Kodály, Zoltán

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WHAT IS HUNGARIAN IN MUSIC?By Z O L T Á N  K O D Á L YW H E N  I was asked to answer the above question, I rem em bered a series o f  articles which I had read in a French review th irty  dive years ago^T he musical critic Paul Landorm y p u t a similar ques- tion to the most outstanding French composers o f the age : D 'Indy, Bruneau, D uparc, Dukas, Debussy, and to Romain Rolland who was then still considered as an excellent critic and historian o f  music only.I read the answers with great interest, all the more so because our generation was also acutely concerned with the problem . W e were astonished tha t the question was also p u t by the French nation, which, in the course o f its century-old musical life, had created m ore than  once music tha t was original, different from  everything else, that is to say — French.T h e  contradictory answers proved the difficulty o f the question. According to one opinion, for example, Berlioz wrote the most characteristically French m usic ; according to others, he is the least French o f  composers. Y et one would not th ink  it so difficult to summarize the most constant and characteristic features o f a people possessing a history of iyoo years, and then  to define the peculiarities o f its music which best reflect those features.T he  problem  is m uch more com plicated with regard to H ungary. W e have not yet succeeded in abstracting a coherent picture o f the H ungarian  national character from  our history ; and it is hardly ioo— i jo  years since we know o f  a music which m ight be called more or less genuinely H ungarian. It is there­fore almost impossible to investigate the connections between1 La Revue Bleue, 1904.474HUNGARIAN MUSIC 475H ungarian  character and H ungarian  music. Besides, it is easier to express the national spirit by works o f art than  to approach it with scientific analysis.But in our music we have got some solid ground under our feet when we try  to  answer the question : what are the char* acteristics o f H ungarian music ? This solid ground is our folk* music, especially its most ancient layers. If  we select and cast aside everything in the songs o f the people which is to be found in those o f the surrounding peoples, or which is derived from  higher music — H ungarian  or foreign —  or indicating the influence o f any European culture : what remains, can hardly be supposed to be anything b u t the ancient, genuine music o f our conquering ancestors. W e have got immediate proofs o f  this : up to now we find similar music in the regions where the H ungarians lived before the conquest, in peoples whose ancestors have lived or even mingled with the Hun* garians.W e know tha t the conquering H ungarians were not a racially uniform  tribe, b u t more than th a t : a military, political and cultural organization o f peoples o f  different origin and even o f different language. It is possible tha t their music was originally different too. But, like the com mon language, common music developed, fusing into unity  originally contra* dictory formal principles. Two o f these contradictory prin* ciples are still alive in our folk*songs, com bined as well as separately. T he first is the principle o f pentatonics, the other the principle o f  parallel construction. O ur first example shows the first, the second both  o f them.H ere we see two melodic types, isolated and unknown in the present surroundings o f the H ungarian people, b u t closely connected with an old musical culture o f Central Asia, as its westernmost branch, reaching to the River Lajta.T he H ungarian people has various types o f songs, b u t this kind is never missing where we find a genuinely H ungarian population. If  we m ark it on the map with red, we find darker spots on the Székelyföld, in Transdanubia, in the region o f the Palóc p eo p le ; b u t there will be no region inhabited by Hungarians where the map will not show by its pink colour at least sparser traces o f this ancient Hun* garian music.6*476 T H E  H U N G A R IA N  Q U A R T E R L Y1. R - rö - pülj pá - va, rö - püljVár - mé-gye há - zá ra,A szé-gény ra - bok-nakJj I K ,j i_£_i ^Sza -  ba - du - Iá -  sá - ra .Rubato parlando  •>> 2521. U - g a t a k u  - ty a m  a Raj - na,a a .— t - .........G y ü n  a s z e - r e  - tom  a ba r - naHa bar - na j i ' - z s ,  de né - m cigány,Sze ret az en - gém i - ga-zan.HUNGARIAN MUSICW hat do they testify ? T h a t the psychic basis o f the Hun# garian people rem ained unchanged in the course o f  1000 years, tha t its original, ancient musical system, its musical way o f thought has not been altered by the contact with other peoples.T he  T urks lived here for a century and a half. W e do not know what kind o f  music they brought with them , b u t if  it was South#Turkish, its A rabdndiam G ypsy gamuts have left b u t little trace. For yoo years, the gypsies have been living here, lamenting, singing, fiddling, asking for bread. T he  Hun# garians listened, suffered them , gave them  food, b u t did not accept their mode o f  musical expression, and only made friends with their music when the gypsy, with his mimicking gift, learned to play H ungarian  music for the H ungarian  people.Like the H ungarian 's language, his music too is laconic, lapidary. Its works o f art are short b u t o f  great mom ent. T hey  are melodies built o f  a few sounds, firm and stable as if  they had been carved in stone to resist the storms