Countries Archives: Hungary

Hungary–The Csárdás

Hungary’s most prominent national folk dance, the Csárdás, originated with the 18th century verbunkos, dances that were most often done as a form of recruitment for the military. The Csárdás starts off slowly –a section called lassú–and ends very quickly with a section known as friss (“fresh”). Both men and women dance the Csárdás, though tradition dictates that only women wear a traditional red skirt that twirls as they dance.

In class we imagine ourselves in a táncház and try the Csárdás. To fly in the face of tradition, we may all don traditional red twirly skirts.

More information:
Csárdás: Tango of the East! | An awesome Csárdás

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Hungary–Music

Hungary’s traditional music is as tricky a mix of East and West, of secular and religious, and of ancient and modern as Hungary is itself. While some theorists trace the earliest Hungarian music, and the Magyar people, back to Siberia, at the heart of the most widespread Hungarian musical tradition is Italian Catholic plainsong, a type of religious chanting that consists of one unaccompanied melody line. When the Turks arrived in the 15th century and conquered part of Hungary they brought sounds from the East, as well as Roma people who came with their own unique music. While “elite” Hungarians developed classical forms generally identified with the West, Turkish and Romani music infused Hungarian village with an Eastern flair.

Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók, two noted early 19th century Hungarian ethnomusicologists, educators and composers, traveled into these villages to record Hungarian “peasant” music. They documented Hungary’s folk music traditions just in time, because after World War II music became the official domain of the ruling Communists. The regime established folk choirs and orchestras and only allowed music to played in public that was fully sanctioned (and fully sanitized) by the Song Committee. An underground folk music scene rose in opposition; people gathered in the táncház (dance hall) and revived traditional dances like the csárdás as a form of cultural protest.

When the Soviets crumbled Hungarian traditional music left the táncház and flourished once again. Today urban Hungarian bands like the Roma folk/folk and the Besh o Drom and the “speed-folk” Transylvanians have revived Hungarian traditional music, bringing it into the modern age, making it relevant for a new generation.

Hungary–Language

Hungarians are understandably proud of their thousand year old language, which they call “Magyar.” Magyar is substantially different from the Slavic languages of its neighbors and is most closely (though still distantly) related to Uralic languages like Finnish and Estonian. This linguistic barrier sets Hungary apart in Europe, which is a matter of pride for Hungarians and a matter of confusion for most everyone who passes through. Almost 95% of Hungarians speak Magyar and almost all the rest of Hungarians understand it.

In class we say hello and goodbye in Hungarian:
Hello: Jó napot
Goodbye: Viszlát

We’re specifically not going to say the longest naturally occurring word in the Hungarian language: megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekér, which means, “for your repeated pretending to be unable to be desecrated.”

Hungary–When you go there

Lonelyplanet.com is almost giddy about Hungary. “There’s no place like Hungary,” starts the LonelyPlanet Hungary page, which goes on to praise this tiny country whose millennium-old language and equally ancient culture are unique in the region. While Hungary is a naturally beautiful nation that will afford you many opportunities to ride horses, catch fish and bird-watch (if you’re into such things), if you’re more of a city lover you’ll love Budapest, which the Soviets rebuilt extensively after World War II. (LonelyPlanet calls the city “splendid.”) Want to visit thermal spas? Hungary has them, sure, but it’ll do you one better…Hungary is home an the world’s second-largest thermal lake. Would you rather be on solid ground? Hungary boasts the largest natural grasslands in Europe. Hungary may have had a tricky economic time in the ’90s, but has emerged as “the star performer and most interesting destination of the new Europe.”

Hungary–Overview

Hungary is an old country, even in European terms.Way back in 895 A.D. well before the founding of France and Germany, centuries before the Anglos and the Saxons met in an online chat room and united to form England, the Magyars settled in the Carpathian Basin and established Hungary. Over time Hungary’s rulers became part of the Catholic Church and integrated into Christian Western Europe. In 1241-1242 the Mongols (Tatars) invaded, decimating about half of Hungary’s population, but the country survived and became an enlightened center of Renaissance art and philosophy. All was well, in an enlightened sort of way, until the Turks invaded in 1541, dividing the nation into three parts; says Wikipedia, “the north-western part, termed as Royal Hungary, was annexed by the Habsburgs who ruled as Kings of Hungary. The eastern part of the kingdom became independent as the Prinicpality of Transylvania, under Ottoman (and later Habsburg) suzerainty. The remaining central area, including the capital Buda, was known as the Pashalik of Buda.” The Turks kept Buda for about 140 years, until a diverse “Holy League” army ran them out.

