William Penn Life, 2012 (47. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2012-06-01 / 6. szám
Tibor's Take The Chestry Oak, The Open Gate and Lazy Tinka. My blood turned the colors red, white and green when I first read The Fall of the Red Star by Helen M. Szablya and Peggy King Anderson. Yolanda Fintor, in her Hungarian Cookbook, enlightened me with her family history and traditions growing up in Pittsburgh. The movies Brady's Escape and The Music Box brought to our family a little bit of Hungary, Hollywood style. I also enjoy what I consider the real music of Hungary: it's folk songs and melodies. Liszt, Brahms, Kodály, Bartók and others all borrowed folk music that was played and passed down generation to generation by the gypsy musicians that lived in the villages of Hungary, Transylvania and Slovakia. When Hungarians began to migrate to America in large numbers, many gypsy musicians followed. They came along not to work in the mills and factories, but to provide those laborers with the music they yearned for since leaving their native lands. With all that said, I encourage you to acquire a book long overdue when concerning American-Hungarian music. I was privileged to read the final edited copy before it was submitted for printing, a well-documented and wonderfully written manuscript entitled, Gypsy Violins. The author is Steve Piskor of the Cleveland area. If the name Piskor sounds familiar, the author's late father, Julius, was a prominent Gypsy musician in the Northeastern Ohio area. Most notably, he performed and recorded with the late Feri Borisz Zenekar. The author has painstakingly worked for over a quarter century on this book. He initially wanted to write a short story, but as he traveled and accumulated more information and photographs, he realized that writing a book would be more appropriate and practical. Gypsy Violins is divided up by chapters based on geographical influence. The real epicenter of American- Hungarian music starts in Braddock, Pa., in 1887 (a year after the founding of William Penn Association). Andrew Carnegie needed workers, and the Hungarian/Slovak population provided the imported labor. Most of the gypsy musicians came from Kassa, Hungary (now known as Kosice, Slovakia). Piskor also incorporates the Homestead area in this chapter as well. If you hail from the Pittsburgh area, Gypsy Violins offers a unique perspective on American-Magyar life during the first half of the 20th Century. As Hungarian immigrants began to appear in other industrial areas of the country, many more musicians began to arrive from Kassa. Some of the early gypsies moved to Youngstown, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and New York. For many years, Cleveland laid claim to have had the largest number of Hungarians in the world outside of Budapest. It also had a large number of gypsy musicians. Several chapters focus on the Forest City and how its gypsy musicians became backbone of the musical scene. If you want to learn about the "Nights In Budapest" or "Bogo Temető," or how Henry Ford became a fan and patron to cimbalom music, read Gypsy Violins. Gypsy Violins is filled with facts and insights about how American-Hungarians celebrated their daily lives through Hungarian Gypsy style music. This book includes scores of archival photographs of funerals, weddings, baptisms, parades and celebrations. Many of the pictures have never been viewed by the general public. Also interspersed over the 200-plus pages are historically significant newspaper articles. One particularly interesting story reports about a wedding that also is a gypsy burial for the groom. If musical names such as Udvary, Bátyi, Lacy, Bihari, Jaroka, Magyari, Dankó, Rabb, Deutsch, Sándor, Bihari, Béla, Rose, Brenkács, Ballog and Horváth jog your memory of good times of yesteryear, Gypsy Violins is a must have. This month, Gypsy Violins will be made available to the public. My short synopsis of this great book does not give justice to its importance. Gypsy Violins is a significant historical document for anyone who has danced or listened to a csárdás or any other Magyar folk music. For more information on Gypsy Violins, log onto wzvw. gypsyviolins.com. This book will be available for purchase through Magyar Marketing, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. ************************************************************ Meeting Mr. Piskor and reading his book has gotten me even more excited about a new feature I will be adding soon to Tibor's Take, which will alternate with "Did you Know They're Hungarian?" and "A Point to Ponder." This new feature is called "Do You Remember This Zenekar?" In this feature, I will discuss either a band or a singer who brought Magyar-styled entertainment to the ethnic communities. I hope to jog your memory by presenting some facts and record album photographs of these forgotten cultural legends. Occasionally, I will write about bands that still play for the Hungarian communities in our great nation. I will also write about the lesser known and obscure bands. For every Magyar-styled band who made a recording, there were at least 20 who did not. I hope to present to you those performers as well. If you would like me to feature a band from you area, please let me know. Éljen a Magyar! Tibor II Tibor Check Jr. is a member of Branch 28 Youngstown, Ohio, and a student at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He serves as a host of the “Souvenirs of Hungary’’ weekly radio show broadcast on WKTL-90.7 FM in Struthers, Ohio. Let's hear your take Let me know how you enjoy my thoughts and views on growing up Hungarian Style. If you have any questions or comments about me or my column, please email me at: silverkingl937@yahoo.com, or drop me a letter in care of the William Penn Association, 709 Brighton Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15233. William Penn Life ° June 2012 0 7
