Paksa Katalin - Németh István: Muravidéki magyar népzene (Budapest - Lendva, 2018)
A régió népzenéjéről
ABOUT THE FOLK MUSIC OF THE REGION 53 music was recorded before the fieldwork in 1998. At that time, only the memory of the flute was still alive, a woman from Őrihodos mentioning that her father had played it. The popular instrument was the zither, which was often the only source of music at a party. The playing of the Petesháza zitherist - who had often visited music camps in Hungary and was thus under their unifying influence - hardly preserved any traits of the local style. The earlier cimbalom without a pedal - the kis [little] cimbalom or dulcimer was remembered by several informants. It was ousted by the modem cimbalom transported from one village to the other in a wheel-barrow. Without the cimbalom the band was not complete; in Dobronak it was played even in the church on major holidays. In spite of that, there is no cimbalom recording. Due to his failing health the cimbalom player of Radamos had not been playing for six years when the collectors were there, and the cimbalom player of Csete had just had a hand injury. The composition of a band had changed a lot. In some old group photos taken at weddings - in the virtual Hungarian Nationality Museum of Slovenia - traditional string bands can be seen in the first row. Band leader Ferenc Cseke said the band consisted of one or two leading violins, cimbalom, accordion, double-bass. They played at weddings in the villages of Csente, Dobronak, Hídvég, Kámaháza, Zsitkóc. “Gypsies were not liked very much around here. We were not hankering after the pay. We earned more than those who were keen on the money... We went there at four in the afternoon, and the wedding lasted for two nights, as long as the people didn’t tire.” Ferenc Cseke had leamt from his uncle who had a band in Kapca. He first founded a band in Bánuta. Band leader Lajos Cigány of Bánuta bom in 1921 took up the violin by himself at the age of 18. First he tried his hand at Komámasszony, ördög bújjon bocskorába [Auntie, may the devil enter your shoes] (cf. 53). When he had managed to play a few tunes, he turned to his uncle (his mother’s brother), the famous band leader of Kapca István Császár, who taught him to play the kontra. Later he set up a band, with a cimbalom and a kontra player. The songs were taught to him by the Gypsy called Ratkó, “six songs a day, he kept coming for two months. We paid him by the hour, and he needed a litre of wine, too. At night I was dreaming that old Ratkó was knocking it into my ear. I whistled the songs, nicely, one after the other. I had to be pattering all the time like a buck hare, but you had to keep time somehow.” They played in balls on Sunday afternoons, a lot in Csete, Völgyifalu, Dobronak down to Pince and Kapca. “I earned so much I could even buy a violin.” Later the band dissolved, the kontra played remained on the front, the violinist accompanying in thirds moved away. In 1998 there were active bands in the region, too; mention was made of Ferenc Horváth of Kót, who was working in Germany but came home to play at weddings. His companions were two accordion players and a drummer. The only musician whose playing is perpetuated on usable recordings is Géza Dora of Szécsiszentlászló (41-44, 54—57, 65). “I started with the tambura when I was three,” he recalled, “my father had brought it, there was none here.” He then played the violin,
