Magyar News, 1998. szeptember-1999. augusztus (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1999-01-01 / 5. szám
Museum of Music History Lajos Beregszászy built 1500 pianos in 35 years after 1849, Sciences. The Academy has many collections, but few museums, this being one of them. The museum moved to its present location, the one-time Erdödy Palace, in 1983. The guiding principles are to gather musical relics and instruments that facilitate historical investigation and to maintain a public presentation of these items. The museum also plays a significant role in education; students in primary and secondary music schools regularly visit the premises. The exhibits are located in a quiet and spacious venue and most consist of multiple media. Musical instruments are divided into three major categories. The first section contains relics of Hungarian musical instrument making, including harps, cimbaloms, string and woodwind instruments and more exotic instruments such as the csákány (cane-flute) and the tárogató, a hybrid clarinet-saxophone instrument of ancient origin. Within the same area are paintings, photographs, medals and copperplates of composers and ordinary people and musicians with the same and/or similar musical instruments. The added dimension of visuals is a very interesting and helpful technique. The second section includes 17th- to 20th-century instruments and artistic representations of them. Many early versions of the traditional orchestral instruments as well as clavichords, square pianos and pianos are found here. Instruments not in frequent current use such as the viola d'amore and nineteenth-centuiy Viennese classical guitars are well represented, many built by masters from Austria and Italy as well as other countries. Numerous paintings and medals of Hungarian and foreign artists depict composers of the corresponding eras such as Haydn. Beethoven. Bellini, Chopin, Wagner and many others. The 19th- and 20th-century folk instruments section can be divided into two main subgroups. The stringed instruments include zithers, hurdy-gurdys, cimbaloms and violins, while the woodwinds are represented by bagpipes, various flutes, horns and clarinets. From a visual and musical point of view, these are probably the most curious musical instruments, especially to a non Hungarian. Photos of bagpipe players, flutists and violinists in their native environment and costumes enrich this section immensely. Within the folk instruments section is a memorial dedicated to the legendary cimbalomist Aladár Rácz. A descendant of a family of Gypsy musicians, Rácz lived from 1886 to 1958. Early in his career he performed for extended periods in Paris and Geneva and knew Igor Stravinsky personally. He taught the Russian composer to play the cimbalom. Rácz's playing inspired many composers to use the cimbalom in their compositions. An avid student of classical music, Rácz debuted in concert in 1926 and thereafter performed on tour throughout Europe. After an eight-year period in France ending in 1935, he resettled in Hungary where from 1938 until his death he was a professor at the Academy of Music. His wife, the pianist Yvonne Barblan, donated his bequest to the museum. Among the items on exhibit are his armchair, cimbalom and dedicated photographs from Bartók, Stravinsky, Yehudi Menuhin, Kodály and Andres Segovia. The museum offers a second specialized dedication, this time to Béla Bartók. Entitled "In Bartók's Workshop", the exhibition displays his annotated copies of works by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann and others, as well as his famous "Black Pocket-Book". This volume contains notes on music written by Bartók between 1907 and 1922 that represent sources of rare value for scholarly research. About ten horns' worth of precious recordings of Bartók's piano playing is another part of the exhibit. A forty-page Hungarian language guidebook to the exhibit contains many photos of the composer and manuscripts and is available for purchase. The Museum of Music History is located in the Várhegy (Castle Hill) section of Budapest, about half way between Mátyás Templom and the Vienna Gate (Bécsi Kapu tér). The museum is entered via a small courtyard followed by a lovely triple-arch Baroque portico. Since there are so many important places to see in Castle Hill, the museum is usually not crowded. A short visit to Budapest may not allow time to visit all three composers' memorial museums. Therefore, the convenient location of the Music History Museum gives an opportunity to have an in-depth look at Hungarian music history in one setting. An excellent 71 page guidebook in Hungarian and English with numerous color illustrations and a detailed listing of the museum's contents may be obtained there. ********** Readers of Magyar News interested in visiting these and other museums in Budapest are advised to contact the Hungarian National Tourist Office in New York at (212) 355-0240 for a helpful pamphlet entitled "Budapest Museums" Ferenc Liszt Memorial Museum Vörösmarty utca, 35 Phone 36-1-322-9804 Béla Bartók Memorial House Csalán utca, 29 Phone 36-1-394-4472 Zoltán Kodály Museum and Archive Kodály körönd, 1 Phone 36-1-342-8448 Music History Museum and Bartók Archive Táncsics Mihály út, 7 Phone 36-1-214-6770 Extension 252 Fax 36-1-175-9282 (( HUMG4BM.M \ Commmitj Cl mb 147 Ward St., Wallingford, CT. P.O.Box 1816; Tel:203-639-0511 Available for cultural and social events. Hall, kitchen, bar, stage and ample parking. Contact: Kati Kovács Page 5
