   #copyright

Music of Hungary

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Musical genres, styles,
eras and events

   Music of Hungary: Topics

   verbunkos táncház
   csárdás   nóta
   History: ( Timeline and Samples)
   Genres Classical - Folk - Hardcore - Hip hop - Opera - Operett - Pop -
   Reggea - Rock - Wedding pop - Wedding rock
   Organisations Mahasz
   Awards Golden Giraffe
   Charts MAHASZ TOP 40 album, MAHASZ Kislemez TOP 10, Dance TOP 40
   Festivals Sziget, Mayday, Táncháztalálkozó, Miskolc Opera Festival
   Media Radio Petőfi, Hungaroton, VIVA, Danubius Rádió, Sláger Rádió,
   Tilos Radio
   National anthem " Himnusz"
   Hungarian minorities' music abroad
   Transylvania, Vojvodina, Slovakia, Transcarpathia

   Hungary has made many contributions to the fields of folk, popular and
   classical music. Hungarian folk music is a prominent part of the
   national identity and continues to play a major part in Hungarian
   music. Hungarian folk music has been influential in neighboring areas
   such as Romania, Slovakia, southern Poland and especially in southern
   Slovakia and the Romanian region of Transylvania, both home to
   significant numbers of Hungarians . It is also strong in the
   Szabolcs-Szatmár area and in the southwest part of Transdanubia, near
   the border with Croatia). The Busójárás Carnival in Mohács is a major
   Hungarian folk music event, formerly featuring the long-established and
   well-regarded Bogyiszló orchestra.

   Hungarian classical music has long been an "experiment, made from
   Hungarian antedecents and on Hungarian soil, to create a conscious
   musical culture [using the] musical world of the folk song" . Although
   the Hungarian upper class has long had cultural and political
   connections with the rest of Europe, leading to an influx of European
   musical ideas, the rural peasants maintained their own traditions such
   that by the end of the 19th century Hungarian composers could draw on
   rural peasant music to (re)create a Hungarian classical style. For
   example, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, two of Hungary's most famous
   composers, are known for using folk themes in their music. Bartók
   collected folk songs from across Eastern Europe, including Romania and
   Slovakia, whilst Kodály was more interested in creating a distinctively
   Hungarian musical style.

   During the era of Communist rule in Hungary (1944-1989) a Song
   Committee scoured and censored popular music for traces of subversion
   and ideological impurity. Since then, however, the Hungarian music
   industry has begun to recover, producing successful performers in the
   fields of jazz such as trumpeter Rudolf Tomsits, pianist-composer
   Károly Binder and, in a modernized form of Hungarian folk, Ferenc Sebő
   and Márta Sebestyén. The three giants of Hungarian rock, Illés, Metró
   and Omega, remain very popular, especially Omega, which has followings
   in Germany and beyond as well as in Hungary. Older veteran underground
   bands such as Sziámi and Európa Kiadó from the 1980s also remain
   popular.

Characteristics

   Franz Liszt, prominent Hungarian composer
   Enlarge
   Franz Liszt, prominent Hungarian composer

   Unlike other Eastern European peoples, the Hungarian people, Magyars,
   emerged from the intermingling of Finno-Ugric and Eastern Turkish
   peoples during the fifth to eighth centuries CE. This makes the origins
   of their traditional music unique in Europe. According to author Simon
   Broughton, the composer and song collector Kodály identified songs that
   "apparently date back 2,500 years" in common with the Mari people of
   Russia; and, as well as the Mari, the ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl
   indicates similarities in traditional Hungarian music with Mongolian
   and Native American musical styles. Bence Szabolcsi, however, claims
   that the Finno-Ugric and Turkish-Mongolian elements are present but
   "cannot be attached to certain, definite national or linguistic
   groups". Nonetheless, Szabolcsi claims links between Hungarian musical
   traditions and those of the Mari, Kalmyk, Ostyak, northwest Chinese,
   Tatar, Vogul, Anatolian Turkish, Bashkirian, Mongol and Chuvash musics.
   These, he claims, are evidence that " Asian memories slumber in the
   depths of Hungarian folk music and that this folk music is the last
   Western link in the chant of ancient Eastern cultural relations".

