Page 14 - new hungarian voice
Transcription
Page 14 - new hungarian voice
Spring 2010 - Free Volume IX, Issue 2 © EXPOSED ON PAGE 4 Page 6 Page 14 Hungarian knights by Aladár Fáy EDITOR A NOTE FROM THE Editor/Designer Peter Czink VRN T Contributing Editor/Webmaster, Marketing and Subscriptions Lorraine Weidema n Contributing Editors Anita Bed ő Jack Keir Magda Sasvári Jordy Starling Andrea Szilágy i Eddi Wagner Accounting Mária Vajn a Distribution Csaba Tanner Kristina Tanner P.O. Box 74527 Kitsilano PO Vancouver, BC V6K 4P4 Canada 604 733-9948 newhungarianvoice @hotmail.com www.newhungarianvoice.com Published by The New Hungarian Voice Editorial Committee © 2010 All rights reserved There‟s going to be a Hungarian folk dance camp from June 30th to July 4th, in the beautiful Okanagan Valley here in BC. The passion for ethnic Hungarian dance has come a long way since our immigrant parents brought their memories of it with them – today, our first generation Hungarian-Canadians enthusiasts have combined a refreshing new cultural authenticity with the simple joy of dance. The days of the stage-mother and politically charged “duties” of the younger generations are gone – today, Hungarian folk dance in Canada is a cultural embrace, accessible to all. “Patak Tábor welcomes participants from all backgrounds and of all dance abilities. We can promise four days of interesting and challenging dance and music instruction during the day, with special programs each evening. Hungarian folk dance is alive and flourishing across North America, as many dance groups learn authentic folk dance dialects and music from villages throughout Hungary and Transylvania. Through camps like Patak Tabor - the first of its kind in Western Canada - we are celebrating Hungarian folk dance and music in a fun, relaxed, and affordable way.” THE PATAK TÁBOR ORGANIZERS In 1985, Sue Bíró became the Artistic Director of the Csárdás Hungarian Dance Ensemble of Edmonton, and since then has directed performances and created over 30 choreographies, including large-scale productions and festivals within Canada. Sue has studied dozens of Hungarian folk dance dialects from well-respected instructors from Hungary and has attended over fifty formal teaching workshops, both nationally and internationally. In addition, Sue has directed performances for the Csárdás ensemble at the annual Western Canadian Hungarian Folk Festival from 1985 to the present. Sue served as artistic director for the last three festivals, organizing weekend workshop events and multiple performances for 200-300 participants. Jim Cockell is an Edmonton musician, producer, writer and music instructor. As a violinist, Jim has played for the symphony orchestras of Edmonton, Red Deer and Saskatoon, the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, the Citadel Theatre, and the National Ballet of Canada. He has also recorded, broadcast and toured internationally with his own ensemble, Cifra. As an orchestra manager, Jim has worked with Diana Krall, Anne Murray, Il Divo, Paul Potts, Attila Glatz Productions, Video Games Live, the Canadian Music Competition, and the Beijing Opera. László Horváth began his folkdance journey shortly after walking. His wife, Trenna Buzash, started her folk dance journey shortly after meeting Laci. For many years, Laci and Trenna were members of the Balaton Dancers of Regina. In 2000, they were dancers and founding members of The Maros Folk Ensemble of Regina. Over the years, they have acquired some great friends and mentors from Hungary and Transylvania. The Maros Ensemble continues on today and cherishes its family ties with our Western Canadian friends. Laci writes, “We feel proud and honoured to be a part of the first Patak Tábor and are counting the days until we can renew our common love of Hungarian folk culture!” Iggy Kádár was born in Sopron, Hungary, and his wife, Louise was born half a world away, in Victoria, BC. Iggy and Louise have been dancing, choreographing and teaching Hungarian dance for three decades. Not only do they teach the Victoria Búzavirág group, but have also taught and choreographed for groups from Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Seattle. To compliment the dancing, Iggy also plays hegedű, and Louise is learning to play bőgő. NHV Team member Andrea Szilágyi is originally from Edmonton and has been involved with the Hungarian community since 1986. She started folk dancing at a young age and attended her local Hungarian school and Scout troop for many years. She has been a member of the Edmonton Csárdás dance group, a member and teacher of the Forrás dance group in Vancouver, and has worked with the Forrás band and the Cifra Ensemble as a singer. Andi completed her MA at UBC in Children‟s Literature; her research focused on Hungarian folktales in English. She now works at UBC‟s Okanagan campus as a writer and instructor. The Patak Tábor organizers are excited to welcome “kempers” (that's “campers” with a Hungarian accent!) to this first dance camp! The waterfront location at Mabel Lake in the Okanagan makes for a perfect vacation spot, the price is unbeatable in North America, the dance and music instruction is top notch, and the company will be second to none. Families are welcome, and we will do our best to accommodate special requests. Register early to reserve your spot at Patak Tábor 2010. 2 Patak Tábor June 30 - July 4, 2010 Western Canadian Hungarian Folk dance and Music camp mabel lake, okanagan valley, british columbia instructors from hungary Majorosi Marianna KÖkÉny Richárd Guest Musicians from hungary HrÚz DÉnes HrÚz Szabolcs teaching material Kis-KüküllOmenti ó ó romáN forgatós - invertita friss - hirtag legényes - fecioreasca singing material tba FEES - before april 15: $315 - After April 15: $375 (price includes instruction, accommodation, and food) For more information and to register, please visit www.pataktabor.ca 3 VOGUE VAMPIRES Vampires are in vogue. I suppose they have never really been out, in one way or another, especially since Bram Stoker‟s novel Dracula was published in 1897. Prior to its appearance there was a roaring trade in vampire novels, short stories and plays which kept the public well entertained. There was even an opera called Der Vampyr by Heinrich Marschner, written in 1828. However, the starting point for the modern world‟s image of the vampire is Stoker‟s novel. Every now and then a book or film comes along which gives a new slant on the perennial bloodsucker, which affects the common perception of the beast. These very often reflect contemporary attitudes - in the good old days, the only good vampire was one with a stake driven through its heart, but now they are sensitive, afflicted characters in tune with our more touchy-feely society. Vampires are now cool kids mirroring our youth obsessed culture – they are free to walk in the daylight, do good deeds; and they don‟t change into bats and don‟t shun sanctified objects. What is there to be frightened of? I suppose these days, full evening dress and opera cape might just look a bit out of place on West Georgia, so some updating is inevitable, if regrettable. I did always wonder why if vampires don‟t cast a reflection in a mirror - that goes for their clothes as well. It has to be said that most vampire books and films are pretty rubbish. Bandwagon hoppers are grafting vampires into stock plots of mindless violence, and since Buffy came along, endless streams of the now compulsory triple-somersault-beforeanyone-can-pick-their-nose gimmicks abound. That film really has a lot to answer for! There are, of course, many honourable by Jack Keir exceptions. On British television at the moment there is a quite splendid series called Being Human which has the bizarre storyline of a vampire, werewolf and ghost sharing a flat in Bristol. It is a drama with a bit of comedy, and not a back-flip in sight. It is made by the BBC, so quality guaranteed. If it ever makes it to Canada, give it a try - it is highly recommended. In referring to the evening dress and opera cape, those of us of or beyond a certain age will immediately recognise the image. I speak, of course, of Béla Lugosi, who was Hungarian, and his portrayal of the eponymous anti-hero in the 1931 Universal movie Dracula. The movie is a classic - very scary for its day, but now a bit creaky, and can be watched quite comfortably with the lights out. For those of you who do not already know it, the plot of Dracula is, very briefly, this: Dracula engages a firm of solicitors in London to acquire property for him in England. Jonathan Harker travels to Castle Dracula at the Borga Pass in the Carpathians to have the documents signed. Harker is kept hostage in the castle but escapes. Meantime, Dracula travels to England, killing the crew of the ship on the way. He lands at Whitby and sets about pursuing Harker‟s fiancé. Professor Van Helsing is engaged to investigate the strange illness afflicting a friend of the fiancé, and latterly, said fiancé and he, Harker and some others, pursue the Count back to Transylvania where they put an end to him. After he had written the novel, Bram Stoker adapted it for the stage. The 1931 movie is an adaptation of the stage play. Lon Chaney was ear marked to play the role of Dracula, but he died in 1930. After considering a number of other actors for the 4 role, Béla Lugosi was chosen. Lugosi had been performing the role to some acclaim in the stage play which had been running at the Fulton Theatre in New York since 1927. That fact alone indicates a continuing public taste for blood sucking entertainment. In one aspect, the 1931 movie is historically accurate. One of the early scenes has Harker (albeit in the play and movie his character is combined with the lunatic Renfield and is named as such) travelling in a carriage on his way to Dracula‟s castle. The carriage stops near an inn from which Harker/Renfield will be picked up and taken to meet his client. While in the carriage, there is some dialogue by the locals who are travelling with him. The dialogue is in Hungarian. When the carriage gets to the inn, all the signs are in Hungarian. When the movie was made, Transylvania was part of Romania, but when the book and play were published it was Erdély (the Hungarian name for Transylvania) and part of Hungary. While the setting of the film is clearly