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English Table of Contents 2023/1
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Kóka Rozália’s mission in life has been to make the culture, fate and difficult – sometimes tragic – history of the Bukovina Székely Hungarians known – while actively preserving their traditions and culture. This is her own ethnic group and she has dedicated her life to the task. Halász Péter who has worked with her for more than 55 years wrote this tribute to her and her work which appeared as the forward for the book: Kóka Rozália: Bukovina Székely [people on history’s path] (Fekete Sas, 2021.) and is reprinted here in celebration of Rozália’s 80th birthday. By Halász Péter.
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From story teller to organizer of a story telling contest: Kóka Rozália. Rozália tells the path of her life – as regards to traditional story telling, her ethnographic work collecting traditional tales, her publications of tales and a more recent project of organizing a yearly story telling contest in Transylvania’s Gyimes region. Kóka Rozália’s ethnographic work began with collecting tales from her Bukovina Székely relatives and neighbors in the village she grew up in: Felsőnána, Tolna County, Hungary. This writing was first published in: Népmesék szóban, írásban, képben. Editor: Tóth Gábor, published by Hungarian Poetry Readers Association. Budapest, 2020.
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Choreographer Novák Ferenc Tata’s letter to the editors: Tata reacts to the 2022 special issue of folkMAGazin which marked the 50th anniversary of the first dance house held in Budapest. The special issue included photographs from the travelling photo exhibition called "Táncház 50" and writings on the dance house movement by Sebő Ferenc, Berán István and Both Miklós. Tata writes, "They have committed a serious ethical error in not making proper mention of…the names of those who first had the idea of holding a dance house in Budapest and then made it happen. They are Foltin Jolán, Lelkes Lajos and Stoller Antal Huba – Tata’s students. Tata made his first trip to Szék in 1958 when he was still an ethnography student. Later on, in the late 1960s, he took the above-mentioned students there to see a dance house in Szék. The idea for a Budapest dance house came from that trip. The first Budapest dance house was held in May 1972.
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New recording: Balogh Melinda and Bősze Tamás Jean-Pierre "Tündér Ilona és Árgyélus” – Fonó 2022. "They’ve created a magical musical world for the tale…of a tree bearing golden apples that blooms for everyone – you just have to believe in it..." Music is inspired by Hungarian folk music and includes melodies from various regions of Transylvania. Singer Balogh Melinda and Bősze Tamás Jean-Pierre (voice, coboz, drum, hit cello) are featured with Szilágyi Tóni (violin, accordion), Sára Csobán (wooden flute, saxophone), Csoóri Sándor jr. (viola).
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With the recent passing of Kossuth Award recipient, acclaimed folk music educator and folk flutist Béres János 1930–2022, folkMAGazin prints this interview from 2015 in which Béres tells about his professional life. He was a dancer, then also flute player with the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble from the moment it was founded (1951), later he led his own folk dance group. From the 1950’s on, he worked actively towards lifting the status and level of folk music instruction in Budapest and in Hungary. Interview by Grozdits Károly.
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The artwork of painter Czene Béla – Part Two. Excerpts from a book by art historian Molnos Péter published in 2022 by Móra Kiadó. Recently a large number of Czene’s paintings were ’discovered’ in the family attic. Czene Béla, 1911–1999, studied art in Budapest and in Rome. “Czene’s work looked neither to the west, nor to the east, rather, he drew from the past, from his ancestors in the tiny villages of Gömör, the farms on the Hungarian plain, the peasant towns…” This section tells about Czene’s participation in large exhibitions in Budapest during the first half of the 1940s naming specific works with peasant life themes that he showed during the period. By 1944 his works were “…like rugs or frescos….they grow beyond the canvas and seem to demand a wall”. Czene was able to avoid military service for most of this time (WWII), but was finally drafted at the end of the war. He found a good situation as portrait painter for the commanding officers, but soon became a prisoner of war then escaped just before being sent to Siberia to do hard labor.