   According to Broughton, traditional Hungarian music is "highly
   distinctive" like the " Hungarian language, which invariably is
   stressed on the first syllable, lending a strongly accented dactylic
   rhythm to the music". Nettl identifies two "essential features" of
   Hungarian folk music to be the use of " pentatonic scales composed of
   major seconds and minor thirds" (or "gapped scales") and "the practice
   of transposing a bit of melody several times to create the essence of a
   song". These transpositions are "usually up or down a fifth", a
   fundamental interval in the series of overtones and an indication
   perhaps of the "influence of Chinese musical theory in which the fifth
   is significant".

   According to Szabolcsi, these 'Hungarian transpositions', along with
   "some melodic, rhythmical and ornamental peculiarities, clearly show on
   the map of Eurasia the movements of Turkish people from the East to the
   West". The subsequent influence on neighboring countries' music is seen
   in the music of Slovakia and, with intervals of the third or second, in
   the music of the Czech Republic. Hungarian and other Finno-Ugric
   musical traditions are also characterized by the use of an ABBA binary
   musical form, with Hungary itself especially known for the A A' A' A
   variant, where the B sections are the A sections transposed up or down
   a fifth (A'). Modern Hungarian folk music evolved in the 19th century,
   and is contrasted with previous styles through the use of arched
   melodic lines as opposed to the more archaic descending lines.

Music history

   15th century manuscript, depicting a movement for two voices
   Enlarge
   15th century manuscript, depicting a movement for two voices

   The earliest documentation of Hungarian music dates from the
   introduction of Gregorian chant in the 11th century. By that time,
   Hungary had begun to enter the European cultural establishment with the
   country's conversion to Christianity and the musically important
   importation of plainsong, a form of Christian chant. Though Hungary's
   early religious musical history is relatively well documented, secular
   music remains mostly unknown, though it was apparently a common feature
   of community festivals and other events. The earliest documented
   instrumentation in Hungary dates back to the whistle in 1222, followed
   by the kobzos in 1326, the bugle in 1355, the fiddle in 1358, the
   bagpipe in 1402, the lute in 1427 and the trumpet in 1428. Thereafter
   the organ came to play a major role.

   The 16th century saw the rise of Transylvania (a north-eastern
   Hungarian region never occupied by the Turks) as a centre for Hungarian
   music. It also saw the first publication of music in Hungary, in
   Kraków. At this time Hungarian instrumental music was well-known in
   Europe; the lutenist and composer Bálint Bakfark, for example, was
   famed as a virtuoso player. His compositions pioneered a new style of
   writing for the lute based on vocal polyphony. The lutenist Neusiedler
   brothers were also noted and authored an important early work in music
   theory, the Epithoma utriusque musices.

   During the 17th century Hungary was divided into three parts: an area
   controlled by the Turks; an area controlled by the Habsburgs; and
   Transylvania. Historic songs declined in popularity and were replaced
   by lyrical poetry, whilst minstrels were replaced by court musicians.
   Many courts or households maintained large ensembles of musicians who
   played the trumpet, whistle, cimbalom, violin or bagpipes. Some of
   these ensemble musicians were German, Polish, French or Italian; the
   court of Gábor Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania, included a Spanish
   guitarist. Little detail about the music played during this era
   survives, however. Musical life in the areas controlled by the Ottoman
   Turks declined precipitously, with even the formerly widespread and
   entrenched plainsong style disappearing by the end of the 17th century.
   Outside of the Ottoman area, however, plainsong flourished after the
   established of Protestant missions in around 1540, while a similarly
   styled form of folk song called verse chronicles also arose.

   During the 18th century some of the students at colleges such as those
   in Sárospatak and Székelyudvarhely were minor nobles from rural areas
   who brought with them their regional styles of music. Whilst the choirs
   in these colleges adopted a more polyphonic style, the students'
   songbooks indicate a growth in the popularity of homophonic songs.
   Their notation, however, was relatively crude and no extensive
   collection appeared until the publication of Ádám Pálóczi Horváth’s
   Ötödfélszáz Énekek in 1853. These songs indicate that during the mid to
   late 18th century the previous Hungarian song styles died out and
   musicians looked more to other (Western) European styles for influence.

   The 18th century also saw the rise of verbunkos, a form of music
   initially used by army recruiters. Like much Hungarian music of the
   time, melody was treated as more important than lyrics, although this
   balance changed as verbunkos became more established.

Folk music

   Hungarian folk music changed greatly beginning in the 19th century,
   evolving into a new style that had little in common with the music that
   came before it. Modern Hungarian music was characterized by an "arched
   melodic line, strict composition, long phrases and extended register",
   in contrast to the older styles which always utilize a "descending
   melodic line".