contemporary, it properly respected the Magyar traditions of the area. So was Count Dracula Hungarian? I will come back to that. Born Béla Ferenc Desző Blasko in 1882, in the town of Lugos, Hungary (now Lugoj in Romania), Lugosi trained and had a distinguished career as a classical actor appearing in major theatres all over Hungary. At the outbreak of war in 1914, he joined the army and was commissioned as a lieutenant. He achieved the rank of captain before being wounded and invalided out. He returned to the stage in 1916, and continued his career until the end of the war. Lugosi was an active trade unionist and supported (and had some involvement with) the short-lived communist administration of Béla Kun in the summer of 1919. He fled Hungary after the collapse of the Kun government, initially to Vienna and then on to Germany. He appeared in some films during his time there before emigrating to the United States in 1921. His associations with the Kun regime would cause him problems in the 1940s and 1950s. Lugosi‟s portrayal of Dracula very much set the movie image of the Count for many years to come. The seven Hammer films from between 1958 and 1974, starring Christopher Lee as Dracula had him, at least in the earlier ones, similarly attired. (As a side note these were the first movies to show vampires sporting fangs, though not during speaking parts). Dracula made Lugosi the first star of horror pictures, and he would spend most of his remaining movie career in that genre. Sadly, after the Second World War his career declined. A combination of stereotyping, substance abuse brought on from lasting pain from his war wound, blacklisting and a change in public taste, found him reduced to resuming the role of Dracula in Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein in 1948. His final screen appearance as a vampire was in the British movie Mother Riley Meets the Vampire released in 1952. The Dracula stage play was revived at the Little Theatre in London in 1951, and Lugosi starred in a lengthy run there, but is said to have been forced into making the movie to pay for his return to the United States. I have to confess, I quite enjoyed the Mother Riley movies when I was a child. Mother Riley was played by Arthur Lucan and the films are harmless nonsense. However, for one who had had such a distinguished career in classical drama, this really was the pits for Lugosi. Lugosi died of a heart attack in 1956 during the making of what was, obviously, his last movie. In one way, Lugosi‟s Hollywood career started with a cult movie and ended with one. Alas, the cult status of his last movie comes from it being so incredibly bad. It was Ed Wood‟s Plan Nine From Outer Space. I much prefer to remember Lugosi, not for chasing old Mother Riley around the kitchen, but for the strong Hungarian accent commenting upon the howling of the wolves outside Castle Dracula: “The children of the night, what music they make!” A full list of the movies and plays in which Lugosi appeared is available on the website created by his son George: www.lugosi.com There seems to be a notion that Count Dracula was based upon Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (between 1456 and 1462), otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler. But looking at the novel, there is no suggestion that Count Dracula was Vlad the Impaler – resurrected, or even descended from him. (Why take a demotion from Prince to Count?) There maybe a suggestion of fighting alongside him against the Ottomans, but that is as close as it gets. There has been quite a debate on the subject over the years by those that get heated up over these issues. Stoker‟s original name for the Count was Count Wampyr, but this changed to the much more evocative Dracula. The proper origin of the name Dracula, or Dracul (meaning dragon), came from a society founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of Hungary (1387-1437), to uphold Christianity and combat the ever threatening Ottoman Empire. Since 1918 (the original 1931 movie honourably excepted), there has been a Romanianisation of Count Dracula. The 1992 blockbuster Bram Stoker’s Dracula was the first major film adaptation, albeit in parts pretty loose, of the novel, as opposed to the stage play. It begins with a clear suggestion that Vlad the Impaler, having renounced God, becomes a vampire, and over the centuries metamorphoses into Count Dracula. The Count in this movie is clearly Romanian - it is the language spoken and the clerics shown in the opening scenes are orthodox. Continued on page 24... 5 OLD-SCHOOL ARMS Recently, a friend of mine in Hungary came across a hundred year-old document detailing the official renderings of the then Hungarian coat of arms. He shared the images with me, and the engravings were so fine and beautifully executed, I thought I must share them, along with a few other images I have collected, with New Hungarian Voice readers. The current insignia of Hungary, by the way, is nothing less than the central portion of the old national coat of arms. The shield is split into two parts – the viewer‟s right side consists of a silver double cross with a red background, above a small golden crown, situated in the middle of three green hills, representing Tátra, Mátra and Fátra mountains. The left side features what are known as the “Árpád stripes” (from the Hungarian royal house of Árpád) - four silver and four red. It is CZINK COLLECTION CZINK COLLECTION 10 Korona gold coin from 1910 (actual size 1.9cm in diameter) Enamelled pin from 1902 (actual size 2.6cm in diameter) Coat-of arms used by the Hungarian Post Office in the 1930s 6 sometimes said that the silver stripes represent the rivers Duna, Tisza, Dráva, and Száva. The final version of the coat of arms, which would often be illustrated supported by two angels, was established during the reign of King Matthias II in the beginning of the 17th century, WEIDEMAN COLLECTION Patriotic brooch from the late 19th/early 20th century (shown actual size) and its usage became official during the reign of Queen Maria Theresa. For different official purposes, the basic coat of arms could have the angels substituted by a traditional spray of oak and laurel leaves. Over time, the Hungarian national insignia became more complex with the additions of the arms of territories conquered by Hungary around the basic shield and crown. This “great” coat of arms was used from the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 until 1915. The red and white “checker-board” of Croatia is top right, and below it are the arms of Transylvania. On the top left, Dalmatia is represented, and below it, Slavonia. Below centre represents Fiumé. Later, in 1915, the arms of Bosnia were squeezed in to the left of Fiumé. P.Cz. 7 TRANSLATED BY ANDI SZILÁGYI Hungarian FOLK TALES The Poor Man's Violin Far, far away, beyond seven countries, and even beyond the Operencia Sea, lived a King, who had three beautiful daughters. One day the King said to his three daughters, “Na, daughters, go into the forest to pick strawberries, and the one who picks the most strawberries will earn the red skirt*.” Away went the daughters to the forest, and they picked and picked strawberries. When it was just after noon, they all kneeled under a tree to see who had gathered the most strawberries. As it turned out, the youngest daughter had picked more than the two older daughters together! The two older daughters were very jealous because now the youngest daughter would earn the red skirt. The oldest said, “Come on, girls, let's go pick a few more! We can't go home with so few strawberries anyway.” The youngest protested that they leave right then or they wouldn't make it home before nightfall, but the older daughters wouldn't listen. They just wanted to go and pick more, and they set off in one direction and the youngest in another. But the older daughters did not in fact pick strawberries. No, together, they decided that they would kill their young sister. If they couldn‟t have the red skirt, then it shouldn't go to the youngest either! They snuck up on their sister and grabbed her! The youngest daughter begged them to let her go, and she promised to give them all of her strawberries - but they killed her anyway. Just then, a blind pauper wandered by. The older daughters took his violin, put their youngest sister‟s body inside, and threw it into a rotten hole of a nearby tree. Then they left. When they got home, the King asked, “Where is your sister?” “We don't know, but we told her enough times not to wander away from us. Who knows? Maybe she lost her way, or maybe the forest thieves killed her.” Meanwhile, a woodcutter had gone into the same forest and started chopping down the same tree into which the sisters had thrown the violin with their sister's body. You can imagine his surprise when the tree fell over and a violin popped out! He picked it up and ran the bow over the violin strings -- here and there, just like the gypsies do. Well this violin didn't just play music - no! It also sang! Play slowly poor man, So you don't hurt my weakened arm. My weakened arm, fiddle-bow, Princess Erzsi's violin. “Ejnye - the devil's doing!” mumbled the woodsman, “This violin is bewitched! I will take this with me and try my luck – maybe people will pay to hear this beautiful song.” So he left, roamed the country and the world, and he made so much money that he had to pull the heaping pile behind him in his wagon. One day while he was roaming, he ended up in the city of the King -- the one whose youngest daughter was killed by her older sisters. The woodsman stood in front of the King's palace and began to play the violin. The King heard the beautiful song of the violin and sent his footman to invite the musician inside. Out ran the King's footman to invite the musician inside, but the musician replied, “I will not take even a single step inside because I have so much money that even the King does not have as much.” The footman went back to the King and told him what the musician had said. What was he to do? So the King went outside himself and asked the musician to come in and pull a couple of songs from his violin. The King asked and asked until the man went inside. Continued on page 25... 