Paksa Katalin - Németh István: Muravidéki magyar népzene (Budapest - Lendva, 2018)
A régió népzenéjéről
48 MURAVIDÉKI MAGYAR NÉPZENE singing in Göntérháza and Radamos. They are five, wearing their Sunday best and hats with ribbons. Earlier they wore cardboard shakos with ribbons (Gönczi 1914, 239). They have a sword in hand onto which the piece of bacon is skewered and the eggs they get are collected in a basket on their arm. The custom originated in the Middle Ages, when school was not yet compulsory and learning was popularized through recruitment, and singing for donations was a form of support for the school and the teacher. The Gregory-day custom [Gergely-járás] survived into the 20th century in a few villages of West Transdanubia and Upper Hungary, and as far as we know, it was practised the longest in the Mura region (24, 25). In our book the last one of the calendar feast songs is the Easter resurrection hymn. Known all over the Hungarian language territory in a Dorian scale, in the Mura region a Phrygian version was sung (26). The annual recurrence of the calendar feasts arranges village life and the pertaining, highly diverse songs into a unified system. The origins of this heterogeneous tune stock reaches back into the distant past and fuses the legacy of many centuries. The tunes of the St. Lucy day custom (1-6) and most New Year greetings (13-15) belong to the archaic stratum of Hungarian folk music characterized by twin-bar motifs. A Christmas greeting and song (8, 11, cf. Szendrei-Dobszay-Rajeczky 1979,1. 101-105, II. 49- 50), two New Year greetings (16-17, cf. “Magyarország zenetörténete” [History of Hungarian music] I. 511-513) and the St. Gregory day tune (24, 25, cf. “Magyarország zenetörténete” I. 517-519) are of medieval origin. Two New Year greetings root in the 16th century (18, 19, cf. Szendrei-Dobszay-Rajeczky 1979, I. 74-75, II. 36-37), and three New Year songs (20-22, cf. Szendrei-Dobszay-Rajeczky 1979.1. 196-197, II. 88-89), the Epiphany song (23, cf. Szendrei-Dobszay-Rajeczky 1979, I. 168, II. 79) and the resurrection tune (26, cf. Szendrei-Dobszay-Rajeczky 1979.1. 66, II. 31) date from the 17th century. A Christmas greeting and a Christmas carol are from the 18th century (9, 12, cf. Domokos-Paksa 2016, No 124), and - as stylistic features suggest - two Christmas greeting tunes date from the 19-20th century (7, 10). Tunes related to the rites of passage (27-47) Originally, the match-making song was the genre of young people, but older generations also gladly sing it (27-38). The names of a lassie and a lad presumed to be a couple, to be in love with each other, are to be mentioned together. Singing out the names, publicizing the relationship affects those involved differently, depending whether a tender attachment was thus revealed, or conversely, just for fun an ill-fitting pair was named. Match-making songs are usually sung during collective work, plucking feather, in the spinning room, gathering pumpkin seeds. Not so long ago these were the most popular occasions of singing, surviving in the Mura region a decade or two longer than in Hungary. Matchmaking songs are characterized by a light-hearted,
