations, the word ’had’ meant a group of relatives and was used as such particularly in Heves, Borsod, Szolnok, Hajdú and Szabolcs counties. Girls until marriage belong to their father’s clan; from the wedding on they belong to the husband’s. By Szabó Piroska. The Székely Clans. Research done amongst families of Székely Hungarians from Hadikfalva/Dornești (Bukovina) showed that clans were comprised of seven generations from the point of view of one person. Three ascending generations and three descending generations. The elders of the clans of the village would meet from time to time to discuss important matters of the village. The patrilinear clan is the structure that has functioned over the centuries since the arrival of the Hungarian tribes to the Carpathian Basin. By Sárkány Mihály.

Page 36
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.

Page 40
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.

Page 44
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.

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.

Page 50
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.

Page 53
Traditional Hungarian Foods – Kürtőskalács „(Romanian: Colac/Cozonac secuiesc; German: Baumstriezel) is made from sweet, yeast dough, of which a strip is formed and then wrapped around a truncated cone-shaped baking spit, and rolled in granulated sugar. It is roasted over charcoal while basted with melted butter until its surface cooks to a golden-brown color. During the baking process the sugar stuck on the kürtőskalács caramelizes and forms a shiny, crispy crust.” (Wikipedia). Forms of this simple roasted sweet are found in many cultures all the way back to ancient Greek times – more recently (from the 16th century) amongst the Hungarians, Germans, Lithuanian-Poles, Austrians, French, Swedish, Czechs and Slovaks – appearing under various local names. A wealth of information can be found at www.kurtos.eu. The Hungarian or more precisely Székely Transylvanian version is unique because of the caramelized sugar coating. Nowadays it is a popular street and market food. Hungarian recipes for this specialty are found from the late 1600s on. Eight recipes are provided here. By ethnographer Juhász Katalin.

X

English Table of Contents 2021/x  



folkMAGazin special issue XVII
Honoring Karsai Zsigmond – traditional dancer, artist on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Karsai was born in 1920 in the Transylvanian village of Lőrincréve/Leorinţ; he died in the village of Pécel, Hungary in 2011. This is a collection of writings on Karsai and items selected from his correspondence and documents. „He was an outstanding preserving personality, an excellent ethnographic informant….his dance vocabulary condensed every valuable aspect of tradition of his birthplace.” He received Hungary’s title „Traditional Master of Folk Arts” in 1961.

Y

English Table of Contents 2021/y  



folkMAGazin surprise special issue XIII. March 2021
This special issue celebrates choreographer, folk dance theatre director, ethnographer Novák Ferenc „Tata” on his 90th birthday, with photographs by Korniss Péter from the 1960s to the present. A collection of 15 interviews on experiences working with Tata: interviewed are dancers from the Bihari and Honvéd ensembles, and musicians he has worked and collaborated with for his choreographies and other folk theatre productions. Interviewers: Berán István, Fodor Zsófia, Grozdits Károly, Herczku Ágnes, Jávorszky Béla Szilárd.