8 Finding a travel book on Hungary can be a challenge. Finding a good travel book can be even harder. Most travel books lump Hungary in with larger books on Eastern Europe, with all of Hungary being afforded just a few pages. On top of being chintzy in terms of volume, the information itself can be rather skimpy. You might find the odd book on Budapest, but they also tend to be somewhat lacking in substance. How simply smashing to find something worthwhile! While Rick Steves’s book is called Budapest, it actually includes write-ups on other attractions, cities and towns: Gödöllo Palace and the “open-air museum” of Hollókő; the Danube Bend towns of Szentendre, Visegrád, and Esztergom; as well as Eger, Pécs, Sopron, and even Bratislava, Slovakia, known to Hungarians as Pozsony, and to the Germans and Austrians as Pressburg. The bulk of the book, however, is dedicated to Budapest. Far from being just a list of tourist attractions with a quick blurb written in “telegraphese” on each, Steves provides comprehensive information on all things the traveller needs to know: from in-depth information on sights and histories of towns and important historical figures, to specific details on using the transit system, how to use the phone system, currency conversion, etiquette, how to book rooms and ask for your bill at the restaurant, among a host of other handy tips and interesting facts. As you’d expect from a good travel book, Steves also provides recommendations for good, local (i.e. non-touristy) restaurants at decent prices, respectable accommodations at a range of prices and standards, and he notes places to avoid or things to be aware of, such as unscrupulous taxi drivers and rip-off artists posing as exceedingly friendly local women! A helpful feature of the book is that Steves doesn’t just rattle off a bunch of attractions, he actually walks you through the city, taking you from one attraction to the next - even estimating the amount of time you might spend in each one, how long it’ll take you to walk between sights, and even which direction to turn at the exit of the last one to get to the next. The book is literally a tour guide in the palm of your hands, outlining daily itineraries. If you prefer a real-life tour guide, Steves also provides contact information and prices for guides you can hire to show you around Budapest, or even to drive you around from one city to another. Given that the book is principally about Budapest, the information on the other towns and cities is quite a bit more limited, but follows the same format. Steves has a very conversational, humorous style, and the book is eminently readable. It also features lots of maps, summary tables, short sections, and appropriate highlighting, so that you can still find what you’re looking for without having to sift through a bunch of extraneous detail and commentary. I’d recommend the book even as a recreational read if you’re not actually going to Budapest, but from the perspective of a tourist who needs to use it for practical purposes, there are a few matters to note. First of all, be careful with some of the pronunciation keys. To be fair to Rick Steves, I have yet to find a book on Hungary with an accurate pronunciation key, and they often make me cringe. Granted, some Hungarian sounds, such as “Ő” and “GY” simply don’t exist in English, which makes it difficult to accurately demonstrate the sound in writing. Steves fails to clarify that some of his keys are based on a British accent. Thus, the Hungarian word for thank you (köszönöm) is demonstrated as “KUR-sur-nurm.” (I don’t see any Rs in the Hungarian word, do you?) Similarly, no self-respecting Hungarian would pronounce “Magyar” as “MUD-jar.” Ugh! (For those who aren’t in the know, the combination “GY” sounds like “DY”, not like a “J.” That’s an all-too-common mistake committed by nonHungarian speakers.) Secondly, Steves’s biases are clear. I didn’t always agree with his assessments of what’s worth seeing and what isn’t. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and what some consider fun, others don’t. He does tend to judge attractions, rather than just presenting the information, which may or may not be helpful, depending on your taste. For example, he repeatedly emphasizes taking a dip in the thermal baths throughout the country – true, a popular activity and something that was clearly a favourite pastime for him. He also dismissed the fortress at Visegrád as a sight worth seeing only if you have time, but I, on the other hand, thought it was the best part of my last trip. So take his comments with a grain of salt – check out the types of attractions that you typically enjoy and don’t worry too much about someone else’s assessment. Thirdly, if you’re looking for a book for naturelovers or adventure-seekers, this ain’t it. In terms of sight-seeing, Steves sticks to the cities themselves and to the typical tourist attractions within them for the most part. If your bent runs to roaming the hills and seeing the little picturesque villages along the way, I’d recommend another book called Walking in Hungary: 32 Routes through Upland Areas by Tom Chrystal and Beáta Dósa. But that’s a review for another issue… Having been chauffeured around, and taken care of by my relatives on all previous trips, I realized how lucky I’ve been – I didn’t have to worry about all the details that Steves notes in his book. There is a lot to know if you want to live like a temporary local, and it can be overwhelming, but Steves does a great job in conveying his wealth of knowledge, and also in taking your hand and leading you to the tourist information offices, if you require anything else. All in all, the book is enormously helpful, fun to read, and the best travel guide on city touring in Hungary that I’ve seen. 9 NHV BOOK REVIEW WHERE TO GO, WHAT TO DO? Rick Steves and Cameron Hewitt. Rick Steves’ Budapest Berkeley: Avalon Travel, 2009 - $24.50 by Anita Bedő The other week I wandered into one of my favourite emporia in Edinburgh. While principally a book shop, it also dispenses a discerning line in CDs, and has a not too bad café in the basement – therefore combining under one roof, three of my favourite things. The coffee is good but not up to Central European standards - coffee always tastes better in Central Europe, (and no better than in Hungary), just as tea always tastes better drunk from a bone china cup. Edinburgh has become even more civilised lately, with the opening of an Hungarian restaurant, the city‟s first. I have only just learned of this so I have not yet made my way there to sample what‟s on offer and to see if they actually speak Hungarian, unlike Krakow‟s sole étterem. Anyway, the shop had a sale on, and I picked up a trio of CDs, all with Hungarian connections, although with one of them the connection was not immediately obvious. Having some time to spare before meeting a friend for dinner, I repaired to a café for some tea (not, alas, from a bone china cup), and I commenced reading the notes which accompanied the discs I had just purchased. Part of the enjoyment of music on disc is opening the case and reading intelligent and informative notes on what one is listening to, or is about to listen to. And when the cover has a facsimile of some attractive painting or a mug-shot of the performer, all the better (iPods just don‟t do it for me). It was the rather scrunched up facsimile of a painting which hangs in the Hungarian Embassy in Vienna, and its description on the insert (that did not immediately occur to me as having an Hungarian connection), had me almost spray a mouthful of Earl Grey over the window next to me. Only an iron will inhibited the frothing and fulminating, which would undoubtedly have led to anyone sitting near me gently shuffling their chairs away, and the proprietor inviting me to leave. The reason for my near apoplexy I will address later. The disc in question contained recordings of three sinfonias by a chap called Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (Naxos 8.570198). Dittersdorf was a contemporary of Haydn, and enjoyed great success at the time, and was, for his efforts and the pleasure he brought the Viennese, ennobled by Maria Theresa. Haydn was not so honoured, yet today anyone with a passing knowledge of music at least knows his name (and knows the tune of what is now the German national anthem), and poor old Baron von Dittersdorf is virtually unheard of and, sadly, his rather fine music is very rarely promoted. Haydn was as Austrian as boiled beef (though with a side order of lecsó), but his complete symphonic legacy has been brought to life on disc only twice, and only ever by Hungarians. Franz Josef Haydn was born at Rohrau, near Vienna, in 1732. His output as a composer was massive. He composed in almost every genre for almost every imaginable instrument and combination of instruments and voices. Between 1762 and 1790, Haydn was in the service of the Eszterházy family which owned sumptuous palaces in both Austria and Hungary. Although revered today, Haydn was little more than the hired help, kept to compose new delights for the family, and directing the court orchestra. Not only was he prolific in his output, but in settling the forms of the symphony and concerto as we now understand them. Haydn is traditionally credited with 104 symphonies, although some additional compositions have appeared over the years. Amongst those who fled Hungary after the 1956 Uprising 10 Continued on page 18... Established on 14 May 1901, the Hungarian Numismatic Society is a non-profit association uniting amateurs and professionals interested in the scientific study of numismatics – the universally popular collecting and documentation of coins and medals. For over a hundred years, the Society has represented the highly regarded principles laid down by its founders. The aim of the Society is the scientific study of numismatics, the promotion of its results, the preservation of Hungarian cultural heritage, as well as the establishment and development of relations between people interested in the field. The Society maintains and operates the only public reference library in Hungary, and publishes the Numismatic Journal - the only scientific journal of Hungarian numismatics, which is well-known and recognised worldwide. Moreover, the Society provides expert‟s reports in the field of numismatics, and organises regular meetings, lectures, scientific conferences, exhibitions