Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1978. január-június (32. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1978-06-01 / 22. szám
Thursday, June 1. 1978. .IV EVENING WITH BÉLA BARTÓK When we talk of collections of folk songs, we rarely give a second thought to how and whence folk song collections are acquired. What procedures do the musicologists follow to search out and assemble the hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of folk songs and ballads that passed from mouth to mouth when written music was a rarity? In Hungary, when I was a child, the landless people were often unemployed and were therefore unable to support their children. So the girls from the neighboring villages and hamlets would come to town to work as maids. I still remember how these girls brought with them their own regional folk songs and tales, flavored with the, various accents and rhythms of the different areas from which they came. We listened eagerly to these songs and promptly learned them, just for our own childish pleasure, and then they became part of our heritage. Collectors and researchers of folk songs like Bela Bartók and Zoltán Kodály knew what to look and where to find what they were looking for. Often it was a long, tedious and painstaking task, as we shall see. I was privileged to know the Bartoks. Mrs. Bartók was a friend of mine and I was a frequent visitor to their modest apartment in Riverdale, New York. One evening, after dining in their home, Bartók asked me to sit beside him at their grand piano. There was a faint smile on his magnificent face — already pale to transparency due to his fatal illness of which he knew nothing, nor did any of us. He played a few notes of a song, and asked if I were familiar with the tune. I was not. Whereupon, he turned to me and told this story. During his years of researching and collecting a great number of Hungarian folk songs, Bartók and his entourage had visited many villages, listening to the songs of the peasants, herdsmen and others, young and old, recording their songs on a simple phonograph. Bartók sought out anyone who might know still old song, or another version of one. He related, “One day, we were working in a village, and had exhausted all available sources. But we had heard about one very old song that only one woman in the village knew or sang. This woman, we were told, was out in the field, working. We packed up all our notes and equipment, and took off to find the woman. We finally found her working in the field, but she refused to sing for us. All the rest of that day was spent in coaxing and pleading with her, but to no avail. After the day’s work was done, the woman tied hér bundle to the end of her hoe, as did all the other women and started to walk home to the village. Frustrated, we followed her back, disappointed that we had failed. As the woman walked, her hoe swaying from side to side with its burden, (with a gently swaving gait), suddenly started to sing “the” song, and she sang all the way home. As he finished, Bartók faced the keyboard, and sang “the” song in his thin voice, accompanying himself with unembellished simplicity. Duci Kovács AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ One of the last photographas of Bela Bartók, taken in New York in 1944. BARTÓK SEMINAR IN BUDAPEST Founded in 1967, the International Bartók Seminars are among the most popular of the summer courses offered in Hungary. In collaboration with the Hungarian Office of International Music Competitions, former colleagues, pupils and interpreters of the music of Bartók Bela are invited to the Seminars as instructors. The courses are held at the prestigious Ferenc Liszt Academy of Musfc, in Budapest. This year, from July 20 to August 4, the courses will include the study of musical compositions for piano, violin and string quartets. Those wishing to attend the Seminar as students, or visitors) may send for applications and additional information to The Music Secretariat of the Bartók Seminar ( H-1366 Budapest, P.O.B. 80. Vörösmarty ter 1. Hungary. Student enrollees will receive individual instruction. Visitors, although they will not receive instruction, may attend any of the courses and participate in all of the group socials. There is no age limit for participation. SOMMER MUSIC FESTIVALS IN HUNGARY Fertőd Haydn Concerts May through August Mostly Haydn concerts are performed in the concert hall and garden of the Baroque Eszterhazy Palace where Franz Josef Haydn entered service as court conductor and musician in 1761 and continued for 29 years to produce most of his musical output. Beethoven in Martonvasar June through August Concerts are performed by leading Hungarian musicians on the Brunswick Palace grounds, where Beethoven, as piano teacher to Countesses Terez and Jozefin Brunswick; composed many of his works and dedicated several to members of the family. Budapest Open Air Festival July and August The Open Air Theater on Margaret Island, which seats 3,560 is the site of opera and ballet performances by the Budapest Opera Theater. HENRY WEINSTOCK: “A CARESS OF OUR ROOTS” With the current mania for ancestral identity, a trip to Hungary in the summer of 1977 with my family did not appear to be totally out of order. For many years we’ve been wishing Hungary well, considering what a horrendous history it had endured, especially during and between two world wars. We were of course most fortunate in that we had my dear father with us; we could not have had a better guide. Budapest, as most large metropolitan centers, is intense with humanity rushing about. There is no lack of public transportation, the parks are filled with people, stores packed with customers, museums being revitalized and, alas, pollution abound in limitless quantities. Hungary for me has been a great source of fascination. I remember growing up in Belgium and later in the United States perpetually being immersed in a climate of magyarophilism. Hungarian was the language that I was constantly bombarded with in family gatherings, in social events of all sorts. My first antibiotic shot of political awareness was the great socialist events of post World War II. in Hungary. The sacred moment came when our visas were in order to visit Hungary. Sacred, because the keen anticipation of something that was to happen, had almost the same intensity as a religious experience. Bernard Shaw, who possessed one of the most indefatigable spirits and more than that, once remarked, illusions are inevitably contaminated with reality. Hungary was for us a magnificent reality , however few things contaminated our illusions. The delightful opportunity to be immersed in ma- gyaromania, left us wondering how we could become magyars after such an enthralling experience, if in the scale of values, we value material things as important to our happiness, then Hungary was extremely positive. There appeared to be the same quantity of things, a surfeit of elegant shops, as one would find in any large metropolis. But in addition to that, if one values the more abstract things that make our lives richer from a spiritual and physical wellbeing, then Hungary was equally delightful. We found ample day care centers, free medical centers, excellent pediatric care for their children and ours, libraries, cultural centers, theaters, museums constantly being revitalized, a keen consciousness of preserving the historic monuments and extraordinary amount of what appeared to be justified pride in their folklore. In our travels throughout the countryside with excellent public transportation we found no less pleasure in seeing those same institutions as above, but on a smaller scale. Our visit to Sárospatak, was a caress of our roots, all the rustic charm of a provincial village that espoused 20th century techno- logy, without much clash. A horse-drawn cart next to a discotheque with all the Buck Rogers gadget- ry to feast the ears of the raucous tastes of the young magyar-hipsters. How can one judge a country without living and working in that respective country for a minimum of five years? Of course as one adheres to a fixed way of life in any one place, it becomes inevitable that flaws do set in. Not every continued on p. 10. _ 9
