Paksa Katalin - Németh István: Muravidéki magyar népzene (Budapest - Lendva, 2018)
A régió népzenéjéről
ABOUT THE FOLK MUSIC OF THE REGION 49 serene mood. A considerable portion of their tunes got into the Hungarian repertoire from abroad. Some struck roots here centuries ago, e.g. the so-called “volta tune” Szántottam gyöpöt [I’ve ploughed the lawn] in which a 16th century European dance tune can be discerned (33-34). Another 16th century Czech tune (Kodály 1969, 67-68) also lives on as a match-making song here, its favourite texts are Zúg az erdő, zúg a mező [The woods booming, the fields booming] (30), Vági Mari tornyos ágyát magasra vetette [Mari Vági set her towering bed high] (31), Horvát Pista befogatta két szürke lovát [Pista Horvát put his two grey horses to the cart] (32). 18-19th century popular art songs also got match-making texts (35, 36) as did tunes of the early new style (37, 38). The salient event of life is marriage, which does not only determine the fate and future of the individual, but - in traditional thinking - it also serves the growth of the community. The festivity after a wedding ceremony sometimes lasted for two days. When they sat down by the festive table, they sang the Kánai menyegző [Wedding at Cana] about the first miracle worked by Jesus, the tune originating in the 17th century (39, cf. Szendrei-Dobszay-Rajeczky 1979,1. 170, II. 80). Nowadays, after a change of function, it is usually sung in the church during silver and golden weddings. Elderly couples ask for it - and thus help preserve an over three-hundred-year-old song, a beautiful memory from their youth. To entertain the guests during the wedding party, the long Catechism song enumerating the religious rules is also performed (40). “Ritual” moments of the party were the mortar dance and the pillow dance (41-44). Singing is not only the indispensable part of merriment and festivities but also of painful occasions, when someone dies. In the Mura region regrettably only two funeral songs and a parody have been registered by collectors (45-47). Dance tunes and other songs (48-61) Vocal tunes accompanying old dances in quaver motion of the swineherd’s/jumping dance type (48-53, cf. Paksa 2010, Nos. 58, 36) and csárdáses performed on the piano accordion (54-57), as well as beggar song parodies and barker’s tunes (58-61) belong here. Non-occasional tunes The broadly arched descending old style and its melodic sphere (No 62-84) The most specific set of tunes of eastern origin and their derivatives which differ most widely from the music of our neighbours (cf. Paksa 20124,118-135) can be found in the Mura region, too, but somewhat underrepresented as compared to the entire tune stock. The pentatonic scale of the old style is most often complemented with an alien note (Dorian passing note). There are hardly any purely pentatonic tunes (66, 69). Descent can take place through the quintal shift across the whole strophe, or through partial fifth shifting (62, 63, 65-68, 72).
