History of the Music of Hungary
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In Hungary, the development of classical music was a slow process. Before the Romantic era, not much is known about the state of Hungarian music apart from knowing that the Church standard of Gregorian chant existed within Hungary after the country had been converted to Christianity. It was annexed into the Habsburg Austrian Empire and the German culture dominated over the native Hungarian. Until the arrival of the national schools of the Romantic era, Hungarian music was not really influential.
With the arrival of the Romantic movement, and taking inspitation with the revolts of 1848, nationalistic music began going on the rise all over Europe, Hungary was not an exception.
With the arrival of the Romantic movement, and taking inspitation with the revolts of 1848, nationalistic music began going on the rise all over Europe, Hungary was not an exception.
Traditional Hungarian MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
CobzaThe Cobza is a stringed instrument charactedized by a short neck and lacking of frets, similar to the Turkish oud. It is a popular folk instrument in Hungary and Romania.
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CimbalomThis instrument is a concert hammer dolcimer. It is a trapezoidal box with legs, which has stung on it metal strings which when plucked, are used to make music.
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MazankaThe tárogató is a Hungarian reed, shawn-type instrument. It can be traced back to the fifteenth century and it is said to have descended from the Ottoman zurna.
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DudaThe Duda is the traditional bagpipe of Hungary. It usually has one chanter and one drone, although there may be small regional differences.
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ZitherThe zither is common in Southern Germany close to Austria, and around Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary. It is an instrument that is played as a guitar and can come fretless or with frets.
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Hungarian Folk Music
Hungary, as far as folk music goes, appears to have received a considerable amount of Roma gypsy musical influence and is said to be reflected in the Hungarian dances. Hungarian folk music tends to be characterized, music-wise, by duple meter and the inclusion of very quick runs, and dance-wise, by many quick leaps and fast jumps.
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Verbunkos
The name Verbunkos comes from the German verb werben, meaning "to enroll in the army". This traditional folk style of music generally is in two distinct sections, one which is fast and another which is slow.
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Csárdás
The Hungarian Csárdás literally means "tavern" in old Hungarian. The dance is said to have branched off around mid XVIII century from the Verbunkos. The csárdás are usually a duple meter and typical of a Hungarian folk dance, usually there is tempo change going from a fast part (the friss), to going to a slow part (the lassú). Several cmoposers such as Liszt, Strauss and Brahms incorporated this dance into their compositions.
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Táncház
Táncház is a very new dance in Hungary. Begun around 1970, it is a revivalist dance which started simply as a promoter of the Hungarian culture. These dances vary a bit more than other Hungarian dances, seeing as they are inspired by all kinds of other traditional music, but generally it takes traditions from Transylvanian dance. It literally means "dance house" and are usually done in a private setting.
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Notable Classical Pieces and Composers
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Hungarian classical music did really not come to prominence until the Romantic era with the sudden surge of nationalism and the creation of the nationalist schools all over Europe. Apart from Liszt, Hungarian composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály are probably the most well remembered to this day for contributing the most to the Hungarian music tradition by cataloging traditional national dances.
Music of the Middle Ages |
Renaissance Music |
Baroque Music |
Romantic Music
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Contemporary Music
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Classical Music Examples
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
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Zoltán Kodály (Romantic)
Intermezzo from Háry János Suite
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