   Modern Hungarian folk music was first recorded in 1895 by Béla Vikár,
   setting the stage for the pioneering work of Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály
   and László Lajtha in musicological collecting. Modern Hungarian folk
   music began its history with the Habsburg Empire in the 18th century,
   when central European influences became paramount, including a "regular
   metric structure for dancing and marching instead of the free speech
   rhythms of the old style. Folk music at that time consisting of village
   bagpipers who were replaced by string-based orchestras of the Gypsy, or
   Roma people.

   In the 19th century, Roma orchestras became very well-known throughout
   Europe, and were frequently thought of as the primary musical heritage
   of Hungary, as in Franz Liszt's Hungarian Dances and Rhapsodies, which
   used Hungarian Roma music as representative of Hungarian folk music
   Hungarian Roma music is often represented as the only music of the
   Roma, though multiple forms of Roma music are common throughout Europe
   and are often dissimilar to Hungarian forms. In the Hungarian language,
   19th century folk styles like the csardas and the verbunkos, are
   collectively referred to as cigányzene, which translates literally as
   Gypsy music.

   Hungarian nationalist composers, like Bartók, rejected the conflation
   of Hungarian and Roma music, studying the rural peasant songs of
   Hungary which, according to music historian Bruno Nettl, "has little in
   common with" Roma music, a position that is held to by some modern
   writers, such as the Hungarian author Bálint Sárosi. Simon Broughton,
   however, has claimed that Roma music is "no less Hungarian and... has
   more in common with peasant music than the folklorists like to admit",
   and authors Marian Cotton and Adelaide Bradburn claimed that
   Hungarian-Roma music was "perhaps... originally Hungarian in character,
   but (the Roma have made so many changes that) it is difficult to tell
   what is Hungarian and what is" the authentic music of the Roma.

   Aside from the Roma and the ethnic Hungarians, Hungary's musical
   heritage includes the vibrant Serbian traditions of the communities of
   Pomáz and Szentendre. The ethnic Csángó Hungarians of Moldavia's Seret
   Valley have moved in large numbers to Budapest, and become a staple of
   the local folk scene with their distinctive instrumentation using
   flutes, fiddles, drums and the lute.

Verbunkos

   Early 19th century lithograph depicting a recruitment with music
   Enlarge
   Early 19th century lithograph depicting a recruitment with music

   In the 19th century, verbunkos was the most popular style in Hungary.
   This consisted of a slow dance followed by a faster dance; this
   dichotomy, between the slower and faster dances, has been seen as the
   "two contrasting aspects of the Hungarian character". The rhythmic
   patterns and embellishments of the verbunkos are distinctively
   Hungarian in nature, and draw heavily upon the folk music composed in
   the early part of the century by Antal Csermak, Ferdinand Kauer, Janos
   Lavotta and others.

   Verbunkos was originally played at recruitment ceremonies to convince
   young men to join the army, and was performed, as in so much of
   Hungarian music, by Roma bands. One verbunkos tune, the " Rákóczi Song"
   became a march that was a prominent part of compositions by both Liszt
   and Hector Berlioz. The 18th century origins of verbunkos are not
   well-known, but probably include old dances like the swine-herd dance
   and the Heyduck dance, as well as elements of Balkan, Slavic and
   Levantine music, and the cultured music of Italy and Vienna, all
   filtered through the Roma performers. Verbunkos became wildly popular,
   not just among the poor peasantry, but also among the upper-class
   aristocratics, who saw verbunkos as the authentic music of the
   Hungarian nation. Characteristics of verbunkos include the bokázó
   (clicking of heels) cadence-pattern, the use of the interval of the
   augmented second, garlands of triplets, widely-arched, free melodies
   without words, and alternately swift and slow tempi. By the end of the
   18th century, verbunkos was in use in opera, chamber and piano music,
   and in song literature, and was regarded as "the continuation, the
   resurrection of ancient Hungarian dance and music, and its success
   signified the triumph of the people's art".

   The violinist Panna Czinka was among the most celebrated musicians of
   the 19th century, as was the Roma bandleader János Bihari, known as the
   "Napoleon of the fiddle". Bihari, Antal Csermák and other composers
   helped make verbunkos the "most important expression of the Hungarian
   musical Romanticism" and have it "the role of national music". Bihari
   was especially important in popularizing and innovatin the verbunkos;
   he was the "incarnation of the musical demon of fiery imagination" .
   Bihari and others after his death helped invent nóta, a popular form
   written by composers like Lóránt Fráter, Árpád Balázs, Pista Dankó,
   Béni Egressy, Márk Rózsavölgyi and Imre Farkas. Many of the biggest
   names in modern Hungarian music are the verbunkos-playing Lakatos
   family, including Sándor Lakatos and Roby Lakatos.

