Hungarian Folk Music

This disc is given as an introduction to a series of grammophone records, the edition of which is planned to be started in 1965 by the Folk Music Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The enteerprise is aimed at presenting a comprehensive survey of Hungarian traditional music, and to this end we have selected tunes recorded during the past thirty years. The preservation of folk music in Hungary is far from beingevenly uniform: in certain regions even the young generation sings in the traditional style (e. g. the singeer of tune A6) while in others the oldest singers hardly remember it. The manifold styles of the melodies suggest a rich and far-reachinghistory of the Hungarian folk music. The fact that unisonous performance still prevails should by no means be regarded as a mark of a poorly developed taste; rather would it be looked upon as a consequence of general pentatony and of a developed sense for linear forming. In our days the proportion between vocal and instrumental folk music is not the same as it was in the past: instrumental traditions fell victim to the overwhelming progress of civilization in the 19th century sooner than a sufficient number of researchers, by the means of a modern technique, could collect them. On the first side of this record mainly types of the "old style" are included. Some of them show very close relations to the folk music of those people in the Ural region with whom our ancestors had kept contact while living there (A1 and A2). Apart from its descending line of melody, pentatonic features and transposition in fifths, they are characterized by the two main tempo-types of the Magyar folk songs: "parlando rubato" which allows a free performance and "tempo giusto" (which denotes a strictly measured rhythm) quick to a greater or lesser degree. Much more varied than these are the types given on the second side, where a selection of Hungarian folk songs show the influence of the European environment. This influenced is evidenced in scale, rhythm and structure. Track B9a to B9c gives specimens of the "new style" characterized by a tempo giusto and the regular return of the first melodic phrase. This type flourished during the period from the last decades of the past century to the end of World War II. Track A1: prisoners' song, Transdanubia Track A2: swineheards' Dance, Transdanubia Track A3: comic song, Transdanubia Track A4: lyrical song, played first on zither, then on hurdy-gurdy in two different rhythm-types, Great Plain Track A5: dance tune with lyrical words, North Hungary (Transylvania) Track A6: part of a ballad, Moldavia Track A7: part of an outlaw-ballad, North Hungary (generally known) Track A8: part of an outlaw-ballad, North Hungary Track A9: lyrical song, maid's roundel, Transdanubia Track A10: pipe-tune, North Hungary (generally known) Track A11: historical song, Székler Bucovina (Transylvania) Track A12: lament, North Hungary (generally known) Track A13: lyrical song, accompanied by a band of village gypsies, Transylvania Track B1: children's song (generally known) Track B2: New Year's Day Address, Transdanubia Track B3: comic song, Moldavia Track B4: evening song, Moldavia Track B5: part of a ballad, Transdanubia (generally known) Track B6: instrumental dance music, played onviolin and "gardon" (archaic form of violoncello) used as a percussion instrument, Transylvania Track B7: lyrical song, Transdanubia Track B8: herds song, Great Plain Track B9a to B9c: tunes of the new style, with lyrical words, North Hungary (generally known) Track B10: recruiting dance, instrumental music, performed by a band of village gypsies