Music from Hungary - Csángosånger - Deben Bhattacharya recordings

Musik från Ungern - Cángósånger

Inspelningar av Deben Bhattacharya

Caprice Rikskonserter - RIKS LPX 2 - P.1967 - (RIKS LP 11 Expo Norr)

These recordings by Deben Bhattacharya were published by Rikskonserter,

financed by the Swedish State with scientific support from the Museum of Music History in Stockholm)

Side A

A1 Furulya - Fåraherdens dans (Dance of the shepherd) 2'40

A2 Egész falut össze jártam 1'48

A3 Nyårsönskningar (New Year Wishes) 2'40

A4 Klagosång vid påsk (Complaining song at Easter) 6'05

A5 Furulya - Kecske tánc 1'40

A6 Klagosång (Complaining song) 7'50

Side B

B1 Gyöngyvirágos erdö mellett rózsabokor 1'50

B2 Cimbalom solo 0'45

B3 Ballad - Arra alá a szederi határban 3'45

B4 Fåraherdens sång - Megégett a vásárhelyi cserény (Song of a shepherd) 1'45

B5 Duda - Säckpipa (Bagpipe) 2'30

B6 Zigenarsånger och munljud (1'13+1'17) 2'30

B7 Zigenarmelodier på violin (Gypsy melodies on violin) 3'05

B8 Julsång - A szép szüs Mária (Christmas sång) 1'40

B9 Hosszu-furulya — Käppflöjt ("Stickflute") 1'00

B10 Furulya 1'10

B11 Citera — Cittra 1'40

Czeke Ján0s playing the cimbalom.

Musicians from Szebény.

Gypsy violinists from Gyöngyösoldal.

Böjti ugrós dance.

Singers from Szebény.

Hosszu-furulya

The photography and graphic layout of this record is astounding. I would put it among the most tactile packaging I have seen during all my years handling records and that is from very many labels. The pages are many and the ornaments and decorations plentiful, the graphic design is most pleasing and the paper quality better than good. There may be a slight problem for some of you as the text is only in Swedish. There will be some relief for that once I have posted the next two records that is of similar material and has text in English and French thus allowing you to compare at least overlapping artists.

That said, it was not one of the records with Deben Bhattachariyas recordings that were received warmly by the critics from the musicology camp. Most of the recordings are made between 1964 and 1967 and I think the dates of recording goes for all four of these LP's (i.e. also the Musidisc I just posted and the Argo and Ocora that I will post soon) This one that was published half a decade before the last of them the Musidisc one. Both the RIKS LP and the Argo went rather unnoticed it seems (Folkcatalogue may know something differently about the Argo! If so please tell us!) But not the Ocora [OCR 54] Musique Populaire Hongroise - P.1973 most likely cause the label was better known (at least among musicologists) and it seems it caused a bit a of a stir and maybe because of some grudges among the specialists in the Hungarian circles. I will quote from some reviews once I post the Ocora with recordings from similar material. There seems also to be a problem with "clean" and "contaminated" traditions. True hungarian peasant culture versus gypsy professional musicians. Very interesting... you will see.

Here is first a rather positive review even if it tries to gently caution you more and more about erroneously believing the content to be representative of Hungarian music! A bit strange as the title of the record already mention the minority group that is to be represented namely the Cángós... But the review I post together with the Ocora tomorrow is more fun to read after having read this one.

(This I think is is the same review that Folkcatalogue mentions in his comments to this post!)

Review: [untitled]

Stephen Erdely

Reviewed work(s): Musik från Ungern: Csángósånger

Ethnomusicology, Vol. 12, No. 3 (Sep., 1968), pp. 475-476

(review consists of 2 pages)

Musik från Ungern: Csángósånger. Inspelning och Redigering: Deben Bhattacharya. One 12" 33 1/3 rpm disc. EXPO NORR Records. (The World of Music Series.) Descriptive notes, 12 pp., illus., map.

From The World of Music Series this issue is designed to please the ear and eye. An excellently recorded disc, together with colorful illustrations of folk performers and detailed explanations of songs and their texts (in Swedish) make up a handsome album.

The Csángós are a group of Hungarians who for centuries lived among Rumanian people in the provinces of Moldavia and Bukovina; it is only since World War II that their repatriation began. Their folklore contains some of the most ancient forms of Finno-Ugric heritage (see Szirmai 1967).

For those interested in studying Hungarian folk music a word of caution is not out of place since this record complements the commercially available sound illustrations rather than represents the wide range of musical tradition. The large proportion of instrumental pieces - a welcome change for the initiated - may mislead the uninformed about the nature of Hungarian folk music which is basically a vocal tradition. Furthermore, neither the selection of songs nor their grouping helps to grasp the evolution of Magyar folksong style outlined by research in that country. The "old" and "new" songs are freely intermingled on the disc; their order aims to contrast vocal and instrumental items rather than to distinguish types or styles.

RECORD REVIEWS

This makes cross references to printed variants in the Corpus Musicae Popularis Hungaricae cumbersome. From the arsenal of folk instruments we hear the long and short flutes, the zither, bagpipe, cimbalom, and, of course, the fiddle played in the Gypsy fashion. Among the song selections there are two dirges (three, with the inclusion of a flute variant), a ballad, a rather rarely heard New Year's greeting custom, and several folksongs of recent origin.

As to the style of melodies, the pentatonic tradition is represented but little, mainly because some such tunes are performed on instruments, and in this adaptation the underlying five-tone melopoeia is obscured by stereotyped instrumental ornamentation. The two laments illustrate the strophic and recitative types; the latter is an unusually clear recording and demonstrates one of the most ancient Ugric relics still surviving in Hungarian musical folklore. A folk ballad of the eighteenth-nineteenth century vintage speaks about conflict of love, and a variety of religious, secular, and popular tunes, some in which the Rumanian influence is unquestionable, give an excellent representation of current traditional trends among the Csángós.

University of Toledo Stephen Erdely

Toledo, Ohio

REFERENCES CITED

Szirmai, Palma

1967 "A Csángó-Hungarian lament," ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 11(3):316.'5,

September.

Anyhow for now we have this beautiful publication and I tried to make as close as possible digital version of it that I could. I think the download is worth it, even if only for the sleeve and gatefolder. Hope you enjoy it. The cover is a fine dark brownish linen and it even smells good, sorry continuo, cannot digitise that. It does resemble some of the early Ocoras like the Burundi, Mauretania and Tchad ones (Burundi is here already I'll post the other ones later)

Gusa Pál playing furulya.

Jankovics Imre playing the bagpipe.

Kelecz Jósef playing the citera.

A street in Kecskemét.

Water well at Decs.

Decorating the walls of the house with painted flowers.

Simon Ferenc Józsefné of Mekényez.

Baking Mákos szelet (poppy seed cakes! Very tasty!)

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