o f centuries. T heir form is definitive, as if  they had not changed in a thousand years. T he exact parallel o f some o f them  has been found in the music o f kindred peoples —  as if  they had only yesterday ceased to sing them  together.T he H ungarian has a genuine and specific musical mother# tongue. This music is still alive, still equally understood by every part o f the H ungarian people —  except the middle# and upper classes. These, if  they do not want to exclude them# selves from the musical com m unity o f the nation, m ust either learn again their ancient and forgotten musical native tongue, as Széchenyi learned the H ungarian language, or they must begin to learn it, like Ankerschmidt, i f  they have come from elsewhere and wish to rem ain here.But how do these songs lead us to the higher forms o f art ? — so the sceptics asked th irty  years ago. W e have only to th ink o f the mustard seed, which "indeed is the least o f  all seeds : b u t when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becom eth a tree, so tha t the birds o f the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."T hree factors are necessary for the creation o f  a national musical literature. T he first is : tradition, the second : indi# vidual talent, the th i r d : the spiritual com munity o f the477m ultitude, which accepts the manifestations o f  the individual talent as its own.T here is no fertile soil w ithout tradition, b u t tradition in itself, however alive it may be, does not create higher forms o f  art.In a talk on the wireless on A pril io, 1938, Elek Petrovics spoke o f  pictures, where faces, arms, clothes, in  s h o r t : every# thing is H ungarian  — except the picture itself. W e often see the same in music : every single m otif is H ungarian, b u t the whole is un#Magyar. Certainly, the putting  together o f  popular motifs does not result in an organic, higher artistic form. Such a composition can only be brought forth by an individual talent, by a specific formative gift capable o f  higher con# ceptions.W hy is it then, tha t 30— 40 years ago the study o f folk# music was necessary ? Because even the greatest talent cannot create in the void. T here  was at tha t tim e no uniform  musical consciousness, no public spirit o f music in H ungary. W e had reached the climax o f  a fifty#year#old musical im portation from abroad. O u r musical life was flooded by foreign, especially Italian and G erm an music. T rue, we were greatly advanced in musical civilization. But with the means and instrum ents o f musical civilization we had im ported the subject#matter, the whole atmosphere o f  foreign cultures. It overwhelmed every# thing, in it every H ungarian effort seemed a Cinderella. A t that tim e the national garments were assumed by dilettant# ism in music. A  schism came into being : H ungarian  music was p u t against classical, i. e. foreign music. T he refined did not want to hear about H ungarian  music, the others anathe# matized every kind o f  higher music, denouncing it as foreign. T hey  did not want to know about the Shakespeares and Michel# angelos o f music.This schism had —  and still has — to be bridged over : the musically refined must become more H ungarian, the H ungarians must acquire a higher musical culture. This task is indeed enormous and can hardly ever be accom plished; it demands the constant, watchful balance o f cultural policy. O nly so can an ideal com m unity be built up , the active m edium  o f  every national art which is tru ly  alive. This is taught and exemplified by the whole history o f civilization.47« THE HUNGARIAN QUARTERLYIn its golden age every nation was un ited  in its emotions, in its taste. It is a characteristic o f the ages o f decline, tha t the cuh tu red  and the masses do not understand one another.In the course o f  the past th irty  years the im portance o f  folk# trad ition  has become manifest, and to#day it is already beyond doub t tha t nobody can become a H ungarian  composer without being fully conscious o f it. But H ungary is at the same tim e an organic part o f  Europe, and must live in European traditions as well. Standing on the border between East and W est, the aim o f country and people must be to belong to both, to pacify and to fuse in its own self the antagonism o f the two. From  this point o f view it is o f no value to be H ungarian without being European at the same tim e ; and to us it is worthless to be European if  we are not at the same tim e Hun# garians.W e may and we must learn o f the music o f every nation. T he  Italian is nearest to us in character, for it is also in the first place based on singing, like ours. But we m ust learn from the G erm an and French as well. W e must not forget that every great national school is the result o f the crossing o f different cultures and races. T here are many examples o f this in the history o f music.In the sixteenth century the Flemish musician W illaert comes to Venice (from Buda !) and there lays the foundations o f  the great Italian school. In the seventeenth century the Italian Lully starts a new French style in Paris. T he  G erm an Schütz transplants the Italian school into his country, and the result is a new G erm an style. In the eighteenth century a Ger# m an o f Alsace, Schobert, comes to Paris and creates a new style there, which is acknowledged by the French to be the most French o f  all. T he pioneers o f  the national styles started in the nineteenth century are almost