Roma music

   Though the Roma are primarily known as the performers of Hungarian
   styles like verbunkos, they have their own form of folk music that is
   largely without instrumentation, in spite of their reputation in that
   field outside of the Roma community. Roma music tends to take on
   characteristics of whatever music the people are around, however,
   embellished with "twists and turns, trills and runs", making a very
   new, and distinctively Roma style. Though without instruments, Roma
   folk musicians use sticks, tapped on the ground, rhythmic grunts and a
   technique called oral-bassing which vocally imitates the sound of
   instruments. Some modern Roma musicians, like Ando Drom, Romani Rota
   and Kalyi Jag have added modern instruments like guitars to the Roma
   style, while Gyula Babos' Project Romani has used elements of
   avant-garde jazz.

Hungarian music abroad

   Ethnic Hungarians live in parts of Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, the
   United States and elsewhere. Of these, the Hungarian population of
   Romania (both in the region of Transylvania and among the Csángó
   people) has had the most musical impact on Hungary itself. The
   Hungarian community in Slovakia has produced the rootsy band Ghymes,
   who play in the táncház tradition. The Serbian region of Vojvodina is
   home to a large Hungarian minority; in this restive area, Hungarian
   music has been the target of attack by Serbian nationalists.

   Transylvanian folk music remains vital part of life in modern
   Transylvania. Bartók and Kodály found Transylvania to be a fertile area
   for folk song collecting. Folk bands are usually a string trio,
   consisting of a violin, viola and double bass, occasionally with a
   cimbalom; the first violin, or primás, plays the melody, with the
   others accompanying and providing the rhythm. Transylvania is also the
   original home of the táncház tradition, which has since spread
   throughout Hungary.
     *
     * "Szerelem, Szerelem" —
          + An a cappella song by Marta Sebestyen]
          +

Táncház

   Táncház (dance house) is a form of dance music which first appeared in
   the 1970s as a reaction against state-supported homogenized folk music.
   They have been described as a "cross between a barn dance and folk
   club", and generally begin with a slow tempo verbunkos or Lad's Dance,
   followed by swifter czárdás dances. Czárdás is a very popular Hungarian
   folk dance that comes in many regional varieties, and is characterized
   by changes in tempo. Táncház began with the folk song collecting of
   musicians like Béla Halmos and Ferenc Sebő, who collected rural
   instrumental and dance music for popular, urban consumption, along with
   the dance collectors György Martin and Sándor Timár. The most important
   rural source of these songs was Transylvania, which is actually in
   Romania but has a large ethnic Hungarian minority. The instrumentation
   of these bands, based on Transylvanian and sometimes the southern
   Slovak Hungarian communities, included a fiddle on lead with violin and
   bowed bass guitar, sometimes including a cimbalom as well.

   Many of the biggest names in modern Hungarian music emerged from the
   táncház scene, including Muzsikás and Márta Sebestyén. Other bands
   include Vujicsics, Jánosi, Téka and Kalamajka, while singers include
   Éva Fábián and András Berecz. Famous instruments include the fiddler
   Csaba Ökrös, cimbalomist Kálmán Balogh, violinist Félix Lajkó (from
   Subotica in Serbia) and multi-instrumentalist Mihály Dresch.

Classical music

   Hungary's most important contribution to the worldwide field of
   European classical music is probably Franz Liszt, a renowned pianist in
   his own time and a well-regarded composer of Hungarian Rhapsody and Les
   Preludes. Liszt was among the major composers during the late 19th
   century, a time when modern Hungarian classical music was in its
   formative stage. Along with Liszt and his French Romantic tendencies,
   Ferenc Erkel's Italian and French-style operas, with Hungarian words,
   and Mihaly Mosonyi's German classical style, helped set the stage for
   future music, and their influence is "unsurpassed even by their
   successors, because in addition to their individual abilities they
   bring about an unprecedented artistic intensification of the Romantic
   musical idiom, which is practically consumed by this extreme passion" .
   Elements of Hungarian folk music, especially verbunkos, became an
   important elements of many composers, both Hungarians like Kalman
   Simonffy and foreign composers like Ludwig van Beethoven.

