Hungarian folk music includes a broad array of styles, including the recruitment dance verbunkos, the csárdás and nóta.
During the 20th century, Hungarian composers were influenced by the traditional music of their nation which may be considered as a repeat of the early "nationalist" movement of the early 19th century (Beethoven) but is more accurately the artists' desire to escape the hegemony of the classical tradition manifold at that time. Béla Bartók took this departure into the abstract musical world in his appropriation of traditional Hungarian as the basis for symphonic creations.
Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók observed that Hungarian "peasant music" use isometric (with an even number of structures) stophe structure and certain pentatonic (five tone) formations, along with a liking for tempo giusto (rhythm consisting chiefly of equal values). These features jointly may be considered as altogether typical, and differentiate "Hungarian peasant music" from that of any other nation. Bartók studied over 300 melodies, and noted that more modern tunes used for dancing featured pentatonic turns with frequent leaps in fourths.
Read more about Hungarian Folk Music: Videos
Famous quotes containing the words folk and/or music:
“Myths, as compared with folk tales, are usually in a special category of seriousness: they are believed to have really happened, or to have some exceptional significance in explaining certain features of life, such as ritual. Again, whereas folk tales simply interchange motifs and develop variants, myths show an odd tendency to stick together and build up bigger structures. We have creation myths, fall and flood myths, metamorphose and dying-god myths.”
—Northrop Frye (19121991)
“Did the kiss of Mother Mary
Put that music in her face?
Yet she goes with footstep wary,
Full of earths old timid grace.”
—William Butler Yeats (18651939)