Journal of Eurasian Studies

April-June 2012 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume IV., Issue 2.
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One of the focuses of the ‘Heritage of our Future’ project is to release a selection of the music collected
under the ‘Final Hour’ program (New Patria CD series) and to make the full collection available in the
database of Hungarian Heritage House.
Initiated and directed by László Kelemen, Fonó Music Hall completed a project from 1997 to 2001,
focused on collecting folk music in the Carpathian Basin, having the largest coverage at the turn of the
century.Details of the implementation had been developed by a small group of experts – László Kelemen,
József Lukács and János Zsidei.
Starting in September 1997, except for some short periods such as summer and Christmas holidays,
music of traditional bands playing in the villages had been recorded.Each band was at the disposal of the
researchers for four to five days during which time it was possible to record their repertoires serving
several ethnic groups, thus in addition to the vocabulary of melodies, music, dances and textual
information related to folk customs could also be recorded then transferred to archival CDs.As far as
possible, a pair of dancers and one or two singers arrived with each band, helping to provide the vocal
and functional connections to the instrumental music.
The first objective was to try to record the complete repertoire of Transylvanian instrumental folk
music, therefore during the first eighteen months, 47 bands and dozens of singers and dancers had
arrived from Transylvania.The program also included mapping of traditional Transylvanian recorder
music.Key contributors to the collections are László Kelemen, István Pávai, Zoltán Juhász and Péter
Árendás (music); Zoltán Zsuráfszki and some members of the Budapest Dance Ensemble (dance).All
activities had been electronically documented by Gergely Koncz.The collection resulted in approx. 550
music CDs; and all groups had also been video recorded.Travel of groups from Transylvania was
organized by András Tötszegi.
Starting in spring 1999, collection continued with 25 bands coming from the territory of historical
Upper Hungary.Gergely Agócs organized and collected the music of Hungarian, Slovak, Goral and
Ruthenian bands, this way completing the collection from villages and regions so far under-researched.In
addition to video recordings, music enough for further 250 CDs had been recorded.
The third phase of the program started in May 2000, focusing on the rest of bands in Ruthenia, Partium
(eastern part of Transylvania), historical Southern Hungary and present-day Hungary.In these regions,
we scarcely found dancers and often, musicians of the same band had to be brought together from
various villages.András Vavrinecz, István Németh, Péter Árendás and Lajos Pál (Ruthenia) and Anikó
Bodor (historical Southern Hungary) made a significant contribution to the preparation and collection of
the music of 40 bands.Many styles were represented – musicians, from fiddles and Ruthenian bands to
Romanian horns from Banat and tambura players from historical Southern Hungary, as well as
Hungarian and Gypsy singers recorded in the studio.Together with the 450 CDs recorded in this phase,
music and textual information recorded under the ‘Final Hour’ program added up to 1,250 CDs.
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