44th National Táncház Festival & Fair • 4–6 April 2025
Issue:
Starting page: 3
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Sárosi Bálint: Authentic Folk Music. This is the text for Sárosi’s (born in Transylvania, 1925) presentation in 2006 when he officially took his seat as a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts. He refers to Bartók’s three categories of folk songs (A, B, C) and argues against the notion that: “Hungarian nóta (composed folk-like songs) are of lesser value, or are even worthless and damaging”. Later on Sárosi says: “Folksong – is what the folk feel is their own song – not what is in the text books or popularizing publications…it is valuable because…it is part of tradition, expresses a situation, a mood, a memory, it relaxes, conveys a message, eases tension and last, but not least: it amuses and entertains”…He also examines the national music movement (roughly the last half of the 1800s), Gypsy musicians and the Gypsy band and their functions and place in Hungarian society and Hungarian music history.