Articles by Initial Letters
„Tudom, hogy eretnek vagyok...”
Hajdani beszélgetés Almási Istvánnal
- Issue: 2021/4
- Starting page: 14
- Genre: Interjú
- Author: Fehér Anikó
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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).