and professional excursions. It also operates work groups, has commemorative medals minted, and maintains relations with similar societies in Hungary and abroad. The aims of the Society have not changed during the past century, however, being a non-profit organisation, its financial situation has become very insecure during the last decade. The economic crisis that took place last year had an especially severe influence on Hungary, and has posed a real threat to the existence of the Society. Therefore, all organisations and private individuals interested in Hungarian numismatics are kindly requested to support this unique institution, and are warmly invited to actively take part in the preservation and study of our Hungarian cultural heritage. The HNS welcomes new members, and gratefully accepts donations. Membership is $30.00 US annually and includes the Numismatic Journal published every second year. Membership application form and details: mnt@numizmatika.org 11 NEWS FROM HUNGARY SPAIN-BELGIUM-HUNGARY PRESIDENCY FOR THE EU 2010.I.30. The three countries have worked out the program for this new triopresidency. At a conference in Budapest on January 29, Diego Lopez Garrido, a senior official from Spain‟s foreign ministry said that the triopresidency‟s task is to steer the EU in the new period of its history which started with the introduction of the Treaty of Lisbon. European citizenship, justice, cooperation, immigration and the integration of the Roma will be the key issues. Another focus area will be to step up efforts to end violence against women, he said. The trio-presidency‟s foreign policy will be aimed to set a balance between Eastern and Mediterranean relations. Spain will focus on Mediterranean-US relations, Belgium on Africa-Asian relations and Hungary on Eastern relations. The trio-presidency started with Spain this January, then Belgium, followed by Hungary in the first half of 2011. HUNGARY URGES BAN ON CYANIDE TECHNOLOGY 2010.II.02. Andor Nagy, the head of parliament‟s environmental committee said that Hungary is urging a Europe-wide ban on cyanide mining technologies. At an environmental conference in Budapest, Nagy said that Hungary had put a law in force in December 2009, banning cyanide based extraction technology, and the ban should be in all of Europe. The conference marked the 10th anniversary of a contamination from cyanide spills on the Tisza River from Baia Mare, Romania, which caused devastating damage to the river‟s wildlife. Nagy also said that Hungary‟s EU presidency, in the first half of 2011, would promote such issues. POPULATION INCREASES 2010.II.23. The population of Budapest grew by about 10,000 in 2008, according to the Central Statistics Office. More people seem to be moving to the capital than are leaving it, while the number of immigrant is also growing. Foreigners account for 4.4% of the population of Budapest, compared to only 1.7% in Hungary as a whole. Nearly two-thirds of the immigrants are younger than 40 years of age, as most of them come to Budapest to work, since the capital provides better job opportunities. The population of Roma in the city has risen from 2% in 1990 to 4.6% in 2009. HUNGARY REMEMBERS WAR OF INDEPENDANCE 2010.III.15. Hungary marked the 162nd anniversary of the 1848 War of Independence against the Habsburg Empire with series of political and cultural events. Speakers at political party rallies focused on the upcoming parliamentary elections in April. High ranking state officials attending the ceremonies included President László Sólyom, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and House speaker Béla Katona, as well as government members and representatives of parliamentary parties and the diplomatic corps. BRITAIN’S PRINCE CHARLES MEETS HUNGARY’S PRESIDENT 2010.III.18. Prince Charles of Britain received the Grand Gross of the Order of the Hungarian Republic from President László Sólyom after he and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall arrived in Hungary for a four day visit. The award given at an official dinner was to recognise Charles‟ efforts and work on behalf of environmental protection. The environment and equal opportunity issues are expected to dominate the prince‟s visit. In his speech at an official dinner, he spoke about climate change and his Hungarian ancestry: “I have a special relationship with Hungary since I am proud to be one thirty-second Hungarian myself, through my great great great grandmother, Countess Rhedey,” he 12 by Magda Sasvári said. Prince Charles called Sólyom a “kindred spirit” referring to their identical stance on the fight against climate change. 900 MORE POLICE OFFICERS IN HUNGARY 2010.III.31. A total of 900 more police officers will begin work as of April 1st, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai and National Police Chief József Bencze announced at the inauguration of 168 police graduates in the First District of Budapest on the 30th of March. Bajnai said law and order must prevail, adding that despite the austerity measures, 7 billion HUF more has been allocated to public safety. HUNGARIAN VIZSLA IS TOP DOG AT CRUFTS 2010.III.14. A Hungarian Vizsla named Yogi has been awarded the top prize at Crufts dog show in Britain, which is the biggest in the world. The seven-year-old beat off competition from six other finalists to take the coveted title of best in show at the culmination of the four-day competition in Birmingham, central England. “He is just such a wonderful dog, I am just pleased that he stood up to it,” said his handler John Thirlwell. The dog, from Carlisle, northwest England, is the first Hungarian Vizsla to clinch the top prize and also won the gundog category. Almost 22,000 dogs across 187 breeds were entered for best in show this year, said the Kennel Club, which runs the prestigious event. EARTH HOUR 2010 2010.III.30. The Hungarian capital stood with the rest of world in the fight against climate change during Earth Hour, the global sustainability movement organized by WWF. Budapest plunged into darkness for Earth Hour 2010 like up to 4,000 other cities and locations around the world. Highlights were the Parliament, Buda castle and all the capital‟s bridges going dark, along with Hero‟s Square, Vajdahunyad castle, the National Museum, Széchenyi Spa and the Gellért Hotel. A great number of multinational companies, hotels and restaurants, schools and homes also participated in the annual event in Budapest. SLOVAK-HUNGARIAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL IN BUDAPEST 2010.IV.07. The Slovak Cultural Institute of Budapest and the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music will organise a festival of Slovak and Hungarian contemporary music. The event will open with a concert featuring works by three generations of Hungarian and Slovak composers in the grand hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Other programmes during the festival include a workshop for two Hungarian and two Slovak young composers and a concert by young composers graduating from the Liszt Academy. The festival will close with a composers‟ competition before a jury of acclaimed Hungarian musicians on April 23. HUNGARIAN PAINT COMPANY CONTRACT WITH DUPONT 2010.IV.7. Hungarian paint company Poli-Farbe and chemicals giant DuPont will put a jointly developed family of paint products on the market in the framework of a licensing contract, the companies announced on Wednesday. walk along the river Danube, is to pay tribute to all victims of the Holocaust Jews, Roma, political prisoners and resistance fighters - as well as those that worked to save the persecuted. Two thirds of the Hungarian Jewish community (725,000 people according to 1941 census data) were killed in 1944-45. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2010.IV.6 The 66th anniversary of forcing Hungarian Jews into ghettos will be commemorated on April 16, Hungary's Day of Remembrance, and the traditional March of the Living across central Budapest will be held two days later, the Holocaust Memorial Centre told MTI on Friday. As part of the commemorations, the centre will recognise people whose efforts have helped keep memories of the Holocaust alive, with its Simon Wiesenthal Prize. The programme will also include the opening of an exhibition of artists that fled Hungary between the two world wars, Gabor Szekely, head of the foundation running the centre, said. The March of the Living, a torchlight BUDAPEST'S AQUINCUM MUSEUM EXHIBIT 2010.IV.6. Budapest's Aquincum Museum will display its most interesting finds unearthed last year at an exhibition opening on April 16. Most of the exhibits were found at excavations connected to the construction of the M0 ring around Budapest, and represent four thousand years from the Bronze Age to the early Middle Ages, the statement said. The exhibition, dubbed “New Under the Earth” will offer some 200 objects, including Roman jewellery, weapons and household utensils, as well as reconstructed tombs and remnants of a medieval manor found on an island in the river Danube. Hungarian WORD PUZZLE by Andi Szilágyi HUNGARIAN MUSEUMS Aquincumi Múzeum Budapesti Történeti Múzeum Gül Baba türbéje Hadtörténeti Intézet és Múzeum Iparmûvészeti Múzeum Középkori Zsidó Imaház Közlekedési Múzeum Liszt Ferenc Emlékmúzeum Magyar Mezôgazdasági Múzeum Magyar Nemzeti Galéria Néprajzi Múzeum Mûcsarnok Petôfi Irodalmi Múzeum Szépmûvészeti Múzeum Zenetörténeti Múzeum Unscrambled museum names are on page 23… No peeking ‘til you’re done! 13 13 ALADÁR FÁY by Lorraine Weideman Artists often do not receive recognition in their lifetime, but it is never too late to pay a little homage. Several years ago, I was given a lovely Hungarian language book entitled Aladár Fáy - Life and Art, from Hungarian Visual Artists‟ Association of Canada treasurer Barbara Majthényi - a friend and eminent artist who lives in Toronto. It‟s full of images of paintings and drawings that dynamically portray nature. In a PostImpressionist and Art Nouveau style, animals leap from the pages and are combined with vibrant Hungarian folk art motifs. If that wasn‟t inspiration enough, recently, dear friends from Hungary sent me a package containing a series of eleven vintage 1922 postcards by the very same artist - Aladár Fáy, illustrating János Arany‟s beloved folktale Toldi. Through