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Literary Column – Borbála’s Carnival – a short story by writer and journalist Lokodi Imre (born 1963). A story about the returning ghost of Baron Janicsay’s daughter Borbála, and bachelors that can’t sleep at night. Borbála was said to have a greedy, discontented nature and she liked the cowboys on her father’s estate…
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A Hungarian Gypsy musician’s WWI journal. Fiddler Munczy Béla Jr kept a journal during his service on the front in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. The Munczy family had settled in Western Hungary in the Sopron area at the end of the 18th century as agricultural laborers. Documentation affirms that in the 19th century the family made their living by playing music. Gypsy musicians didn’t have to fight on the front line, they played music for the officers for little or no pay. The journal provides important information on history of Hungary’s Gypsy musicians. Historian and archivist D. Szakács Anita prepared the manuscript for publication. Review by Dr. Hajnáczky Tamás.
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New Recording: "Bandázó Mezőföld”. Released by the Alba Regia Folk Dance Association, a group of sixteen people perform on the recording presenting the folk music of the Mezőföld region which is located roughly in Hungary’s Fejér County. The CD was made especially for folk dance groups and folk dance teachers. See announcement in Hungarian for email address to order.
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An assignment for students at the Hungarian Academy of Dance has been to analyze choreographies with themes of folk customs. Their task is to explain differences between the source materials and the adaptation for stage. Some more successful analyses will be published in folkMAGazin. In this issue is Pásztor Zalán’s anaylsis of Deffend Irén’s choreography entitled: “Funeral of the Double Bass”. Announcement by Sándor Ildikó.
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Sági Mária: A táncház (first published in Valóság 1978/5). Sági Mária examines aesthetic questions posed by the (at the time) relatively new dance house movement. The long article (re-published in two parts in folkMAGazin 2022/6 and 2023/1) relied on studies made at the Sebő Club in 1976 where club participants filled out questionnaires on seven consecutive club evenings. The ‘Sebő Club’ was held at the Kassák Community Center in Budapest’s 14th district. The goal of the Sebő Club was to present ‘city folk music and Hungarian poetry set to folk music’ in a club atmosphere. Sági’s article discusses: Why did the youth (of the time) accept/adopt folk art? The various directions within the dance house movement. How can peasant traditions become part of everyday life for today’s [urban] youth? Could the youth develop a complete world view through folk art? Will folk art lose its content in the process and become something like popular hit entertainment? At the time, thousands of youth were seeking out folk art [in the Budapest dance houses] and trying to make it real. Sági Mária writes on trends and values in Hungarian theatre and culture, sociology, psychology, music psychology, aesthetics, personality, homeopathy and natural healing.
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P. Vas János’ column: Old writings still interesting today. Superstition and beliefs from all over the Hungarian language area regarding animals – specifically: sparrows, the cuckoo, storks (stork dung is recommended for a broken foot), the sparrow owl (bird of ill-omen), snakes, frogs, bats (if you’re forgetful, always carry the heart of a bat with you), moles, rabbits, wolves (if you feed wolf heart to your cow she’ll give plenty of milk and butter for seven years). From: From the book by Fazekas and Székely. Magvető Kiadó, Budapest. 1990. (based on Szendrey and Szendrey’s dictionary of superstitions)
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The first folkMAGazin came together (including financing and material) through a combined effort in only a month and a half in 1994. It went to press in time for the 1994 Táncháztalálkozó… Participating organizations, groups, and individuals had met and agreed that a magazine for dance house musicians, dancers, and participants was needed. Memories of the process by Nagy Zoltán (folk musician, member of the founding group of editors).
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Kóka Rozália’s new series: Moldavian Csángó Hungarian tales. Her first trip to Moldavia to collect ethnographic material was in 1969. After that she went every year to do field work, but in 1995 she went to Moldavia to collect tales for the first time. In the village of Pusztina/Pustiana she collected tales from two woman: Barta Mihályné and László Istvánné. She published the tales collected in her 2019 book: "Aranytojás". This series presents the tales from her book. Reprinted here is a story of a young couple that lived happily with their son. Their next door neighbor was a bitter old woman who would have liked the husband of the young couple to marry her daughter. This is the story of what happened when the old woman lied to the husband about what his wife did all day when he was working in the fields.
