44th National Táncház Festival & Fair • 4–6 April 2025
Issue:
Starting page: 34
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Agócs Gergely: [Variants of Hungarian folk melody types found amongst the folk music of the Northern Caucasian ’Nogaj’ ethnic group] – Part 3. Over the last 22 years ethnomusicologist Agócs Gergely has been exploring and documenting the folk music of the ’Nogaj’ people in the foothills region of the Northern Caucausus in an effort to find possible parallels to Hungarian folk music. He finds that 70% of the Nogaj traditional melody types fit into the morphological system of Hungarian folk music. Agócs has documented some 2800 folk melodies there. Since 2014 he has been working with ethnographer and Turkologist Somfai Kara Dávid on analysing the documented material. In this study Agócs offers examples of parallel melodies from Hungarian and Nogaj traditional music culture. An interesting note is that many from the oldest generation of his informants had been born in tents and had memories of nomadic life practicing large animal husbandry. They spent winters at the foot of the Caucausus, summers some 1500-2000 kilometers north in wooded plains areas. First published in [Myth and History II] – a collection of studies published in celebration of ethnographer Hoppál Mihály’s 80th birthday – European Folkore Institute. Edited by Hoppál Bulcsú, Szabados György. Budapest, 2022.