Barbara, who happens to be related to Fáy, I have had the good fortune to be put in touch with his son, Árpád Fáy, who brought his father‟s history to life, inspiring me even further. Aladár Fáy was the second child born to Dr. Aladár Fáy and Gizella Edvi-Illés on April 11th, 1898. Remarkably, by the age of eight, young Aladár was already producing sophisticated work. His son Árpád was very patient with all of my inquiries, and in an email to me wrote: “His talent for drawing animals was significant. He was eight years old when my grandparents sent several of his drawings for an international competition in London. The organizing committee sent them back, remarking that the drawings were disqualified since surely they had not been drawn by a child. He felt that this was an injustice.” Around the age of ten he began painting in oil and creating works with clay. Later, although not even a teenager, one of Fáy‟s sculptures of a polar bear was purchased for production by world famous Zsolnay factory (one of Hungary‟s top pottery firms established in 1853). Árpád noted: “At fourteen he spent every Sunday at the zoo drawing animals. Since they were constantly on the move, he developed innovative technique. At a glance, he fixed the 14 contour in his mind and drew it without looking again at the animal (as if making a photograph in his mind); after the contour was established, the details were added with subsequent glances. Later, as a professor at the Fine Arts Academy, he taught the same technique to his students. He was fond of drawing and painting animals all his life.” Aladár Fáy attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1916 until 1920, he completed his schooling with a teacher‟s certificate. During the summers of 1917 and 1918 he was part of Nagybánya artist colony, (today Baia Mare in Romania), these were decisive years in his life. After 1919, Nagybánya belonged to Romania, so many of the famous artists from Nagybánya settled down in Kecskemét, Fáy joined them and lived in Kecskemét from 1920 to 1922. He then studied art under István Csók during this time. He married Gizella Csengey on December 8th, 1923, and had four children: Ildiko, Aladár, Csaba and Arpad, born between 1924 and 1933. From 1923 until 1943, he taught the principles of folk art at the Budapest School of Applied Arts, working in the decorative painting department. In 1941 he wrote, A Magyarság Díszítő Ösztöne (The Hungarian Decorative Instinct) – a book that expressed the challenges of embracing Hungarian cultural identity within visual art. He wanted to portray a graphic expression that would show the “true Hungarian artistic soul.” Breaking down these unique Hungarian elements, he went further to illustrate how and why they are used. He believed that these image styles are not inflexible - that they are fluid and are not bound by strict rules. His analyses of Hungarian folk art appealed to Hungarians, as well as other cultures, which warranted a reprinting of WEIDEMAN COLLECTION WEIDEMAN COLLECTION this definitive book in 1994. Fáy was involved with the Magyar Képírók Társasága (literally Hungarian Picture Writers‟ Society) from 1930 through 1944, as vice president and later president. He was also the director of the School of Applied Arts from the fall of 1943 until January 1944, when the institution was closed. That year, both of his parents passed away. Árpád recalled that “The Museum of Arts and Crafts (housing the forth largest collection in Europe) also belonged to this school. In November of 1944, the government ordered the collection to be shipped to Austria to save it from the Soviets. Instead, my father had collection hidden in the cellars. The crates containing the artefacts were only opened at the end of 1945 when conditions were normalized. In this way, the whole collection was saved from both the German and Soviet troops.” After the war Aladár Fáy continued his work as an educator until he was arrested on December 21st, 1946, and later, in 1947, sentenced to nine years in prison for “conspiracy.” He spent seven and ahalf years in prison, and when released, he became a helper at his beloved Budapest Zoo. He continued painting and drawing his extraordinary animal images and passed away on February 18th, 1963. In 1994, Hungary officially rehabilitated Fáy‟s reputation, and in 1998 his children collected information and stories for the publication of Aladár Fáy - Life and Art. In 1998, Peter Paul Toth directed A Képíró, a film commemorating my favourite Hungarian painter and folklore researcher - Aladár Fáy. “Lorraine, your article is a tribute to a Hungarian artist who had no exclusive exhibition of his works during his lifetime. On behalf of his descendants (forty family members in 2010), I express our sincere thanks to you.” Árpád Fáy WEIDEMAN COLLECTION Originally published in 1574 by Péter Ilosvai Selymes, one of Hungary’s most cherished folktales is the story of the remarkable Miklós Toldi. This peasant-lad folk hero was born in 1320 and was known for his great strength, and interest in his adventures were revived in the nineteenth century. János Arany adapted the tales during the late 1840s and the early 1850s, and Aladár Fáy later illustrated them, pictured here on three of his postcard series. 15 TORONTÁLVÁSÁRHELY by Eddi Wagner Torontálvásárhely, in Hungarian means “Torontál (county) market place.” Torontálvásárhely, a small town in the south Bánát, Délvidék (today's Serbia), is known for its markets and fairs. It is situated some twenty kilometers northwest of the city of Pancsova. A legend says that there was a big market ground here, even before the town was built. Imagine a place, in the middle of puszta, where people come from faraway countries to trade, buy, sell and entertain. In 1872, two local judges, Sámuel Tóth and István Mező, wanted to make it official - they went all the way to Vienna in order to personally ask for Royal permission from the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Josef. This fruitful trip resulted in the town of Torontálvásárhely being granted the requested permission (the document, apparently, was written in golden ink, and in three languages: Latin, German and Hungarian). These happy events officially extended the centuries-long traditions of markets in Torontálvásárhely - traditions that are alive even today. In the past, the markets lasted three days: Thursdays were reserved for farm livestock; Fridays for food products and households goods; and Saturdays for horses only. Horses and everything related to them (exhibitions, sports, competitions, riding, buying and selling, as well as horserelated gear and goods) attracted thousands of visitors and customers from as far as Belgium and Turkey. Apart from buying and selling, there was plenty of food and fun - complete with entertainment, music, merry-go-rounds, and sporting events. Torontálvásárhely is a typical Panonnian town with very wide streets at perfect right angles. The center of the town is also very typical: a large park in the middle, churches, the townhall, hospital, schools, fire-hall, inns, the bus station. There is a railway station on the outskirts of town. Carefully cultivated grass fields, flowerbeds, decorative shrubs, and tree-lined streets give this town a specific beauty - you can still see the old roads leading lined with tall poplar trees, as they were two centuries ago. Torontálvásárhely is widely known for being very green, clean and neat. Locals are very much natureoriented, and take very good care of their surroundings. As elsewhere in the Bánát, biking is very popular: it is said that each person owns at least two bicycles! Cycling is not only for recreation – it‟s also a serious means of transportation there. Locally grown fruit and vegetables are delicious and even smell healthy, and locals are also proud of the rich assortment of their dairy products – from cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep, llama, camel, horses and donkeys. It was in 1660 that the town was mentioned in documents for the first time. Up until the mid eighteenth century, the town bore a few different names, for example Develák (which sounds similar to the name Serbs now use: Debeljača). The Ottoman Turks conquered the Hungarian Délvidék in the mid sixteenth century. After over a hundred years of occupation, they were finally expelled by united European armies – and it was then that the Austro-Hungarian military decided to settle and employ a number of Serbian soldiers and their families to guard the area against possible future Turkish attacks. As a result, the ethnic Serb population in this part of Hungary grew significantly. The Tisza-Maros military border was dismantled from 1768 to 1774, however, and many Serbs left the town after in search of military contracts elsewhere. A wave of Hungarians from the Northern Tisza region settled in Torontálvásárhely in 1794. Generations of these hard-working Hungarians cultivated the land, and dug canals and irrigation systems, turning the puszta into fertile, arable lands. These massive projects took a heavy toll on Hungarians - until the puszta was developed into a more liveable region, many people died of cholera and similar diseases. A sharp decline of the population was recorded in 1838, after yet another wave of cholera. During the Hungarian 16 War of Independance of 1848-49, a town either. The Bánát was in the large number of Hungarians moved hands of the local volksdeutsche Reformed church in north, as the town was constantly (ethnic Germans of the Bánát), diTorontálvásárhely attacked by Serbs. Serbs and other rectly controlled from Germany. Slavs sided with the Austrians during Local Hungarians were divided that conflict, and Serbian rebels, lead some students joined the Yugoslav by General Knićanin, expelled Hunpartisans voluntarily. After the war garian civilians from Délvidék. ended, all remaining ethnic Germans After the war was over, many were expelled from town. Hungarians returned home and The brutal wars of separation of stayed there permanently, sharing the the former Yugoslavian republics, town with ethnic Bulgarians who international economic sanctions and continuously lived there since their blockades in 1991; years of suffering ancestors first came to the Pannonian under the regime of the Serbian Plains in the beginning of the millendictator