Gypsy Music in European Culture: From the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries

1 | Hungarian National Music

chapter one ••••• Hungarian National Music Gypsy Musical Traditions within Hungarian Culture Historical Background Musicologists,ethnologists,historians,andanthropologistsoftenexpress a version of the following statement: “There is hardly a country where Gypsy musicians played such an important role in the development of a national musical style . . . as was the case in Hungary” (Erdely 1983, 550). This notion was— chiefly—linked to a sense among Gypsy musicians of the Gypsy people’s high standing within Hungary from early on. Gypsies had arrived in the territory around 1410 and already by 1423 the first mentions are found of letters granting themsafeconduct.Documentsfromthemid-fifteenthcenturyalsoattesttothe activity of Gypsy musicians in Hungary. By the end of the seventeenth century, the tradition of associating a Gypsy with the musical profession in Hungary was already established. Contemporary documents and (later) publications devoted to Gypsies reinforced this interlinking of Gypsies and music-making. In1783,GrellmannwroteinparticularaboutthemusicaltalentsofGypsiesfrom Hungary. At the beginning of the next century, authors elsewhere in Europe, including Poland, likewise referred to the unusual talents of Hungarian Gypsy musicians (Czacki 1835, 54). The Zigeunerkapellen Lineup Hungarian Gypsies started to organize their own musical groups, known as Zigeunerkapellen, at the end of the eighteenth century; the lineups and repertoires of these groups reached a second stage around the mid-nineteenth century; and they arrived at a final stage in the second half of the nineteenth century. 18 Two Models of Discourse Inlateeighteenth-centuryHungary,Gypsieswereoftenemployed,according tofirsthandaccounts,assmiths.Musicthusconstitutedasecondaryoccupation. Yet from the 1780s on, one increasingly comes across Gypsy musicians at folk musicalcelebrations.Ruralnon-Romanyinhabitantsthusslowlybutsurelyshed theuseofcertaininstruments,suchasthebagpipe.Atthesametime,asGypsies filled the role of musicians in the Hungarian countryside, they adapted their music to the expectations of the rural communities. For example, traditional Hungarian songs had not required harmony accompaniment, while the instruments used in Gypsy bands could easily provide such accompaniment. Here, a dynamicemergedinwhichtheGypsymusiciansandlocalaudienceswouldfind common ground on musical arrangements and preferences. Around the same time, the bands’ lineup became established, with two required instruments, a lead melody instrument (violin) and an instrument providing harmony and percussioneffects(gardon,whichwassimilartothecelloandoftenhomemade). Thisotherinstrumentalist(oftenthespouseoftheviolinist)neverplayedalone butratheralwaysaccompaniedthemelodyinstrument.Suchacompositionwas to become the prototype for the later, celebrated Gypsy bands. Attheturnofthenineteenthcentury,ZigeunerkapellenfromHungarybecame increasinglyactiveinvillagesandsmalltowns.DespitethenameZigeunerkapelle (the singular form), the groups were usually composed only in part of Gypsy musicians. And the rise of the groups was sparked precisely by the flowering of esteem for Gypsy music in Hungary. The bands rapidly grew from their initial two-instrument lineup to three or four, with fiddlers and dulcimer players joining the fray. Already established musical bands were called—as if allowing for their upward development—Gypsy orchestras, though they would have at most ten to fourteen musicians. The most typical four-person group comprised two fiddlers—the first of whom was known as the prímás (referring to the lead violin part, called prím), while the second violinist played what was known as contra. Popular Zigeunerkapellen also included a double bass (playing mainly an incidental percussion role) along with a dulcimer. By 1800, the Leipzig-based Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung hadpublishedanarticledescribingjustthismakeupforatypicalGypsy band (May 18, 1800; quoted in Sárosi 1987, 238). The Dulcimer, or Cimbalom Over time, the range of instruments used by the Zigeunerkapellen would increase, as demonstrated by the use of the dulcimer. In the seventeenth century , dulcimers were widespread in those European regions occupied by the Hungarian National Music 19 Turks, while as early as 1596 an account noted a Gypsy musician playing on an instrument that resembled a psalterium, or psaltery, caught by the Ottoman bey’s (governor’s) border guards from Pécs, in Hungary (Sárosi 1970, 11). Thedulcimerusedatthetimewasasmall,stringed,leglessinstrumentsimilar to the zither and emitting a relatively quiet sound. It was diatonically tuned and consequentlywouldhavebeenplayableinasinglekey.Onlyin1874inBudapest did József Schunda develop a concert dulcimer with a four-octave chromatic scale. The considerable size of the instrument (approximately 163 centimeters in length) required that it be placed on a pedestal and equipped with pedals used to muffle the sound. This enhanced type of dulcimer, or cimbalom, was shortly adopted by the local Zigeunerkapellen and became popular throughout Austria-Hungary. In 1880, Carl Engel assured British readers that “The Hungarian Gipsy musicians are especially renowned as skilful players on the cimbalom (dulcimer)”(Engel1880a,221).StanisławPrzybyszewski—anacclaimed,young Polishauthor—wroteabouttheinstrumentaswell,recallinghisfirstencounter withituponhis1898arrivalinCracow,whichthenfellundertheAustro-Hungarian monarchy (Przybyszewski 1959, 305). However, awareness of the virtuosity ofGypsydulcimerplayerswasnotalwayssharp,evenintothetwentiethcentury. Reporting from Hungary in 1923, Christopher Becket Williams felt compelled to explain to the reader not only the appearance...