A Context for Bela Bartok on the Eve of World War II: The Violin ...

epercussions Spring-Fall 1996
In fact, once one is alert to the presence of verbunkos elements
in the first movement of the Violin Concerto, one
hardly knows where nineteenth-century verbunkos leaves
off and other related elements-Hungarian peasant song,
<strong>for</strong> example-begin. More specifically, as I have already
hinted by my adjectival use of "Gypsy," the question arises:
Which of these so-called verbunkos gestures are derived
from /I authentic" peasant culture-to return to Bart6k's
earlier writings-and which from what he had considered
the /I corrupt" imitations of urban Gypsy bands or
nineteenth-century Hungarian composers? Indeed, we are
<strong>for</strong>ced to ask a question fundamental to Hungarian music, a
question never broached satisfactorily in Bart6k' s own writings
and subsequently ill-defined in every history of
Hungarian music or dictionary of musical terms known to
me:55 What is this thing called verbunkos-is it Gypsy
music, a Transylvanian peasant violin style, an ensemble, a
recruiting dance, a <strong>for</strong>m, an accompaniment, a melody, or
55. In addition to Bart6k's writings, works I have consulted include:
Marian Prikkel Rethei,A magyarsag tancai (Hungarian dances) (Budapest,
1924); Zenei lexikon, ed. Bence Szabolcsi and Aladar T6th (Budapest, 1930);
Gyorgy Martin, Magyar ttinctipusok es tancdialektusok (Hungarian dance
types and dance dialects) (Budapest, 1970); Bence Szabolcsi, A Concise
History of Hungarian Music, trans. Sara Karig and Fred Macnicol
(Budapest, 1974); Gyorgy Martin, Hungarian Folk Dances (Budapest, 1974);
entries on "Verbunkos," "Gypsy Music," and "Hungary," in The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1980);
ZoItan Kodaly, A magyar nepzene (Hungarian folk music) ed. Lajos
Vargyas (Budapest, 1981); Gyorgy Martin and Andras Takacs,Matyusf61di
nepi tancok (Folk dances of Matyusfold) (Bratislava, 1981); Riemann zenei
lexikon, ed. Carl Dahlhaus, Hans Eggebrecht, and Antal Boronkay
(Budapest, 1983); Geza Papp, "Die Quellen der 'Verbunkos-Musik': Ein
bibliographischer Versuch," Studia musicologica (1979): 152-217; (1982): 35-
97; (1984): 59-132; (1990): 55-224; "Hungarian Dances (1784-1810)," Musicalia
Danubiana vol. 7, ed. Geza Papp (Budapest, 1986); Balint Sarosi, Folk
Music: Hungarian Musical Idiom, trans. Maria Steiner (Budapest, 1986);
Katalin Paksa, Magyar nepzenekutatas a tizenkilencedik szazadban (Hungarian
folk-music research in the nineteenth century) (Budapest, 1988); Ferenc
Sebo, Nepzenei 01vas6k6nyv (A folk-music reader) (Budapest, 1990); Ferenc
B6nis, "Bart6k es a verbunkos" (Bart6k and verbunkos),H6dolat Bart6knak
es Kodalynak (Budapest, 1992), 19-31. I thank Agnes Papp <strong>for</strong> her help in
procuring a number of these Hungarian publications.
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