Slobodan Milošević; and the nium, long before our Hungarian NATO bombing in 1999, all left deep ancestors settled there. Today, Hunscars and irreparable damage to the garians still form a very strong lives of the locals. The Hungarians majority in this town which they generally suffered from ethnically share with Bulgarians, Serbs, Roma motivated tensions, and mistreatment and a few other minorities. by the ethnic Serb refugees who It received its present name of moved there from the war-torn Torontálvásárhely in 1888, which Bosnia and Croatia. As a consestayed in official use until the end of quence of that, many local HungariWW I, when the entire Délvidék ans moved to Hungary, or elsewhere. came under Serbian control. At the end of the nineteenth Those who stayed are now happy that (as of the beginning century, with 6,000 inhabitants, Torontálvásárhely became of 2010) they do not need apply for a visa when traveling to the a leading town in south Torontál County, with a public library countries of the European Union – including Hungary. and reading club, theatre, trade union, two banks, two brick There is still a Hungarian elementary school in town, and factories and a modern grain mill. Many locals sent their sports and folklore are very much alive in Torontálvásárhely. children to schools in Szeged, Pest or Vienna. While some setPeople there still cultivate their traditions, and many locals still tled in cities, many of these intellectuals returned back home, wear their wooden clogs (very typical of Torontálvásárhely and sharing the knowledge and culture gained in big European south Bánát in general), and you can still see older Hungarian cities. The cultural and economic women wearing their extremely wide, prestige of Torontálvásarhely was A road to Torontálvásárhely knee-length skirts. very strong until the end of WW I, A local art professor, Jolánka when it became a town within a Szécsenyi, was responsible for the larger municipality of Kovačica, establishment of the first local inhabited by ethnic Slovaks. At the museum in the early 1970s. She end of the nineteenth century, a few gathered some enthusiastic locals and families from Inner Mongolia settled got them interested in collecting in town, and produced and sold everything related to the everyday household items and other things lives of Hungarians through history. made of straw. Locals loved their Many locals appreciated this idea and shopping baskets and brooms. donated items left behind by their The First World War caused terrielders - old clothes, furnishings, ble losses in human life to household goods, musical instruTorontálvásárhely. As a tragic conments, and tools. Thanks to professor sequence of the war, the victorious Szécsenyi, Torontálvásárhely is now powers decided to claim two-thirds home to a lovely collection of priceof the Kingdom of Hungary‟s terriless items that document the presence tory - its southern parts known as of Hungarians in Délvidék. Délvidék were awarded to the KingMy last visit there was in the dom of Serbia. The people of winter of 1991. It has changed a lot Torontálvásárhely, if they had not since becoming more modernized, already been expelled by the Serbian and life there is constantly improvarmy, had to accept the reality of ing. Torontálvásárhely is best to visit calling the newly formed Republic of in September. And if you do, you will Hungary a “neighbouring country.” never forget the heavenly smell of They were also required to learn the freshly picked grapes and apples - a new official language - Serbian. true gift from the Gods, directly from World War II did not spare the the fertile lands of the Bánát. 17 ...Haydn Seek continued from page 10 had been put down by the Soviets, was a large number of very talented musicians. In 1957, a new orchestra was formed comprising over fifty of those musicians under the direction of the conductor Zoltán Rozsnyai in Baden, Austria (the orchestra was set up with funds provided by the Swiss and American governments). The orchestra‟s name was the Philharmonia Hungarica. Ironically, the first headquarters of the orchestra had been used by the KGB when the Soviets were occupying Austria after the war. In June of 1957, the orchestra performed its first ever public concert at the Musikverein in Vienna. According to Time magazine, the performance started off in rather lacklustre fashion with Beethoven‟s Egmont overture. However, what followed was a sensation. The programme consisted of Kodály‟s Psalmus Hungaricus and Bartók‟s Violin Concerto No. 1. Psalmus Hungaricus is a choral work, the text of which is based upon the 55th psalm, and was written during the Ottoman occupation of Hungary (and was particularly apt for a nation once again under foreign tyranny): the world of music. The second complete cycle was made by the AustroHungarian Haydn Orchestra directed by Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer. Fischer is a regular conductor at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, and has recorded all the symphonies in the hall known as the Haydnsaal. This was the summer palace of the Eszterházy‟s and the very place where Haydn and his orchestra performed. The players are all members of the finest outfits in Vienna and Budapest, and the orchestra comes to life only during the summer months when the players are not engaged with their main employers. These recordings were set down between 1989 and 1993 - the Nimbus company which initially issued this set has since disappeared, but some of the later symphonies are still available from Brilliant Classics as part of a larger set of works by Haydn. Everyone, of course, has their own tastes in music and how they like it performed. I already possessed the last fifty or so symphonies recorded by the Austro-Hungarians. The person to whom I owe so much in respect of my love of music had all the Philharmonia recordings on LP when I was but a lad (which was certainly not yesterday), and I had not listened to any of them since. I acquired a single disc of the Philharmonia (Penguin Classics 460 628-2), not feeling I would ever do justice to the 33 that comprise the full set which had tempted me while browsing the sale in Edinburgh. I selected my favourite symphony, number 100, commonly known as the “Military” and listened to it played back to back by the Philharmonia and the Austro-Hungarians. I found both recordings very appealing, and I was most surprised by the Philharmonia recording. I have to confess, my own preference in this repertoire is for the period performance, using instruments, techniques and styles in use at the time the music was first performed, all with a somewhat smaller orchestra. This style, I think, offers a cleaner, faster and more vivid performance. While the Philharmonia was obviously a full modern symphony orchestra using modern instruments, the performance was bright and fluid and zipped along nicely. Nothing stodgy or laboured, just beautifully formed and phrased music that was a delight to listen to. Not only was the Philharmonia the first to commit to disc all the Haydn symphonies, but it pretty much did Haydn better than anyone had before. These recordings have stood the test of time and fashion, and remain seminal to how Haydn is performed today. A magnificent achievement. What was it that annoyed me so much? The description of the painting was “The coronation of the Empress Maria Theresa at Pressburg.” How horribly and inaccurately Austrocentric! Of course, the coronation was of the Archduchess Maria Theresa, as Queen of Hungary, at Pozsony! Without that event, which set the good queen up for the War of the Austrian Succession, Maria Theresa (who was only ever an Empress due to her husband being elected Holy Roman Emperor some years later), would never have been quite the figure she became. She needed the support of Hungarians to have any prospect of success (and indeed succession). Due to the efforts of the Hungarians, we know Maria Theresa to have been a great ruler, and due to the efforts of Hungarians we know the full glory of Haydn‟s symphonies. The moral to all of this: behind every great Austrian there is always an Hungarian. Jack Keir Oh hear the voice of my complaining, Terrors of death are fallen upon me. Yehudi Menhuin, one of the truly great musicians of the 20th Century was the soloist in the Bartók concerto. I can only imagine Menhuin‟s agreement to appear with the orchestra was motivated by a feeling of solidarity with the Hungarian people. This was, after all, a brand new orchestra with as yet no track record. However, after the concert, Menhuin had this to say about the orchestra: “It‟s the first time I ever played the whole concerto right through at rehearsal without stopping and explaining. This music is in their blood…” In 1959 the orchestra found a new home in Marl, NorthRhine-Westphalia in West Germany, where it was generously supported by the federal and lander governments. This funding very much had an eye to the propaganda value of the orchestra that notwithstanding, it was a very fine orchestra indeed. Perhaps in tribute to the support offered to it in its earliest days, the orchestra‟s new headquarters was named Yehudi Menhuin House. It performed regularly in West Germany and toured many countries abroad, including Canada. A recording contract with Decca was secured and the Philharmonia, under various conductors, put down many fine recordings, a number of which received much sought after prizes and awards. The huge task of recording every one of Haydn‟s symphonies was commenced in 1970 - the orchestra‟s president Antal Dorati conducted all 104 plus two strays. The enterprise took four years to complete, and box sets of LPs were released as the task progressed. The appearance of each box set was met with great critical acclaim, and even today these recordings are frequently used as comparators for any new release of a Haydn symphony reviewed in Gramophone magazine. The complete set in CD format was released in 1996 (Decca ADD 002894485312). Notwithstanding the conclusion of the Cold War, the West German government continued subsidising the orchestra for a number of years. However, the subsidies were eventually withdrawn. That, combined with falling attendances at concerts caused the orchestra to be disbanded in 2001. A great loss to 18 THE HUNGARIAN