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New publication: Szilvay Gergely: Józan részegség [Sober drunkeness] – a collection of interviews with participants of the dance house movement. L’Harmattan. Budapest. 2022. In addition to presenting the beauty and richness of Hungarian folk music and folk dance, Szilvay conveys the interviewees’ feeling of responsibility for Hungarian and/or universal culture. Through the interviews focusing on the dance house movement of the 2010s, we also become familiar with the questions that concerned the founders of the movement. Szilvay Gergely (born 1983) has become chronicler of the dance house movement of the present. Szilvay, a journalist with Mandiner media group, holds a doctorate in political theory and has been an active participant in the dance house movement. Review by Rosonczy-Kovács Mihály.
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Kóka Rozália’s new column: Kiböjtölés – a folk custom involving several days or weeks of complete fasting and praying to rid oneself of some bad luck or bad feelings, or to wish approriate punishment on someone who has wronged you. In this account an old woman in the village of Felsőnána, Tolna County, Hungary talks about ’fasting out’ the daughter-in-law that beat her. According to the old woman if you do the fasting right, what you wish for, will happen. Between 1968 and 1970 Kóka Rózália collected 150 stories about this custom practiced amongst Székely people in Hungary’s Tolna, Baranya and Bács-Kiskun Counties.
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Food and Hungarian Heritage – discusses a TV series of documentary films on traditional dishes and cuisine specific to particular Hungarian villages or regions. The two main organizations that make decisions on the ranking of traditional foods in Hungary are UNESCO and the so-called "Hungarikum" Committee. To be economical, self sufficient and to produce all your own foods is part of Hungarian food culture. Economical winter recipes provided are: winter squash soup with farina dumplings, winter squash casserole, vegetable soup with homemade dumplings, vegetable soup made from the water left over from boiling potatoes, potato gnocchi style pasta, dumpling soup and potato doughnuts. By ethnographer Juhász Katalin.
By Sue Foy
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English Table of Contents 2023/2
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Photo exhibition on traditional costume of Hungary’s Somogy Region. Zóka Éva and Horváth Tibor, directors of the Zselic Folk Dance Ensemble, have been collecting original costumes in their region for 25 years. Luthár Kristóf of Kaposvár has been photographing their collection. So far, 32 women’s costumes and 22 men’s costumes have been documented. Many of the costumes documented are used for performances of the Zselic Ensemble. A portion of the photographs will be exhibited in Budapest on April 15th and 16th at the 2023 Hungarian National Táncház Festival and Market. Report by Zóka Éva and Horváth Tibor.
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New Recording: Páll Éva – Míves Mesterségek – released by Fonó. This a recording is for the whole family presenting Hungarian folk music related to the traditional trades/crafts of flax spinning, weaving, tailoring, shoemaking, pottery making, the pottery repairer, blacksmith, miller, baker, and the spinning party.
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We mourn the recent passing of Lengyel László "Türei“ (1957–2023) Transylvanian traditional singer, dedicated and tireless supporter of traditional music and culture. He was from the Kalotaszeg village of Türe/Turea. Obituary by Henics Tamás.
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List of Hungarian folk dance and folk music summer camps 2023.
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List of national awards recieved by folks from dance house circles on Hungary’s March 15th national holiday.
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New publication: Berlász Melinda: The writings of Lajtha László I–II (two volumes) published by Rózsavölgyi, Budapest, 2022. Musicologist Berlász Melinda also published a biographical monography of Lajtha László in 1984, then in 1992 she published a precursor to the present new publication. Lajtha László (1892–1963), was a Kossuth prize winning Hungarian composer, folk music researcher, and music educator, well-known in táncház circles for his collections of the traditional instrumental music of the Transylvanian village of Szék/Sic. Along with his works on folk music, the new volumes also contain Lajtha’s writings on folk dance and much more. Announcement by Németh László.
