Hungarian Folk Music Collected By Zoltan Kodaly Phonograph Cylinders 2LP+booklet

$

50

Please check the delivery costs at the bottom of the description. 
Hungarian Folk Music
Collected by Zoltán Kodály
Phonograph Cylinders

Edited by: Lujza Tari


Box set: 2Lps + 32 pages booklet (english and hungarian notes, musical examples, photos)



"All of us to a greater or lesser degree long to know about life in the past. The phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877 first made it possible to record and objectively reproduce the human voice in all its complexity. This was particularly important for folk music which, at the time, was already studied scientifically. Hungarian ethnomusicologists recognised the importance of the new invention. Béla Vikár’s folksong collection, started in 1895, had such persuasive power that not only those in the profession but amateurs amongst the intellectuals, acting in the spirit of the times, helpfully shouldered the high costs of phonograph equipment in the interests of a good cause. The decisive moment nevertheless proved to be when Kodály and Bartók – who were as familiar with Hungarian ethnography as with current work done by ethnomusicologists abroad, and were also spurred on to research into folk music by their attitude to music such – themselves set out to work in the field.

Kodály first collected folk music in 1905 in the Mátyusföld region of northern Hungary, an area which for some years remained the pricipal scene of his collecting work. The use of phonograph equipment was preceded by thorough preparatory work, lasting a number of years, which was based on transcriptions. Kodály continued to use this method later as well, when already in possesion of phonograph equipment. Thus he wrote in the preface to the 1937 Hungarian edition of his Magyar Népzene (Hungarian Folk Music): „The worst method with the phohograph is to record tunes not notated in advance. The subsequent transcription of these make difficulties, and their words are often inaudible.” And a few lines before: „Especially a first, exploratory collection is not worth risking the expenses of the phonograph.” He chose singers and instrumentalists of sound memory who were thoroughly familiar with the tunes, and went to see them on a number of occasions. In spite of most thorough preparations it nevertheless happened that local conditions determined the circumstances of a recording. Thus he noted at the bottom of the score of a folk-custom tune collected in Barslédec (County Bars, Northern Hungary):
„In 1914 Anna Kis was no longer alive
Erzs.Lat. (Erzsébet Latika) sick
(Mrs.Fazekas?) Only Juli Székely”
(The score marked F:194 is in file 27 in the Archives in Kodály’s home.)

Following the Second World War Kodály also used a tape-recorder in his collecting work. The record was nevertheless compiled entirely from phonograph material. One of the reasons is that the quality of tape-recordings in the infancy of the new equipment was hardly an improvement on that of the cylinders that has survived two world wars, indeed on occasion the opposite was true. Copies taken from phonograph cylinders naturally have much surface noise, let us not forget, however, that they were made sixty to seventy years ago and that the fact that they can be played at all must really be reckoned a miracle. Musical reasons as well justify sticking to the earlier material. The infinitely greater richness of the musical material of the first half of the century allowed for a choice of technically satisfactory music which would present the musical consciousness of the Hungarian peasantry. True, by 1900 Hungarian folk music had changed a great deal under the influence of folksy art-songs and the verbunkos (recruiting song) type of dance music, in its bulk it nevertheless remained intact. To quote Kodály once again: „The folk song especially in the pre-war (1914) decades was peerlessly flourishing.” (Hungarian Folk Music, 1960, p.6) The idea was that the record should present the way village folk in Hungary made music early this century as reflected in the width of Kodály’s scholarly interests, and the many regions in which he did his field-work, if possible giving several versions. This material is so ample in itself that – except for a few Rumanian instrumental dance-tunes – the presentation of his Rumanian and Slovak collections, which is of lesser importance, could not be undertaken. The presentation of types governed the choice even of Hungarian instrumental music.

Comparing these recordings with Kodály’s and Bartók’s transcriptions it springs to mind what a variety of rhythm and tempi, and especially what refinement of ornamentation is covered by a single score. Since Kodály’s Hungarian Folk Music as supplemented by the thesaurus of examples compiled by Lajos Vargyas is used by just about every secondary of tertiary institution of music teaching in Hungary, educational aspects were borne in mind as well when making the selection. This is one of the reasons for presenting types in their variations.

Confronting original folk music sources and Kodály works which they inspired was not a primary purpose, nor was it, however, avoided. Reference is made in given cases, and bibliographical data are given for published tunes. This applied only to melodies published by Kodály himself, or under his direction, e.g. in the various volumes of the Corpus Musicae Popularis Hungaricae.

The quality of the recordings also influenced the selection, thus not a single tune collected by Kodály in Transdanubia could be chosen.
Quality is also the reason why certain years (1912, 1914) figure disproportionately often. This does not apply to the distribution of months. It was Kodály who liked to go on his rural rides after winter was over, in early spring, before the new agricultural season started. As a result he did much of his collecting in April. Within this framework the choice of performers was up to the editor, and it was endeavoured to assure wider currency to those folk-singers whose talents and manner of performance very likely had a considerable influence on Kodály (György Váncsa Vaszi)."

Shipping prices:

To European countries: (registered, not priority)

100-250g: 9$ (for priority + 0.5$) (Europe)
251-500g: 12$ (for priority + 1$) (Europe)
501-1.000g: 17$ (for priority + 1.5$) (Europe)
1.001-1.500g: 23$ (for priority + 2$) (Europe)
1.501-2.000g: 27$ (for priority + 2.5$) (Europe)

2kg-3kg: 34$ (Austria, Germany, Slovakia) and 45$ (France, Great Britain, Italy)

3kg-4kg: 36$ (Austria, Germany, Slovakia) and 48$ (France, Great Britain, Italy)

4kg-5kg: 38$ (Austria, Germany, Slovakia) and 52$ (France, Great Britain, Italy)

(European countries: Albania, Andorra, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Lithuania, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Romania, San Marino, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Republic of Macedonia, Vatican)


To other countries: (registered, not priority)

100-250g: 10$ (for priority + 0.5$) (worldwide)
251-500g: 13$ (for priority + 1$) (worldwide)
501-1.000g: 19$ (for priority + 1.5$) (worldwide)
1.001-1.500g: 25$ (for priority + 2$) (worldwide)
1.501-2.000g: 31$ (for priority + 2.5$) (worldwide)

2kg-3kg: 62$ (priority:68$) (Australia, Japan, Canada, USA)

3kg-4kg: 66$ (priority:72$) (Australia, Japan, Canada, USA)

4kg-5kg: 71$ (priority:78$) (Australia, Japan, Canada, USA)

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