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

1979-10-01 / 10. szám

Page 4

THE EIGHTH TRIBE

October, 1979

Checking weather condition — winter of 1961-62 —

Salt Lake City, Utah.

and the Hungarian Association with the Bronze Arpad Medal at the 12th Annual Hungarian Conference, held in Cleveland in November, 1972.

Although he is grateful for his escape from Hungary and is happy in his new life in America, Dr. Bognár maintains that “the great Hungarians are the ones who remained.” He sees the group that left Hungary as representing “the eighth tribe of Arpad,” and those who are still in Hungary must remain silent.

Dr. Bognár thinks that perhaps the greatest of those Hungarians who remained was the late composer Zoltán Kodály, whom he calls “the greatest musician, the greatest Hungarian.” Music, according to Dr. Bognár, is rooted very deeply in Hungary. His own love of music is evident in his skillful playing of the violin whch he has played since boyhood.

He attributes much of his skill in speaking English and his continued practice on the violin to his second wife, Charlotte, whom he married in 1962, a year after coming to Salt Lake City, Utah to work as a research meteorologist. He could speak no English at that time, so his wife-to-be coached him English and also encouraged him to continue his interest in the violin. Today, Dr. and Mrs. Bognár frequently give performances of Hungarian folk and classical music with Dr. Bognár on the violin and Mrs. Bognár at the piano.

We ask only two things from every family of Hungarian background: Subscribe yearly to the Eighth

Tribe at Ten dollars per year and send in your donation to th>> Eighth Tribe Foundation.

THE BARTAY FAMILY RELATED ARTICLES:

BIRTH OF THE “VERBUNKOS”

The conspicious Magyarization of Hungarian towns in the twenties and thirties of the nineteenth century and the fact that the culture of Hungarian music, that is of the “verbunkos” was becoming more and more prevalent, was one of the most far-reaching phenomena of the time. This cause, and in general . the organizing of musical education on a more systematic basis,, was significantly promoted by musical schools, and by the musical courses at “Hungarian national schools,” established one after the other in different parts of the country (Kassa, Keszthely, Kolozsvár 1819) and working for the most part in the spirit of the new national musical culture. The Musicians’ Society (National) School of Music in Pest was headed since 1840 by Gábor Mátray (1797- 1875), one of the leading personalities of Hungarian musical life. András Bartay published in 1835, after János Gály’s initiative (1831), the first systematic Hungarian school of harmonics (Magyar Apollo (Hungarian Apollo)), and the publication in 1833- 34 of his Eredeti Népdalok (Original Folk Songs) ranks him among the pioneers of Hungarian folkmusic research. The rapid growth of the new musical culture was, indeed, encouraged not only by the schools but by the collecting of folk songs. The Hungarian public of the period realized with great admiration the opulence of folk poetry lying around, not only in the domain of literature but in the sphere of music, and although it did not completely understand the depth and the extent of this poetry, it began with enthusiasm to unearth the accessible folkloristic and popular melodic treasure. “I wish I could write something like that,” Ádárn Pálóczi Horváth said in 1789 speaking about a folk song, and was bold enough to declare in the preface of his Ötődfélszáz Ének, that the disappearance of some old song was a much bigger loss than that of some enormous cannon of the “conquering army.” Mihály Csokonai Vitéz (1803), the outstanding poet of the period, urged, “Cast your poor song-books away . . . and listen attentively to the singing village girl and the simple water carrier.” Mátray, who published popular melodies in 1826, 1827 and 1829 already, in his collections Pannonia, Flora and Hunnia, recognized in these folk songs “the veritable preservers of national character.” In the spring of 1838 the young Ferenc Liszt in-We present this article and the music for the benefit of our Dance Groups. — Editor