Because of this conquering and reconquering, due to this a tug of war between the Hungarians and the Turks, the ethnic makeup of the nation became a jumble. Beside the Turks and descendants of Mongols there were Serbs and other Slavs in the Austrian-Hapsburg-dominated part of the land, Vlach (Romanian) immigrants in Transylvania and
many Germans sprinkled among them.

Hungary’s period of reform began in the 1820s when a prominent Count convened a Parliament and journalist Lajos Kossuth emerged as a leader of the gentry, pressing against the ruling Hapsburg kingdom for human, civil and political rights for all. By the late 1840s this push for civil rights had become a popular movement. In 1848 the Hungarian Revolution dethroned the House of Hapsburg and claimed power for the people…sort of. The Hapsburgs stayed around, and in 1867 negotiated a treaty with Austria to jointly rule the Austria-Hungarian empire. In World War I Austria-Hungary sided with Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey and lost. The Austria-Hapsburg union fell apart in 1918. Soon thereafter the Communist government asserted control in a series of actions known as the Red Terror, which played a substantial role in Hungarian popular resentment of Soviet rule.

The Communists went on to dominate Hungary for the next seventy years, though not without having to fight. In 1956 the Hungarian people rebelled and threatened to leave the Warsaw Pact. After much internal debate and after sending several terribly mixed messages, the Kremlin sent in tanks to crush the rebellion, literally parading its harsh response as an example of what could happen to a nation in its sphere of influence that wants to separate.

Fortunately for Hungary, after the fall of the Berlin Wall the Soviet Union withdrew without the Hungarian people needing to violently force them out. Hungarians had been preparing for a transition to multi-party democracy for years, and with the Communists effectively powerless in 1990 the nation had its first truly contested national election. Since then there have been periods of economic growth and decline and political power has shifted from ruling coalition to ruling coalition, but in general Hungary has been able to move forward, emerging from–but not forgetting–its very difficult Eastern Bloc past.

More information:
Wikipedia on Hungary | the BBC’s Hungary overview | Overview of the 1956 Revolution | Wikipedia tells the fascinating story of the 1956 Revolution with it many geopolotical twists and turns…. | The beauty of Lake Balaton | Hungarian names are backwards…or are ours

Shepherd’s Life Az Elet

COUNTRY: Hungary
LANGUAGE: Hungarian

GENRE: Hungarian folk

Is there anything better than the life of a Hungarian shepherd? NO WAY! Well, maybe just one thing: the life of a Hungarian pig farmer.

We first heard this song on the 1957 Smithsonian Folkways album, Folk Songs of Hungary, performed by Suzy Sann, in a medley called “Shepherd Songs.” This one is actually about a pig farmer, a “swineherd:”“You can tell the swineherd by the lacing of his boots, by his bundle strap. Oh, a swineherd’s life is life indeed, If I get bored it’s the life for me.”

In music class we pivot away from pigs and sing about sheep.

Lyrics of All Around This World version:

Hej, elet, elet kanaszelet, ez aztan az elet
There is nothing better than a shepherd’s life, az elet
There is nothing better than a shepherd’s life, az elet
There is nothing better than a shepherd’s life, az elet
If you don’t believe me then I can prove you wrong
I am very happy when I sing my shepherd’s song

Ketri Ketri

COUNTRY: Hungary
LANGUAGE: Romani

GENRE: Romani (Hungarian)

“Ketri Ketri” is a Hungarian Romani love song sung by a man who has lost his love and is desperate for her to return. “Ketri Ketri, my heart is heavy,” this translation by the Dunav Balkan Folkdance Society tells us, “Ketri Ketri, my heart is breaking, When you dance, my heart is happy, When you sing, my heart breaks, Come back to me, Marry me, be my wife!”

This song is generally associated with the Cocheck, [čoček], a family of Romani dances that are prevalent in the Balkans, likely originating with Ottoman military bands that followed throughout the region. This video from the 2009 Findhorn Dance Festival inspired us to dance to “Ketri Ketri” as we do in class:

Lyrics of the All Around This World version:

Ketri Ketri ale pala mande

Ketri ketri, when will we be married?

When you dance my heart is happy,
When you sing my heart sings.

Hinta Palinta

COUNTRY: Hungary
LANGUAGE: Hungarian

ZSUPSZ!!

Lyrics of All Around This World version:

Hinta palinta,
Swing little soldier
Jump into the river…
Zsupsz!