   Hungary has also produced Karl Goldmark, composer of the Rustic Wedding
   Symphony, composer and pianist Ernő Dohnányi, composer and
   ethnomusicologist László Lajtha, and the piano composer Stephen Heller.
   A number of violinists from Hungary have also achieved international
   renown, especially Joseph Joachim, Jenő Hubay, Edward Reményi and
   Leopold Auer. Hungarian-born conductors include Antal Doráti, Eugene
   Ormandy, Fritz Reiner, George Szell and Georg Solti.

Hungarian opera

   The origins of Hungarian opera can be traced to the late 18th century,
   with the rise of imported opera and other concert styles in cities like
   Pozsony, Kismarton, Nagyszeben and Budapest. Operas at the time were in
   either the German or Italian style. The field Hungarian opera began
   with school dramas and interpolations of German operas, which began at
   the end of the 18th century. School dramas in places like the Pauline
   School in Sátoraljaújhely, the Calvinist School in Csurgó and the
   Piarist School in Beszterce.

   Pozsony produced the first music drama experiments in the country,
   though the work of Gáspár Pacha and József Chudy; it was the latter's
   1793 Prince Pikkó and Jutka Perzsi that is generally considered the
   first opera in a distinctively Hungarian style. The text of that piece
   was translated from Prinz Schnudi und Prinzessin Evakathel by Philipp
   Hafner. This style was still strongly informed by the Viennese
   Zauberposse style of comedic play, and remained thusly throughout the
   19th century. Though these operas used foreign styles, the "idyllic,
   lyric and heroic" parts of the story were always based on verbunkos,
   which was becoming a symbol of the Hungarian nation during this time.
   It was not until the middle of the 19th century that Ferenc Erkel wrote
   the first Hungarian language opera, using French and Italian models,
   thus launching the field of Hungarian opera.

Bartók and Kodály

   At the end of the 19th century, Hungarian music was dominated by
   compositions in the German classical style, while Viennese-style
   operettas gained immensely in popularity. This ended beginning in about
   1905, when Endre Ady's poems were published, composer Béla Bartók was
   published for the first time, and Zoltán Kodály began collecting folk
   songs. Bartók and Kodály were two exceptional composers who created a
   distinctively Hungarian style. Bartók collected songs across Eastern
   Europe, though much of his activity was in Hungary, and he used their
   elements in his music. He was interested in all forms of folk music,
   while Kodály was more specifically Hungarian in his outlook. In
   contrast to previous composers who worked with Hungarian idioms, Kodály
   and Bartók did not conflate Roma and ethnic Hungarian music,
   specifically seeking out the latter at the expense of the former. Their
   work was a watershed that incorporated "every great tradition of the
   Hungarian people" and influenced all the later composers of the country
   .

Later 20th century

   For the first half of the 20th century, Bartók and Kodály were potent
   symbols for a generation of composers, especially Kodály. Starting in
   about 1947, a revival in folk choir music began, ended as an honest
   force by 1950, when state-run art became dominant with the rise of
   Communism. Under Communism, "(c)ommitment and ideological affiliation
   (were) measured by the musical style of a composer; the ignominious
   adjectives 'formalistic' and 'cosmopolitan' gain currency... (and the
   proper Hungarian style was) identified with the major mode, the
   classical aria, rondo or sonata form, the chord sequences distilled"
   from Kodály's works. Music was uniformly festive and optimistic, with
   every deviation arousing suspicion; this simplicity led to a lack of
   popular support from the public, who did not identify with the sterile
   approved styles. The most prominent composers of this period were Endre
   Szervánszky and Lajos Bárdos

   Beginning in about 1955, a new wave of composers appeared, inspired by
   Bartók and breathing new life into Hungarian music. Composers from this
   era included Ferenc Szabó, Endre Szervánszky, Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Farkas
   and György Ránki. These composers both brought back old techniques of
   Hungarian music, as well as adapting imported avant-garde and modernist
   elements of Western classical music. The foundation of the New Music
   Studio in 1970 helped further modernize Hungarian classical music
   though promoting composers that felt audience education was as
   important a consideration as artistic merit in composition and
   performance; these Studio's well-known composers include László
   Vidovszky, Barnabás Dukay and Zoltán Jeney.