CROWN GUARD ASSOCIATION NEEDS YOUR HELP In association with the INTERNATIONAL HUNGARIAN MILITARY HISTORY PRESERVATION SOCIETY www.NewFront.ca www.koronaorseg.hu The Hungarian Crown Guard Association is looking for historical information, copies of documents, and photographs relating to the Crown Guard, the Holy Crown of Hungary, the Szent Jobb and the 1938 Golden Train. Many things were taken from Hungary following WW II, and the Association would be very grateful for information about any material that may be unknown to them. 19 by Mária Vajna Beef in Gravy (Vadas Marhahús) 1 ¾ lb eye of round 1 ¾ oz smoked bacon 1 ¾ oz lard 2 tablespoons flour 1/3 oz sugar 3-4 drops vinegar 1-2 teaspoons mustard ¾ cup sour cream For the marinade: 3 ½ oz carrots, cleaned, sliced 3 ½ oz parsnips, cleaned, sliced 1 small onion, cleaned, sliced 5-6 black peppercorns 1-2 bay leaves salt, to taste 1-2 tablespoons vinegar Method for best results: First prepare the marinade: put carrots, parsnips and onion into 1 litre (1 quart) of water seasoned with black pepper, bay leaves, and salt. Cook until half-done, add vinegar. Pour marinade on the meat, cover and keep refrigerated for 2 to 3 days (turn the meat once in a while). Remove meat from the marinade, drain, cut slits into it and insert small slices of bacon, then roast in the oven for 1 ½ hours, adding the liquid a little at a time. Then add the marinated vegetables. Cook another hour or more until the meat is tender, continuing to reduce the liquid until all the water is gone and only the fat is left. Remove the meat from the pan, put on a plate, cover, and set aside in a warm place. Then prepare the gravy: sprinkle the cooked vegetables with flour, fry to brown them, pour in the remaining marinade, bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes. In a small pan, heat sugar until it is light brown, mix with cold water and stir in the gravy, then simmer 5 minutes. Flavour with vinegar and mustard, and then add sour cream and stir through. Arrange the sliced meat on a serving plate and pour on the gravy. Serve with bread, dumplings or macaroni. *Fakanál is Hungarian for wooden spoon. It’s an essential word for your gastronomic vocabulary, and can also serve as a very naughty sounding expletive for you to use on your non-Hungarian speaking guests. HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE LINK MAGGIE’S PHARMACY Certified Translation Services Personal • Medical Legal • Technical and Immigration Matters ESTHER VITALIS Magdolna Kabok Certified Translator Pharmacist English - Hungarian Hungarian - English tel: 778 371-8721 fax: 778 371-8722 #301 - 1717 West 13th Avenue Vancouver, B.C. V6J 2H2 2591 Commercial Drive Vancouver, BC • V5N 4C1 604 738-6869 cel: 604 789-0027 fax: 604 738-6805 Working hours: Monday - Friday 8:00am - 6:00pm Saturday - 10:00am - 3:00pm evital@shaw.ca www.evitalis.com 20 The Urban Fakanál* WHO ARE WE ANYWAY? In Part VIII of our ancient history series, continuing with our exploration of the people who were writing about the early Magyars and their contemporaries, we turn our attention to the Latin sources as documented by our authority András Róna-Tas. I found myself a little frustrated by this exercise, since information on the people themselves proved to be far sketchier than information on their writings. Still, I managed to dig up some pretty fascinating stuff. Róna-Tas notes that while the ancient Latin sources refer to Finnish and Estonian peoples (recall that the Magyar language is distantly related to these languages), the first Latin source of real value in understanding the history and prehistory of the Magyars came in the 6th century AD. The author Jordanes was mentioned in Part VII as having provided a summary of the works of Byzantine writer Cassiodorus on the history of the Goths until AD 533 (Jordanes himself having a Gothic background). Jordanes‟s own work included an extensive examination of the exploits of Attila the Hun, as well as writings on the relationship between the Goths and the Huns. Remember, though, that most historians deny any relationship between the modern Hungarians and the Huns, but reference to the Huns keeps popping up all the same. Perhaps that‟s because Hungarians themselves seem to like to align themselves with this “ancestor,” however fictional the relationship may be. In a brief genealogical description of his family, Jordanes makes vague reference to his “conversion,” but conversion to and from what, however, is unclear. It probably does not refer to conversion from paganism to Christianity, since the Goths had already been converted. The name Jordanes Crotonensis, bishop of Crotona (now Cotrone) in Bruttium in southern Italy may refer to our Jordanes, since he was believed to have become a monk and likely a bishop. Judging from his extremely negative attitude toward Arian Christianity (a heresy Part VIII by Anita Bedő started by a priest named Arius), it is very likely that Jordanes had himself once been an Arian like most of the Goths, and that he had later converted to Catholicism. As they say, what we hate most about others is what we hate most about ourselves. Very little is certain about Aethicus of Istria (Aethicus of Istria). He is described variously as a pagan philosopher, a Christian pilgrim, a Scythian, an Istrian, or merely as a traveller, who lived somewhere around the fourth to seventh centuries AD. His name is a reference to the Danube (Ister), or to Istria, a peninsula in the Adriatic sea. Aethicus Ister was the protagonist of the 7th/8th-century Cosmographia, which describes the travels of Aethicus around the world, and reportedly includes descriptions of foreign peoples in usually less than favourable terms. Aethicus has been described as a radical and another author described his book as "wild." Unfortunately, there are no details on what he thoughts of the Magyars, or any other foreign peoples, for that matter. Róna-Tas does mention that the book refers to the Turk people of the Black Sea region, which may have included the Magyars, since the Magyars were occasionally referred to as Turkic or Turks. Such tidbits are maddening, Continued on next page... 21 ...Whe Are We continued from 21 are they not? Alas, the book apparently does not exist in English translation and I have not able to find more detail on how exactly Aethicus Ister bad-mouthed the Magyars. Pity. I hit the jackpot when I came across a series of letters from various bishops of Germany that had been written to Pope John IX around the year 900. Two are of particular interest here. The first was written by Hatto, the archbishop of Mentz. He died on May 15th, AD 953, reportedly either by a lightning strike or by being thrown alive by the devil into the crater of Mount Etna. According to the Saxons, he had been a cruel and treacherous soul. In his letter, Hatto apologizes to the Pope for not having sent word earlier of the election of a certain king, but such a letter could not have been delivered due to the roads being “infested” by the Barbarians, “Masters of the Country between them and Italy.” It‟s unclear whom he is referring to, but quite possibly the Magyars. Hatto‟s letter goes on to relay a complaint from their brethren, the bishops of Bavaria, against the Slavonians who had, among other dastardly deeds, accused the Bavarians of the crime of entering into an alliance with “the Pagans,” i.e. the Hungarians. Hatto wished to assure the Pope that this shocking accusation had “not the least foundation in truth.” (Clearly we were an undesirable lot to be associating with back then.) The second letter to the Pope was written by Theotmar, archbishop of Salzburg from AD 873 to 907. The best information on Theotmar exists in other languages and online translations are only somewhat intelligible, but I shall endeavour to explain briefly his history with the Magyars. The long and short of it is that, in the summer of AD 907, the Bavarians, accompanied by the small army of Salzburg under the leadership of Theotmar, marched on the advancing Magyars. This was an ill-fated battle, however, and on July 4th, Theotmar fell at the Battle of Pressburg (aka Pozsony) to the triumphant Magyars. In the interim, Theotmar‟s letter, written in the spring of AD 900, had found its way to the Pope, complaining of papal corruption and the weakening of the Archbishopric of Salzburg. This bit, described in the book entitled The History of the Popes from the Foundation of the See of Rome to the Present Time, Volume 5, written by Scottish historian Archibald Bower in 1761, deserves to be quoted directly: from Theotmar to Pope John IX was long regarded as a fake by later historians, but even if that is the case, it does still make for great theatre! Liutprand (also Luitprand or Luidprand) was another interesting character. He was the bishop of Cremona, and the minister of Berengar II of Italy. What is most interesting about this bishop is his crude sense of humour, with castration, penises, women, and sex in general being prominent topics in his writings. This irreverent humour was prevalent in his book Antapodosis, translated as “Repayment” or “Book of Revenge,” which is a sarcastic attack and retribution for the slights he suffered while at Berengar‟s court. It also includes details of the Magyars‟ raids in Italy, as well as earlier periods. Liutprand later moved on to the court of Otto the Great, an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. His report to Otto of his mission to Constantinople in AD 968, describing his meeting with Nicephorus, emperor of the Byzantine Empire, is another classic. He describes Nicephorus thus: “A monstrosity of a man, a pygmy, fat-headed and like a mole as to the smallness of his eyes; disgusting with his short, broad, thick, and half hoary beard; disgraced by a neck an inch long; very bristly through the length and thickness of his hair; in color an Ethiopian; one whom it would not be pleasant to meet in the middle of the night; with extensive belly, lean of loin, very long of hip considering his short stature, small of shank, proportionate as to his heels and feet; clad in a garment costly but too old, and foulsmelling and faded through age; shod with Sicyonian shoes; bold of tongue, a fox by nature, in perjury, and lying a Ulysses.” He doesn‟t mince words, does he? Liutprand‟s report also includes