2025

English Table of Contents 2025/1  

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Somogy Dance Ensemble celebrated its 75th jubilee in 2024.

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New column of Sebő Ferenc: Guests of Kassák-klub. In this first part he is writing about the poet Nagy László, who used to visit regularly the Kassák-klub.

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Interview with Szerényi Béla Jr – folk musician, leader of Magyar Banda. Szerényi Béla Jr grew up in an active family of dance house musicians. His father is a folk musician and master instrument maker. Béla Jr describes being so immersed and enthralled with folk music from early childhood that there was nothing else he could possibly have done with his life. Today his main instruments are hurdy gurdy, tárogató, e-flat clarinet and wooden shepherds flute. He has had formal music training but also learned from master musicians, and at home by osmosis. He also folk dances – though recently made a career choice to concentrate on music – especially authentic style traditional Hungarian folk music. His main project right now is his band – Magyar Banda. "…in this band we don’t restate music collected in the villages, we express our own current thoughts in the language we learned from the [village folk music] masters". Magyar Banda’s video clip known as "Csavargó" (look it up on the net) has sparked discussion in dance house circles. Szerényi B.jr claims ninety percent of the feedback about the clip has been positive. "…putting the bikini and folk music together is unusual – I think it tells alot about the status of our movement". For the last year and a half Szerényi B.jr and Magyar Banda have been working towards their own sound, or version of traditional folk music "without changing the authentic basic rhythm, accompaniment, melodic world, ornamentation". Interview by Grozdits Károly.

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From the programmes of the National Dance Theather.

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May the Zithers Sing Merrily! – Temporary exhibition in the Museum of Ethnography
The zither was once one of the most widespread and beloved folk instruments in the musical life of traditional Hungarian communities. Due to its simple structure, skilled villagers could craft it themselves, and it often accompanied home festivities and communal work occasions. Thanks to the revival of folk music movements and the folk music education that began in the 1990s, the zither is now experiencing a renaissance. It is frequently used in music activities starting from nursery school age, as it is relatively easy to learn to play, and thanks to the sympathetic strings, a simple accompaniment can instantly complement the melody.
The Museum of Ethnography houses around 3,000 folk instruments from all over the world in its various collections. The exhibition May the Zithers Sing Merrily! showcases a wide spectrum of zither types and runs from 23 January 2025 to 29 June 2025.

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Interview with singer Bognár Szilvia. Recent recipient of Hungary’s Prima Award, Szilvia grew up singing. She talks about singing with and learning in the Vas Folk Song Studio with Tanai Erzsébet during her secondary school years. She sang for three years with Anima Sound System, then in Budapest with Makám Ensemble. She talks about a 2007 recording "Szájról szájra" and about working with singers Herczku Ágnes and Szalóki Ágnes. She sang with Vándor Vokál for seven years; and has worked, amongst others, with Sebő Ferenc, Krulik Zoltán, Kiss Ferenc, the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble and Rost Andrea. Her style is versatile and elegant. She enjoys her students and teaching singing in the Department of Folk Music at the Liszt Academy of Music. She comments that she doesn’t necessarily want to still be singing on stage at the age of seventy-five (she’s no where near that yet!) "…I only want to be onstage as long as I can keep my voice in shape, and as along as I can speak to an audience this way." By Varga Veronika first published on: ’Ritmus és hang’ blog – 2025. Feb. 5.

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In the literary column of Széki Soós János this time we can read the poems of Fülöp M. Lóránd.

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Sebő Ferenc is remembering of music scientist, artist and teacher Dobszay László, who was born 90 years ago.

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Living Dance Archive – Series of the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble. After the iconic pieces of the series (Bonchida, three times; Gyimes; Kalotaszeg; Mezőség and Szatmár) there is a new part called Storm Corner. By Abdulwahab Nadia.

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Székely Traditions – Part 4. The inspiration for this college diploma project towards a degree in the department of education, sociology, and Rom language at Apor Catholic College in Hungary – has been this student’s desire to explore her own Székely heritage. Part 4 of her paper continues a survey of Transylvanian Székely folk traditions with descriptions of customs for: the Carnival period (approximately 6 weeks between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday), feather pulling/plucking parties, and customs around the spring name days: Gergely, Sándor-József-Benedek, March 25th, April 1st, Tibor, Saint György’s day, Saint Márk’s day (blessing the wheat), May 1st and May 12,13,14 (Szervác, Pongrác, Bonifác), and May 25th Orbán name day. These customs were presumably practiced mainly in ’former times’ and were related to traditions around subsistence farming, animal husbandry, religion (Christian) and social life in the small close-knit Székely village communities. Includes bibliography, sources. By Simó Ilona.

