VA-Hungary - Meg Kell A Buzanak Erni (1992, K7)

Let's visit this time a country where are no Mango's, in the local language: "Nincs Mango" in Hungary.


VA - Meg Kell a Buzanak Erni
 (Hungary, 1992, K7)

I wanted for a longtime to post this K7, but couldn't and still can't find the original, which I bought around 1996 in Budapest. Probably it's lost during my many movings around, but fortunately made a K7 copy for regularly playing. That copy is, after many many times having enjoyed it's music, still sounding good, so finally decided to use that for this post.

The K7 is a compilation of studio and live tracks recorded between 1975 and 1991, put together by Halmos Béla, "one of the leading figures the early days of the Tanchaz movement" (from the Rough Guide to World Music)


source: Rough Guide to World Music, page 163
The Tanchaz, meaning dance house, movement started in the 1970s as a reaction to the regimented folklore of the state ensembles. Following in the footsteps of Bartok and Kodaly, mucisians like Ferenc Sebo  and Bela Halmos (compiler of K7) collected music from the villages, learned it and brought it back to the capital Budapest. This new generation was interested in the instrumental music and traditional dances. The idea was to bring the music back to the grassroots rather than present it on stage and, despite the urban setting, keep it closer to its original form.
Eventhough it had virtually no official support from the state, it grew from strength to strength, and had for many years also a political dimension, as being opposed to the communist state.
Tanchaz music falls into two types. One is music from Hungary proper, with less of a living tradition and usually learned from archive recordings or written collections. The other and most popular music comes directly from the village tradition. Mostly from Transylvania, where the Hungarian community in Romania is keeping a living folk tradition alive.
The basic instrumental line-up is a lead fiddle, an accompanying violin (kontra) playing chords and a bowed bass - there's often a cimbalon included as well. At first the tunes all sound similar, but the better you know this music the more rich and varied it becomes. In the right hands it has a beauty unrivalled in Europe.

Listen to a track from the K7


VA-HUNGARY-1992-K7 - Meg Kell A Buzanak Erni

Full trackslist:
1.Sebő - Szerelem, Szerelem - Love, Love (1:05) [1975]
2.Sebő - Hol Jártál Az Éjjel Cönöge Madár (2:25) [1975]
3.Egyszólam - Kanásznóta (3:02) [1989]
4.Téka - Hadd Fekszem Melléd (2:25) [1989]
5.Kalamajka - Bonchidai Forgatós (5:00) [1988]
6.Dűvő - Im Memoriam Kovács Tivadar (3:07) [1989]
7.Vujicsics - Madarac (2:00) [1988]
8.Méta - Szép a Fekete Bárány (2:33) [1989]
9.Kallós Zoltán - Fordulj Kedves Lovam (4:19) [1984]
10.Téka - Az a Szeretőm, Aki Volt (4:46) [1989]
11.Ghymes - Gúta Maga Egy Város (1:52) [1991]
12.Kanalas & Fábri - Várj Madárka (2:27) [1991]
13.Ökrös - Ej, Nem Szeretem az Idő Járását (3:25) [1989]
14.Various - Mezőségi Finálé (6:39) [1989]
15.Sebő - Meg Kell A Búzának Érni (2:15) [1975]

Info about the Artists:

1/2/15.Sebő Ensemble, named after bandleader Ferenc Sebő, is one of the best-known groups of the 1970s Hungarian roots revival.
3.Egyszólam' bandmembers studied for about two decades the traditional Hungarian folkmusic in the performance style, the band includes a singer and a variety of flutes, to their repertoire belong bagpipes sounding melodies.
4/10.Téka Ensemble formed 1976 in Budapest, playing authentic peasant music, their repertoire emphasizes the traditional playing style and original feeling of Hungarian village music.
5.Kalamajka, formed in the early 1970s, played authentic Hungarian folkmusic till their break-up in 2009.
6.Dűvő Együttes, formed in 1979, plays Hungarian folkmusic in especially the traditional styles; in their repertoire is music from all ethnic groups in the Carpathian Basin.
7.Vujicsics* is one of the best groups anywhere playing Serbian and Croatian music, a 6-piece ensemble with guitars, tamburas and bass from the South Slav communities north of Budapest.
8.Méta Ensemble formed 1983 in Pécs in the south of Hungary, some of their specialities are the singing voice of and virtuosity on the violin by founding member Beáta Salamon.
9.Kallós Zoltán is a ethnographer, folk music collector born 1926 in Răscruci (Válaszút), Transylvania, Romania.
11.Ghymes was an excellent 5-piece band led by Szarka Tamas on fiddle and coming from the Hungarian community in southern Slovakia.
12.Duo with vocals by Éva Kanalas and Géza Fábri on cobza (a multi-stringed lute, considered the oldest accompaniment instrument in the Moldovia/Romania region).
13.Ökrös Együttes formed in 1986 by violinist Csaba Ökrös, they gained knowledge of Hungarian folk music by visiting and studying with folk musicians in the remote villages of Hungary and Transylvania.
14.Various Artists at the Folkmusic Festival in Szeged in 1988, performing together the finale at the Festival.

*note one of the members of Vujicsics is the father of some musicians of Söndörgő posted earlier on Mangue Music

More about Hungarian Folkmusic

• HUNGARY: a musical mother tongue - by Simon Broughton
  Chapter in World Music Vol.1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East (page 159-167)
• The Aesthetic of the Hungarian Revival Movement - by Judit Frigyesi
  Lakodalmas Rock and the Rejection of Popular - by Barbara Rose Lange
  Chapters in Retuning Culture: Musical Changes in Central and Eastern Europe (page 54-91)