brief references to the Magyars. We were a cocky lot then: “When you were besieging Bari only three hundred Hungarians seized five hundred Greeks near Thessalonica and led them into Hungary. Which attempt, inasmuch as it succeeded, induced two hundred Hungarians in Macedonia, not far from Constantinople, to do the like; of whom forty, when they were retreating incautiously through a narrow pass, were captured.” Sadly, Liutprand did not grace us with any more detail than that. Let‟s hope those forty Hungarians ended up having a congenial chat with their captors over a nice bowl of gulyás. Lastly, I‟ll mention Lampert (or Lambert) of Hersfeld, a medieval chronicler who became a monk at the Benedictine Hersfeld Abbey in 1058. While Lampert was highly educated, his reputation as a chronicler and historian was that he was biased and partisan. He was something of a Charles Dickens in his day, being a cynical observer of elite society, casting a critical eye on the political melodramas and scandals of his day and exposing the way in which power and pride corrupted rulers and perverted society, elevating the unworthy and punishing the good and decent. Lampert‟s works include a history of the Hersfeld monastery, which was visited by King Henry IV in 1071. Upon the king‟s departure, Leopold of Merseburg, one of Henry‟s captains, fell from his horse and died from injuries from his own sword. Lampert notes that the sword was the one that Anastasia, wife of Hungarian King Andrew I, had presented to Bavarian Prince Otto as being the sword of Attila the Hun. Attila strikes again. I can not say where András Róna-Tas will lead us next. You‟ll just have to pick up the next edition of the NHV to find out. The Moravians had prejudiced the Pope against the Bavarians as joined in Confederacy with the Hungarians, who broke into Germany and Italy at this Time, and committed everywhere unheard of Barbarities, murdering Priests, burning Churches and Monasteries, and carrying all, without Distinction of Sex or Age, into Captivity, who had the Misfortune to fall into their Hands. In Answer to this Charge, the Bavarian Bishops assure the Pope, that their Country has suffered as much by the Irruption [sic!] of the Hungarians as any other; that they have lent those Barbarians no Kind of Assistance whatever; but, on the contrary, would have readily made Peace with the Moravians, in order to attack them, as a common Enemy, with their united Forces; but the Moravians, far from hearkening to any Terms of Peace, had joined the Hungarians against their Christian Brethren, and treated them with the same Cruelty. It must be noted that Róna-Tas mentions that this letter 22 PHILOSOPHY AND ART OF TEACHING Hungarian Radio Sundays from 8:00pm - 9:00pm Qualified and experienced teachers FM93.1 Accepting students for piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, guitar and voice with hosts Ferenc Valkó & László Molnár www.magyarhid.com Kodály method and theory of all levels SOLUTION TO HUNGARIAN WORD SEARCH FROM PAGE 13 Traditional Suzuki methods Preparations for exams, competitions and festivals, university and college auditions, ensembles and string orchestra Accepting International students 604 517-4551 818 - 20th Street New Westminster, BC V3M 4W8 23 ...Dracula continued from page 5 This notion of Vlad III being Count Dracula is repeated in what must be one of the best vampire novels since Dracula itself: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, published in 2005. The novel is so good, I can forgive her for it. This is a wonderful read, meticulously researched and very scary. Part of the action takes place in Budapest during the later communist Kádár era. I will not spoil the plot for you in any way, as you really should rush out and get this book now, but as an habitué of Budapest, I could identify the hotel (albeit unnamed) where the young heroes stay, and the unnamed restaurant where the high ranking communist official takes one of them for dinner. The atmosphere of the time is eerily captured, as was my imagination. One of the odd features of the novel Dracula is that it is comprised entirely of excerpts from diaries, letters, ship‟s logs and newspaper reports. There is no narrative as such, and we only hear from Dracula himself second hand. However, Dracula is reported by Harker in chapter III as referring to himself as a Szekler. The Szeklers were originally either a Magyar or Magyarised Turkic tribe, Hungarian speaking, which, along with the Saxons bravely defended the frontiers of the Kingdom against the Ottomans from the 11th Century on. Today, almost all of their descendents are within Romania, but still identify themselves as a distinct and Hungarian culture. Having said that, after describing himself as a Szekler, Dracula seems a bit diffident towards the Magyars, and seems to suggest a more Wallachian origin. However, Szekler is what he says and if that‟s what he says he‟s a Hungarian! It is no doubt sexier and more dramatic to make the connection between Count Dracula and Vlad the Impaler, but it is fiction upon fiction - as from the mouth of the Count himself he is Hungarian, whether he likes it or not. Whether that is something for Hungarians to boast about, or whether they should reclaim him as one of their own, I shall leave you to decide. Ironically there was no vampire tradition in Hungary - all the surrounding countries did, however, have vampire folklore. I wonder whether the lack of such a thing is in any way connected to the very sensible decree by King Stephen (10001038) that there was no such thing as witchcraft? My final thought on all of this, is that it is perhaps one of the better coincidences of movie history that the first and most iconic portrayal of Dracula was by a kinsman of the old Count. At least the accent was right. Fangs for reading. SPOT THE HUNGARIAN The Count Dracuslab Count Chocula If you are even vaguely familiar with Hungarian immigrant literature and culture, you will have undoubtedly read about “our” VIPs. There are endless lists of famous ethnic Hungarians compiled by my parents‟ generation – usually topped-off with a glorification of the “father of the hydrogen bomb” Edmond Teller. Yes, they even dutifully embraced their Jewish-Hungarian brethren (as long as they were Hollywood celebrities or Nobel Prize winners). So, in a nutshell, according to the immigrant Hungarian history books, we Magyars are the bees-knees. Some disputes occasionally arise, however, if the Romanians claim ownership of an individual – case in point – Good ol‟ Count Dracula. As a tip-of-the-hat to the Hungarian immigrant style of the past, I thought I should claim two other notable kinsmen, to get them while the gettin‟s good. Sesame Street‟s The Count is described on their official website: “The Transylvanian Count von Count is just mad about counting everything that crosses his path. Whether it‟s black cats, cobwebs, bats, or belfries, if he sees it, he‟ll count it. He also enjoys singing about numbers while sporting his turned-up collar and monocle.” After further research, I found that: “The Count is a vampire modelled after Béla Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula.” Without a doubt, he‟s Magyar! And get this: “The original „Song of the Count‟ was written by Jeff Moss as a traditional Hungarian csárdás!” The second notable is none other than the noble Count Chocula – “a bucktoothed vampire who talks like Béla Lugosi.” My research revealed that Chocula was “constantly pushing his product” and spoke “with a Transylvanian accent.” There was a third celebrity I conducted exhaustive research on as well, however, I was unable to determine his true ethnic origins. He‟s one of my favourite old-school characters: Dracuslab, from season five, episode two of the Flintstones. His past seems to be shrouded in mystery, so I thought, why not consider him being of both Hungarian and Romanian descent? P.Cz. 24 ...Folktale continued from page 8 He plucked one string and then another, then began to play: Play slowly poor man, so you don't hurt my weakened arm. My weakened arm, fiddle-bow, Princess Erzsi's violin. “Ejnye, what a marvelous song!” said the King. The two daughters were there, too, staring at the man. One grabbed the violin and started to pull the bow over the strings – “what might this violin sing for me?” she said quietly. Play slowly, my executioner, don't wound my weakened arm! The other daughter then took the violin and played - it played the same song for her! Then the King took the violin and played. The violin sang for him: Play slowly, my dear father, please don't hurt my weakened arm! This is surely black magic and witchcraft!" said the Queen, “now let me try it.” So she took the violin in her hands, and it sang: Play slowly, my dear mother, please don't hurt my weakened arm! My weakened arm, fiddle-bow, Princess Erzsi's violin. And in that moment the violin opened and out popped the little princess, so lively, so beautiful, like a perfect rose. Ajajaj! The two older daughters were so frightened that they fainted right then and there. The King and the Queen shed tears of joy that their daughter -- believed to be dead -- appeared in such a miraculous way. The older sisters' horrible act was no longer a secret, and the King, in his rage, locked them up in a tower for the rest of their lives. But the youngest princess begged the King to pardon the wicked sisters. Since then, they have all lived in peace, if they have not yet died. Box 29, 110 – 1140 W. Pender St. Vancouver, BC V6E 4G1 T: 604 683-6773 F: 604 683-5773 pendercopy@telus.net TRADITIONAL HUNGARIAN DESIGNS 470 CRISP, BLACK AND WHITE HUNGARIAN MOTIFS FOR DESIGNERS AND ARTISANS 68 pages, spiral bound $24.95 (plus postage) HUNGARO ENTERPRISES PO BOX 74527 • KITSILANO PO VANCOUVER, BC V6K 4P4 • CANADA 604 733-9948 • czink@shaw.ca FOR RENT Fully furnished one bedroom apartment (sleeps three adults or two adults plus two children) *The red skirt likely symbolizes the king’s power. Typically, a king would give his son, who is next in line to assume the throne, a red cape or cloak. Because the tale is about a female heir, Erzsi, the youngest daughter in this folktale, a red skirt has been substituted. Thank you to Szamoskozi Tünde for her knowledge about and help with this motif. 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