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Arany Piroska writes short stories – in a more or less folk tale style. She was born in 1931 in the eastern Hungarian town of Derecske where she attended elementary and secondary school, later earning a teaching diploma in Debrecen and Nyíregyháza. She worked as an elementary school teacher in Derecske for some years. In 1993, she moved to Győr in Western Hungary. In 1998 she completed a writing course in Budapest. Since the 1960s she has been writing down stories she heard in her home village from her grandparents and extended family. This issue of folkMAGazin publishes a story from her book “Kendőmesék” (Magyar Kultúra Kiadó. Győr, 2008.) “Kendő” is the Hungarian word for the headscarf worn by rural married women in this part of the world. The stories reveal the inner thoughts of women from an unspecified time and place along with the ups and downs, gossip, intense social pressure and social life in a Hungarian village community. "A person can never be too careful – the world is full of enemies. And headscarves. Seen from behind them in the church, the women’s rows were all headscarves. Beautiful scarves stored carefully in the wardrobe for holiday wear: cashmere, silk, with roses, whatever looked best on its owner, or the best within their means….” Printed here is “Stolen headscarf” a story about a poor family, their better-off relatives that lived across the street and the disappearance of a favorite silk headscarf.

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Lajtha László Award recipient Liber Endre is a folk musician – he plays viola and cymbalom with Tükrös and other bands. But he is also an active folk and world music promoter/producer. He is artistic director of both Hangvető Music and the Lajtha Ház – a cultural center in the town of Bicske, Hungary named after Hungarian composer and musicologist Lajtha László. Liber Endre has been an organizer of numerous significant world, folk and other music events over the last decades.

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Fügedi János, retired senior researcher at the Institute of Musicology, died on January 31, 2025, at the age of 71. With his departure, we lost an outstanding figure of the last decades of Hungarian and international ethnochoreology, who researched the movement forms of folk dance with the thoroughness and consistency of a natural scientist, while never losing his love for folk culture, one of the fruits of which is still alive today. Announcement by Research Center for the Humanities Institute for Musicology.

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Erdélyi Tibor, Kossuth-award winning artist, Master of Folk Arts and eternal member of the Hungarian State Folk Ensembel, has died at his age of ninety-three.

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Navratil Andrea – folk singer, story teller, folk music educator, environmental protectionist received the Hungarian Heritage Award on December 14, 2024. Her work and talents have previously been recognized with a Liszt Ferenc Award. "Singing, love of nature, respect for the knowledge preserved by the traditional peasant world – have all been part of my life since childhood." Printed here is the laudation presented by Agócs Gergely at the awards event.

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Results of the 27th National Solo Dance Competition. Photos by Majnik Zsolt.

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Hungary's csárdás dance tradition has been officially added to UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. A celebration was held at Budapest’s Hungarian Heritage House on January 23rd, 2025. Csárdás is described as "a dynamic, continuously developing practice which is deeply interwinned with community identity and cohesion." Csárdás is a dance that evolved from Hungarian recuiting practices in the 18th century – many local versions of csárdás are danced today all over the Hungarian language area including Hungary, Transylvania, Transcarpathia, ’Upper Hungary’ (in Slovakia) and Voivodina. From Farkas Zoltán Batyu’s statement at the event: "Behind the csárdás are the people – reflected in the dance is their life, their souls and their sense of belonging. Thanks is due especially to Hungarian dance ethnographer Martin György and his field work teams whose research starting in the 1950s made it possible for the next generations to learn these dances." Published here is a speech given by Csonka-Takács Eszter at the celebration.

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„his mother tongue is Hungarian...” – a short part of a novel written by a Transyvanian writer, Ignácz Rózsa.

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New CD release – Tatros Ensemble: [Pillanat] Moment

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„Tedd ki a pontot!” – call for children's, youth and adult singles competitions

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Young Master of Folk Arts 2025 – call for applications

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From the programmes of the Palace of Arts.

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From the programmes of the Hungarian House of Music.

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Traditional Hungarian food – what Hungarians do with thick cooked porridge? We hear about the many colorful names for dishes using porridge cooked from various grains. Chunks of cooked porridge are often dipped in egg, rolled in breadcumbs and fried. There are many variations thereof. This can be either a sweet or savory meal – a dessert or main dish. Grains often used are farina wheat or rice. There are plenty of references to and recipes for this kind of dish from the mid 1800s onwards, and they are still prepared today. Recipes provided here: fried rice pudding, farina sausagettes with wine, rice sausagettes with wine foam, rice ’sausages’ with chocolate, rice ’pears’, fried cooked farina wheat. By ethnographer and traditional foods specialist Juhász Katalin.