everywhere —  also in H ungary —  im m igrated G erm an musicians. Always the breath o f  a foreign genius seems to animate the national spirit. T he great individualities following the pioneers also unite in them# selves different cultures. T he greatest o f them , like Bach, M ozart, are linked with almost all the tendencies o f  their pre# decessors and o f their own age, and are linked to posterity by their influence. Still these many#sided great personalities express the national character m uch more powerfully than theHUNGARIAN MUSIC 479m inor ones depending with exclusive one#sidedness on their national traditions only.It seems to he a contradiction at first sight, h u t it is true  : the closer we are related to  the culture o f Europe, the better our own culture will develop. It is enough to cite the example o f  our great poets to he convinced o f  this. Boorishness, bar * barism  and shutting ourselves away from  civilization will inevitably be followed by the decline o f  our national charac# teristics.W hat are the musical qualities characterizing H ungarian folk#music ? It is rather active than  passive, the expression o f will rather than  o f  sentiment. It does not know aimless lamen# tation, ' 'm erry-m aking among tears.” Even the Székler keserves (lament) is full o f  recklessness and energy. Its rhy thm  is sharp, resolute, m anifold and variegated. In its melody there is m uch verve, free movement, it does not develop hesitatingly on a predeterm ined harm onic basis. Its form  is short, clear, proportionate, transparent. T he  form  is clear, because we always know where we are : even o f  a sepa# rate p art o f a folksong we can always tell whether it is begin# ning, middle or end o f the whole. All these qualities have to  be contained in H ungarian  higher music if  it is really animated by folk#music and wants to continue its traditions. Everything which is o f  indefinite rhythm , artificial melody, hazy or intri# cate construction, will always rem ain alien to  the H ungarian taste. O f  the two worlds o f “H om er and Ossian” the first is m uch more akin to the H ungarian  mind, the Greek#Latin sense o f  form  and proportion is closer to it than the dim  fogs o f  the N orth . O f  the G erm an composers, the H ungarian  m ind therefore only accepts those who lived in the Latin culture o f forms — from  Bach to  Beethoven, from  Schütz to  Brahms. But Reger, for example, however adm ired he may be by the Germans, does not appeal to the H ungarian.Am ong musical instrum ents, the H ungarian  prefers the softer strings and wood winds to the noisy brass. Therefore he abhors the brass band and jazz. A  symphonic orchestra may o f course need every kind o f  in s tru m en t; b u t the traditional chamber#music composition o f  the gypsy*band, to which the H ungarian has been faithful for such a long time, betrays the peculiar bend  o f  his instrum ental taste.48o THE HUNGARIAN QUARTERLYHUNGARIAN MUSICConsidering the H ungarian 's artistic activities in every field as a whole, it seems tha t he is more inclined to intuitive flashes o f ideas, to independence and originality, than  to  diligent and persistent work. This quality, and his preference for concise forms, related to the formal sense o f  the Latin races, prevents him  from  creating m am m oth works like those o f Bruckner or M ahler, and even the longwindedness o f W agner will almost be alien to him.Nevertheless the H ungarian  public must be raised from  the present prim itive level o f  its capacity o f  musical comprehen# sion. T he average H ungarian o f to-day is incapable o f  under# standing and grasping any musical composition exceeding the length o f a song. Shall we accept this as another national pecu# liarity ? N o, this is merely the lack o f  musical education, it is musically fallow ground which has to be cultivated : this m ight well be the vocation o f  schools.T he cultural level o f the whole nation has to be raised in order to enable the national spirit to express itself in a higher artistic form. T hen  the H ungarian nation will not be scared away from true classical music by sham, third#rate insipid stuff. T he mistaken belief tha t only light music can be Hun# garian, and the rigid antagonism o f H ungarian  and classical music will at last come to an end.T here may be different degrees o f the H ungarian character in a musical composition. It is like wine mixed with water : a strong wine keeps its flavour even if  m ingled with twice as m uch water, and chemical analysis may show traces o f  wine in a mixture which does not taste o f  wine at all. T hus far even inferior music may be the bearer o f H ungarian  characteristics ; a trace o f it may even be found in mere dilettantism . But the H ungarian peculiarities can only subsist i f  they are supported by genuine artistic values.T he m om ent is favourable : unspoiled masses, whose senses are still intact, are to be introduced to musical culture. W hy should one not begin by presenting them  with the very best ? A nd the more numerous the masses which come into touch with true musical culture, the more frequently works will be created which are truly H ungarian in contents, form  and life. T h en  we shall no longer have to ask : "W hat are the char# acteristics o f H ungarian m usic?" Everybody will know it.481

What is Hungarian in the Music?

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What is Hungarian in the Music?

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