The Eighth Tribe, 1979 (6. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1979-08-01 / 8. szám
August, 1979 THE EIGHTH TRIBE Page 7 THE BART AY FAMILY RELATED ARTICLES: — continued from July issue — András Endre Bartay (born Széplak, 7 April, 1799; died Mainz, 4 Oct., 1854). Hungarian composer, theatre director and collector of folksongs. He came from an old Hungarian noble family and embarked on a career in the civil service; it was not until 1829 that he first appeared on the musical scene, when he and Lajos Menner had founded and became directors of the first Pest singing academy. Bartay was one of the first to publish Hungarian folksongs — in 1833-4 he published a collection — in two volumes Eredeti Nép dalok Klavir kísérettel (‘Original Folksongs with piano accompaniment’), and in 1834 he published one of the earliest Hungarian books on music theory, Magyar Apollo. In 1837 his comic opera Aurelia oder Das Weib am Konradstein had its premiere at the Pest Municipal Theatre, and in 1839 his comic opera Csel (‘Ruse’) had its premiere at the Pest Hungarian Theatre. Bartay was director of the Hungarian National Theatre in 1843-4 and it was during this short period that the most popular Hungarian theatrical genre of the 19th century, the so-called ‘folk play’, including both folksongs and folkdances, began to flourish. In 1844 Bartay devised the competition for a Hungarian national anthem, whose winning entry, by Erkel was subsequently adopted. After the collapse of the Hungarian struggle for independence, in 1849 Bartay emigrated, first to France and then to Germany. Bartay’s significance for the development of Hungarian music did not lie principally in hia compositions. His works, which include three operas, two masses, sacred and secular oratorious, a melodrama, songs and piano pieces, show him a cultivated creator with good taste. He did, however, perceive the cultural demands and possibilities of his time and country, and was enterprising as a teacher and organizer, as a collector and publisher of folksongs, as a theatre director and as the author of books on music theory; the initiative which he took in all these fields helped form the basis for progressive musical life in Hungary. Ede Bartay (born Pest, Oct. 1825; died Budapest, 31 Aug. 1901). Hungarian composer and teacher and organizer of the musical life. The fourth son of the composer and theatre director András Bartay, he read law and also studied the piano and music theory with his brother András (born probably 1822; died St. Petersburg, July 1846). He worked in the independent Hungarian Ministry of Transport (1848-9) but was forced to earn his living a piano teacher after the defeat of the Hungarian struggle for independence. About 1850 he completed his musical studies on his own, and a few years later he was a sought-after teacher and a popular composer