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New recording: Mohácsy Albert–Nagy Zsolt: Tizennégy Banda – Üzenet – CD. Mohácsy Albert and Nagy Zsolt (double bass, viola) have gathered their favorite music and musician buddies to play on this privately released recording of traditional folk music from Hungary and Slovakia, in 13 tracks, with 14 bands. This is their second such project – the first of which was released in 2004 and presented these musicians’ favorite music from Transylvania. MACD01. Announcement by Mohácsy Albert, Nagy Zsolt.
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Interview: Hégli Dusán of Pozsony/Bratislava, Slovakia: choreographer, folk dancer, director of professional folk dance groups: Ifjú Szivek and Dusan Hegli Company. Dusán comes from the Hungarian community in Slovakia and his work centers mainly on dance traditions of Slovakia’s Hungarian minority. He has been active since the 1980s. He talks a bit about the process of collecting and developing the Hungarian dances of Slovakia for the dance house model. He has taught and choreographed extensively in Hungary as well. The Ifjú Szivek company is financed by the Slovak government. When Dusán began dealing with contemporary and controversial issues/problems in his choreography, his usual sources of funding refused to support these projects. He then formed Dusan Hegli Company as a framework for this kind of project. His groups perform in Slovakia, Hungary, Europe and further abroad as well. He has been invited to show his work many times at a theatre festival in Avignon. He is interested in:…addressing the ’universal problems that affect you and I, and anyone else using traditional movement culture and – arrangements of – traditional music. Conversation with Grozdits Károly.
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Timár Sára examines practices of public cultural organization under Hungary’s Kádár government during the 1970s using the example of the Kassák Klub – a community center in Budapest’s 14th district. More specificially she deals with questions of the dance house movement within the sphere of Hungary’s 1970s system of ’houses of culture’. The Kassák Klub was an important venue in dancehouse history as the site of the iconic Sebő Club held there starting in 1973. The Kassák Klub sponsored other kinds of cultural events as well during the period, including theatre and music groups. Sooner or later some of these events/groups/clubs came under suspicion and surveillance for being too avant garde for the period or in the case of the dance houses held there – for showing signs of nationionalism. This study was presented at a conference in 2012 celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first dance house held in Budapest. It was then then published in Budapest by the European Folkore Institute in the conference publication edited by Halmos Béla, Hoppál Mihály, Halák Emese.
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Dance house and the movement: An article from 1974 – the very early days of Hungary’s dance house movement. The author writes that there [was] a need for the dance house – for the movement. A few excerpts here: “We hope that the performing dance group leaders can see that there is a need for the urban dance houses.” He described the ensembles as ‘professional amateur’ in terms of level of technique and artistic performance, also describing a need for what he calls ‘the crowd’ or probably the social situation of the dance house houses. He stated that the early dance houses “[didn’t] want to be a movement, the participants [didn’t] want that, or [didn’t notice that aspect] …but we know that a movement is possible, and we will assist that.” “…a volunteer movement where professional guidance comes from a good ensemble director and the audience are young people who want to get to know a folk dance or music up to a certain point...” “A movement cannot be created …we have to stand by it, help it develop, so that it can become a real movement…” “The movement must rely on older dancers who want to continue dancing. They can use their dance experience in the dance houses to teach the dances they know and love the most…” By Vadasi Tibor. First published in: Táncművészeti Információk Táncház – Híradó 3. Sz. Budapest, 1974.
