The Eighth Tribe, 1979 (6. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1979-10-01 / 10. szám

October, 1979

THE EIGHTH TRIBE

Page 9

tended to walk with a pack on his hack all over the unexplored regions of Hungary (“les parties les plus désertes de la Hongrie”), as if he devined the age-old musical treasures hidden there, and desired to refresh his spirit by wandering through “the virgin steppes of Hungary,,” of his “wild and distant native country,” partaking “in the simplicity of peasant morals.” For a long time there was no difference between genuine folk-music compositions in the vein of folk music and popular song. Pálóczi Horváth did not think it necessary to make a careful distinction between them. Nor did his successors, the compilers of late song collections, István Tóth (Arias and songs, 1832-1843) and the publishers of the printed compendia of the century, beginning with Bartay and János Fogarasi up to Gábor Mátray, Károly Színi and István Bartalus. In one word, from 1833 to 1896 the collection of folk song bringing forth such characteristic and significant compendia, as the one in manuscript of János Arany, the great Hungarian poet, from 1874, was done according to old principles.

There were the lyrics of school dramas and Hungarian interpolations in some German operas since the end of the eighteenth century. These are the direct predecessors of I he Hungarian musical drama. The first were especially significant, because they gave voice to the Hungarian folk song on the scenes of the Piarist School in Beszterce, the Pauline School in Sátoraljaújhely and the Calvinist School in Csurgó. At the end of the century it was to a certain extent the practice of the “verbunkos” movement, and partly the example of foreign operas that had a stimulating effect on the Hungarian musical theatre. Its real difficulties were not yet evident and no doubts were voiced about them. On the contrary, their appearance was welcomed with general patriotic rejoicing. We do not yet know the music of the first Hungarian musical drama-experiments—the compositions of József Chudy, Gáspár Pacha and of others from Pozsony, and among them that of the “first Hungarian opera,” Chudy’s Prince Pikkó and Jutka Perzsi (Buda, May 6, 1793), the text of which was translated by Antal Szalkay from Philipp Hafner’s spectacular “oriental” magic comedy, Prinz Schnudi und Prinzessin Evakathel. Chudy’s stage music, as described by contemporary critics, “moved the heart with its melodic naivete and pleased the ear by its harmonics.” It was composed, as far as can be established from the libretto, according to the practice of the Viennese musical popular play, the “Zauberposse” (magic comedy), and it included Hungarian interpolations; the text-hook lias lyrics “to be sung to the tune of a Hungarian song” or “of a fresh Hungarian song.”

The first Hungarian musical plays, the music of which also survived, are the following: György Csernyi, Gábor Mátray’s popular play (1812, libretto by István Balogh), Béla’s Flight, an opera by József Ruzitska (conductor in Debrecen, later in Kolozsvár, composed to the libretto, based on Kotzebue’s German by János Kótsi Patkó), Simon Kemény of the same composer (adapted from Károly Kisfaludy’s play, both performed in Kolozsvár, 1822), King Matthias’s Elections by József Heinisch and György Arnold (1832-34), András Bartay s Aurelia (1832) and The Ruse (1839), Márk Rózsavölgyis The Treasurehunters of Visegrád (1839), etc. All these clearly show the blending of different musical traditions. Dramatic scenes of bigger proportions came from the repertory of opera music in Italian and Viennese style (Rossini, Bellini, Mozart), hut idyllic, lyric and heroic episodes were always composed in the style of the “verbunkos.” This duality of method, as is well known, can be distinctly felt even in ErkeVs opera. But it should not he thought that the public regarded this stylistic duality as a deficiency, or that for this reason these compositions lost something of their Hungarian character for the public. The series of triumphs all over the country, in the twenties and thirties of the nineteenth century, of Béla’s Flight (right up to József Heinisch’s adaptation of 1837-38), proves convincingly that the Hungarian public regarded Ruzitska’s work as the incarnation of Hungarian opera, even though in it the Hungarian, the Italian and the German musical idioms stand side by side, or even merge into one another, in a most peculiar way. The secret of success may be explained by the fact that “verbunkos” music, having in the meantime gained popularity all over the country, made its appearance on the stage as well in these compositions, and the time came—around 1860— when it prevailed in the entire language of the opera.

The spreading of the “verbunkos” after 1830 should not be looked for in dance-music literature alone. It rapidly gained ground in chamber and piano music, in song literature and on the stage. Already at the end of the eighteenth century it was regarded as the continuation, the resurrection of ancient Hungarian dance and music, and its success signified the triumph of the people’s art.

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