Hungarian Nationalism Flashcards
What happened at the treaty of Trianon?
The treaty defined new borders for Hungary, leaving it as a landlocked state. Hungary lost 70% of its territory/was left with only 28% of the land that had constituted the pre-war Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
How many folk songs did Bartok collect?
Collected just under 20,000 folk songs.
Mostly from Hungary, but also from Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, North Africa and Turkey.
What are some features of Bartok’s ‘6 Romanian Dances’?
Composed in 1915, originally for piano. Modal Lots of ornamentation from original folk tunes Dance-like rhythms Always melody and accompaniment Chordal accompaniments/homophonic Repeated ideas
What field of study did Bartok originate?
Ethnomusicology
What are the ‘Mikrokosmos’?
Bartok’s piano books for his son - they encapsulate the whole range of his style.
Written between 1926-1939
153 progressive piano pieces in 6 volumes
They develop in difficulty/virtuosity
Vol 5, no. 127 - ‘New Hungarian Folk Song’ - fusion of traditional folk melody and Western jazz styles (for 2 pianos)
Vol 5, no 113 exploits the Bulgarian Rhythm: 7/8 split into 2,2,3
What did Bartok say about using folk music?
“A composer in search of new ways cannot be led by a better master”
Summarise Bartok’s style
Fusion of folk and western styles
Used the character of folk music, not just the tunes, and assimilated it into his style
Very innovative (more so than kodaly) and further experimented with systems of harmony influenced by the scales of folk music (unusual combinations of keys etc)
More radical, experimentalist, modernist
What innovations did Bartok bring to Classical music?
Additive rhythms/syncopation/offbeat accents Extended technique Use of folk song Uneven metres Tonal ambiguity/tonal centre determined not using functional harmony Interesting instrumentation Modes/pentatonic scale Use of parallel 5ths Bitonality Dissonance Classical forms discarded - used arches/palindromes/golden section proportions Night music (nocturnal insects)
Give some features of ‘Music for strings, percussion and celeste (1937)
Large scale, modernist work
Used features of folk such as Bulgarian rhythm (4th movement) - garland of different folk melodies
Other movements of the piece are modern and heavily dissonant
What is Bartok’s Night music?
Musical style which he used mostly in slow movements of multi-movement ensemble/orchestra compositions in his mature period.
Characterised by eerie dissonances providing a backdrop to sounds of nature and lonely melodies
Give an example of a piece from Bartok’s Night music style
‘The Night’s Music’, from ‘Out of Doors’ - a set of 5 solo programmatic piano pieces
Paints the local environment
Tonal centre G or ambiguous tonality.
A highly dissonant arpeggiated cluster chord is repeated throughout the section on the beat.
The Hungarian Unka frog’s call is imitated in the piece. The call features throughout, disrespecting metre and tonality.
Nationalist because it imitates Hungarian nature (e.g. Unka frog) and is uniquely Bartokian in its contribution to the language of musical modernism.
What is ‘Kossuth’?
Symphonic poem by Bartok, 1903
About the role of the general Lajos Kossuth in his 1849 campaign and defeat
Starts with a portrait of Kossuth then paints a picture of the Austrians approaching them by using a minor key parody of the imperial Austrian national anthem.
Nationalist because of Hungarian subject
What is ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’?
One-act expressionist opera by Bartok.
Written in Hungarian (based on a French literary tale)
Lasts only over an hour with 2 singing characters onstage (Bluebeard and his wife, who have just eloped)
Uses a minor second motif, known as the ‘blood motif’ - for whenever Bluebeard’s wife, Judith, notices blood in the castle
Sprechstimme prologue
Not atonal but often polytonal - also passages of consonance and tonal harmony
Large orchestra with 8 offstage brass players
Heavily chromatic vocal parts and speech-ryhthm inflections
Nationalist because of Hungarian text/subject
Name as many nationalist pieces by Bartok as you can
Mikrokosmos 6 Romanian Dances The Night's Music Kossuth Bluebeard's castle 5 Songs, op 15 Music for strings, percussion and celeste
What are the 5 Songs, op 15?
Erotic songs written for his 15 year old lover
Modernist, atonal style
Hungarian text
What were Bartok and Kodaly’s dates?
Bartok: 1881-1945
Kodaly: 1882-1967
When/how did Kodaly start collecting folk songs?
Started collecting folk songs independently of Bartok in 1905 but their close cooperation began shortly after - they collected them together until the outbreak of WWI
What is the solfège system?
Music education method used to teach aural skills, pitch and sight-reading of Western music
Each note of the scale is given a memorable name (do re mi fa so la ti do)
Originated by Kodaly
Used to teach children
What is the advantage of the solfège system? What features made it successful?
Helps people understand tonic equivalence
The hand signs are useful as a visual/kinaesthetic representation
Use of voice/singing makes it accessible
Good quality music used (folk, traditional children’s songs) rather than contriving music for teaching purposes
What was Kodaly’s main output?
Choral music, especially for children
What is ‘Psalmus Hungaricus’?
1923 Choral work for tenor, chorus and orchestra
Written to mark 50th anniversary of the town of Budapest.
Text based on psalm 55
Psalm tune used throughout in various ways (sometimes unison unaccompanied, sometimes with chromatic accompaniement etc)
What makes ‘Psalmus Hungaricus’ nationalist?
Hungarian text
Piece is an allegory for Hungary’s struggles as a result of the Treaty of Trianon - parallels David’s struggle in the psalm
Kodaly never quotes actual Hungarian folk songs but the theme intergrates folk-like pentatonic melodies and plagal cadences to give the impression of quotation
What is ‘Variations on a Hungarian folk song’?
1939 piece by Kodaly
Based on a folk song, ‘Fly, peacock, fly”
For full orchestra
Opens with a slow introduction based on folk song, followed by 16 variations
Accessible to everyone; Kodaly said that ‘no special musical knowledge whatever is needed to understand them’
What is ‘Hary Janos’?
1926 Opera based on the stories of a soldier in the Austrian army, who tells of his exploits of winning the heart of the empress Marie Louise, wife of Napoleon and then single-handedly defeating Napoleon and his armies.
1927 Suite for orchestra has 6 movements
What are some interesting features of the ‘Hary Janos Suite’?
Begins with an orchestral musical ‘sneeze’ (fast ascending scale played by most instruments, building up to an accented top note with cymbal/drum crash) - according to Hungarian folklore, if a statement is followed by a sneeze, it must be true.
3rd movement, ‘Song’ uses Hungarian folk(ish?) tune - unaccompanied viola, modal, free tempo/rubato
5th movement, ‘Intermezzo’ uses a cembalom (Eastern European instrument) playing heterophonic passagework - influence of verbunkos dance - played before Hungarian Kings in recruiting process.
Name key works by Kodaly
Psalmus Hungaricus (1923) Hary Janos (1926) Variation on a Hungarian folk song (1939)
What are the nationalist features of Bartok and Kodaly’s music?
Use of folk melodies Music as an allegory for nationalistic crises Night music style Synthesis of Eastern and Western styles Use of Hungarian Texts Incorporation of Hungarian History Use of Hungarian stories/subject matter
Compare Bartok and Kodaly
Both used folk music
Kodaly did not adopt radical techniques like Bartok - he used folk tunes into a traditional, tonal style influenced by Debussy
Bartok further assimilated the folk idiom, evolving a system of harmony influenced by the scales of folk music (deeply influential on later composers)
Kodaly’s most important achievements are in vocal and choral music, drawing on Hungarian folk heritage, and in his teaching system, founded on singing.