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P. Vas János’ column: Old writings still interesting today. Superstition and beliefs from all over the Hungarian language area involving the home and its furnishings (threshold, master beam, the furniture, mirror, windows etc). A few examples: In Tiszaszalka if a young man wants to get rid of a girl, he must collect nine of her footprints in a bag and put the bag under the rain gutter – then the spell can be broken. In the Jászság region they say that if the cat jumps up on top of the wardrobe and purrs, there will either be a wedding or a christening at the house. "Whoever glances at him/herself in the mirror at the stroke of midnight by candle or lamplight, will see the devil himself.” "It is especially dangerous to make an infant look at his or herself in the mirror, because the child’s teeth may not come in properly, it will have difficulty learning to speak or perhaps will never speak at all.” 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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Szecsődi Barbara: Transylvanian villagers at the dance houses in Kolozsvár/Cluj. This project examined the effects of participation and direct contact with traditional dancers and musicians from the Transylvanian villages that attended the táncház-es held in the city of Transylvanian city of Kolozsvár in the early days of the dance house movement that is, the period from 1977–1984. Briefly discussed are differences between the Transylvanian and the Hungarian urban dance houses. She worked from materials and interviews found in the Halmos Béla archives, the Dance House Archive, and the Hungarian Heritage House’s Folklore Documention Department collections. First published in “Néptánc a médiában” [Folk dance in the media] a conference publication – published in Budapest by the Hungary Academy of Dance 2019.
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Analysis of a choreography presenting Palm Sunday folk customs from the Ipoly/Ipel and Zobor regions of Western Slovakia. The piece was choreographed by Varga Lia and danced by the Kis Rakonca Folk Dance Ensemble as part of a 2015 performance. The choreography portrayed customs where girls of a village made a doll of straw, dressed it as a bride, then ceremoniously took it around the village. In due course, the straw doll was undressed and thrown in the river or burned. The doll’s headscarf was then tied on a young girl’s head and two older girls escorted the younger girl back to the village hand in hand. For this dance/pagent-play custom the girls sing without band accompaniment. Analysis by Brusznyai Erik – as part of an assignment for students at the Hungarian Academy of Dance. The students’ task is to analyze choreographies with themes of folk customs and explain differences between the source materials and the adaptation for stage. Selected analyses are published as a series in folkMAGazin this year.
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A teacher’s reactions to the 2023 March 4th–5th Children’s and Youth Folk Dance Anthology: performances of the best children’s folk dance group choreographies of the past year. Almost 30 choreographies were presented during the two day event at the Eiffel Műhely Ház in Budapest’s 10th district. The author noted a general improvement in the level of works presented at the event – since folk dance has become part of the curriculum in cultural education programs in Hungary. Prominent amongst material presented were choreographies of dances and traditions of Transylvania, Moldavia, Bukovina, Romania and Hungarian communities in Slovakia. Most of the choreographies focused on folk dance in ‘classical presentation’. He makes special mention of the “Turka” game – a custom with a rich and complex message involving an animal figure. The event is organized by the Heritage Children’s and Youth Folk Arts Association. Report by Trencsényi László
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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]. This issue includes ’the tale of the golden haired twins’. It starts with three girls who did the harvest and a landowner’s son. One of harvesting girls promised to give birth to golden haired twins if the landowner’s son married her. He married her and beautiful twins were born with birthmarks of the sun on the forehead of one and the moon on the other. But there was an evil-minded midwife that wanted the landowner’s son to marry her daughter…
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Kóka Rózália’s column: kiböjtölés – ’fasting out’ – a folk custom involving 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. Described here are: ideas behind this custom, the phases of ’fasting out’, selection of days of fasting and the proper mediating saint’s day, the process for a day of fasting, the clear statment of the curses, their mode of completion and the role of the surrounding community. Those who assist the person fasting were family members and Orthodox priests (the practice was condemned by Roman Catholic priests). This kind of fasting was done both with the intention of helping a situation or healing illnesses; or to wish an enemy dead or to wish sickness, or harm on them: such as bad luck, seperation from a lover, financial loss, etc. Between 1968 and 1970 Kóka Rózália collected 150 stories about this custom from Bukovina Székely people in Hungary’s Tolna, Baranya and Bács-Kiskun Counties.
By Sue Foy