Bonum
vinum
Songs about wine
and dances in the 16-19th century Hungary
On this album we would like to evoke the everyday life
and special celebrations of one of the most tumultuous but possibly
most interesting times of Central Europe, the 16-19th centuries. Our
objective is that through this music, the audience may appreciate the
taste of good wine, feel the euphoria of abundance and a freedom that
crosses boundaries of the law. Our ancestors made fun of drunkards
sometimes with harsh words and wry irony.
The first song of the CD tells us about the biblical role of the wine
(about the wedding in Cana). Next, we walk through Hungarian music
history starting from the early 16th century. We peek in everywhere but
do not linger too much at one place.
From the Middle Ages unfortunately no songs of amusement of our region
have survived, although we can be almost certain that everyday
enjoyment of wine used to be accompanied by singing. Popular poetry
however preserved for us, through generations, several motifs that had
been composed by students during the Middle Ages. The most notable of
these is part of a lighthearted "confession" by Archipoëta (Gualterus de Mapes)
of the 12th century. It is the testament of a drunkard who would like a
barrel for his coffin (since he wants to drink even in his grave). In
Hungary we can first trace this text in Latin (1478), later, during the
18th-19th century it spread in Hungarian as well (#20).
From the 15th and 16th century we know almost no Hungarian wine songs
or popular tunes. However, in the renaissance royal courts of King
Mathias Hunyadi and the Jagello Kings (1458-1526), poliphonic works
that brought a taste of Western music of the period might have been
heard (#5). Sebestyén Tinódi
was one of the most proliferic poets of 16th century Hungary. During
his wanderings he too remembered the wine. He composed one of his songs
(#4) in Transylvania about the lousy, watered wine that was served by
lower nobility to people like himself, of lesser rank. The most
important Hungarian poet of the renaissance was Bálint Balassi. He wrote a spring welcoming song based on a famous song by Marullus.
In this poem he glimpses around, absorbing the beauty of nature reborn.
He relishes the children, and the maidens and young men who fall in
love thanks to Cupid flying above them. Meanwhile the knights drink
wine, one glass after the other, and in their manly good spirits do not
look into the unknown future.
From the 17th century we present three songs. One of the authors is István Miskolci Csulyak,
who gave us several poems for different occasions. Since he lived most
of his life around Tokaj, the famous wine-region, love of good wine
could not be missing from his work. The idea that Miskolci Csulyak
wrote this song to a well liked Italian dance music, possibly a
balletto by Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi (L'innamorato, 1591), comes from the first school of Hungarian early music researchers.
The popular group of texts from whose handwritten and common literature versions we selected the funny verses about the Wedding in Cana
(#2) were probably also wedding songs. We have to make special mention
of the third song (#12) that used to be sung during Lent, in the dull
days when Carnival time with its festivities and frantic joy was over.
It is about the battle of Bacchus and Mars (Carnival and Lent).
Bacchus is riding valiantly on top of a goat and his army is made of
rich meals of meat and cabbage, whereas in the strict army of Lent we
find fat-free fish and bean-like vegetables. Unfortunately for Bacchus,
he looses the battle and becomes hostage to the land of Lent (Jejumium).
From the second half of the 17th century our album presents mainly
orchestra music. The memory of the inter-ethnical musical language
(Hungarian-Slovak-Polish-German) of Felvidék (Slovakia) is evoked on
the one hand by the so called chorea-like dances
(#7, 11) and by West European baroque dances (#8). The dance with a hat
(10) that carries on the stylistic features of the 16th century hajdú dances
(hajdús were soldiers in the Hungarian army). The Hungarian dances of
the Virginal Book of Sopron (1689, #13/a) that preserve the name of
János Starck are similar. A resembling, folk version of one of them
remains on the Eastern part of the Carpathic basin among the Csángós from the region Hétfalu. Csángó is a distinct Hungarian ethnic community in Rumania. We evoke this carnival dance of young men (borica) from the collection of Csilla Könczei (#13/b).
The beginning of the 18th century preserved a few Bagpipe tunes for us (#3). In the Apponyi Manuscript from 1730, we inherited a few table songs
that were sung on the occasion of feasts of high nobility when serving
the different meals. We already find baroque and rococo ornaments in
#15-16. There are also some (such as #17), that may be considered to be
a forerunner to the verbunkos music that was just being shaped at that time.
Despite epidemics of plague, fire, flood and political fights, the 18th
century brought a new kind of perspective. The happy moments of
Hungarian students, who openly took pleasure from wordly joys and
enjoyed eating and drinking at social gatherings, left deep traces on
our folk music and literature as well. We present two songs (#14 and
18/e) that are also called ABC songs,
due to the fact that each paragraph starts with a subsequent letter of
the alphabet and the verse is built around that letter. The so called
tus (toast) poems and songs which served the purpose of celebrating
someone on a special occasion were popular not only in colleges but
also at any gathering where wine was served. We got the idea of
presenting a such a toast series from chapbooks from the 18-19th century that used to be passed around with different kinds of texts (#18).
The so-called verbunkos, a very important East European
style. It reached one of its peak periods by the end of the 18th
century. On our program we play a series from the collection of Imre Zgurits (#19). We present one such tune that has persisted several epochs. It is from the repertory of Pál Tendl, a dulcimer (cimbalom) player of Sopron, Western Hungary, from the collection of László Lajtha
(#21). The verbunkos of course took root not only in instrumental music
but in the song poetry as well. An example for this is the drinking
song from Szántód (Szántód toast) by Ádám Pálóczi Horváth
who lived on the banks of Lake Balaton. We added another verse by an
anonymus author to the original song (#22). Pálóczi Horváth, this
highly educated poet from Western Hungary left for us the richest
collection of melodies of his time. Ének a pincéhez (The Song
to the Wine Cellar, #20) is also from this period. Its tune originally
used to be sung on burial parodies at folk weddings.
As might be clear from all of the above, ancient East European music
cannot be imagined without the knowledge of folk music traditions. Our
ensemble has long committed itself to ancient music that is organically
developing according to its own, inner laws, but is not strictly
historic and keeps changing all the time depending on who presents it.
The preservation of traditions is being undertaken not only by
musicologists, but also by musicians who feel like experimenting.
Rumen István Csörsz
(Translated by Ágnes Kovács)