Popular music

   Hungarian popular music in the early 20th century consisted of light
   operettas and the Roma music of various styles. Nagymező utca, the "
   Broadway of Budapest", was a major centre for popular music, and
   boasted enough nightclubs and theaters to earn its nickname. In 1945,
   however, this era abruptly ended and popular music was mostly
   synonymous with the patriotic songs imposed by the Russian Communists.
   Some operettas were still performed, though infrequently, and any music
   with Western influences was seen as harmful and dangerous. In 1956,
   however, liberalization began with the "three Ts" (tűrés, tiltás,
   támogatás, meaningtoleration, prohibition, support), and a long period
   of cultural struggle began, starting with a battle over African
   American jazz. Jazz became a part of Hungarian music in the early 20th
   century, but did not achieve widespread renown until the 1970s, when
   Hungary began producing internationally known performers like the Benko
   Dixieland Band and Bela Szakcsi Lakatos.

Rock

   Rock and roll was an originally African American style that was later
   appropriated by white musicians in the United States, United Kingdom
   and across much of the world. In the early 1960s, Hungarian youths
   began listening to rock in droves, in spite of condemnation from the
   authorities. Three bands dominated the scene by the beginning of the
   1970s, Illés, Metró and Omega, all three of which had released at least
   one album. A few other bands recorded a few singles, but the
   Record-Producing Company, a state-run record label, did not promote or
   support these bands, which quickly disappeared.

   In 1968, the New Economic Mechanism was introduced, intending on
   revitalizing the Hungarian economy, while the band Illés won almost
   every prize at the prestigious Táncdal Fesztivál. In the 70s, however,
   the Russians cracked down on subversives in Hungary, and rock was a
   major target. The band Illés was banned from performing and recording,
   while Metró and Omega left. Some of the members of these bands formed a
   supergroup, Locomotiv GT, that quickly became very famous. The
   remaining members of Omega, meanwhile, succeeded in achieving stardom
   in Germany, and remained very popular for a time.

   Rock bands in the late 1970s had to conform to the Record Company's
   demands and ensure that all songs passed the inspection of the Song
   Committee, who scoured all songs looking for ideological disobedience.
   LGT was the most prominent band of a classic rock style that was very
   popular, along with Illés, Bergendy and Zorán, while there were other
   bands like The Sweet and Middle of the Road who catered to the desires
   of the Song Committee, producing rock-based pop music without a hint of
   subversion. Meanwhile, the disco style of electronic music produced
   such performers as the officially-sanctioned Neoton Familia, and
   Beatrice and Szűcs Judit, while the more critically acclaimed
   progressive rock scene produced bands like East, V73, Colour and Panta
   Rhei.

   In the early 1980s, economic and cultural depression wracked Hungary,
   leading to a wave of disillusioned and alienated youth, exactly the
   people that rock, and the burgeoning worldwide field of punk rock,
   spoke to the most. Major bands from this era included Beatrice, who had
   moved from disco to punk and folk-influenced rock and were known for
   their splashy, uncensored and theatrical performances, P. Mobil, Hobo
   Blues Band, a bluesy duo, Bizottság and Edda művek.

   The 1980s saw the Record Production Company broken up because Hungary's
   authorities realized that restricting rock was not effective in
   reducing its effect; they instead tried to water it down by encouraging
   young musicians to sing about the principles of Communism and
   obedience. The early part of the decade saw the arrive of punk and New
   Wave music in full force, and the authorities quickly incorporated
   those styles as well. The first major prison sentences for rock-related
   subversion were given out, with the members of the punk band CPg
   sentenced to two years for political incitement.

   By the end of the decade and into the 1990s, internal problems made it
   impossible for the Hungarian government to counter the activities of
   rock and other musical groups. After the collapse of the Communist
   government, the Hungarian scene become more and more like the styles
   played in the rest of Europe.

Festivals, venues and other institutions

   Budapest, the capital and music centre of Hungary, is one of the best
   places to go in Hungary to hear "really good folk music", says world
   music author Simon Broughton. The city is home to an annual folk
   festival called Táncháztalálkozó (Meeting of the Dance Houses), which
   is a major part of the modern music scene. The Sziget Festival, held
   annually in July or August, is one of Europe's largest cultural
   festival with wide range of musical performances. Long-standing venues
   in Budapest include the Philharmonic Society (founded 1853), the Opera
   House of Budapest (founded 1884) the Academy of Music, which opened in
   1875 with President Franz Liszt and Director Ferenc Erkel and which has
   remained the centre for music education in the country since.

   The Hungarian Ministry of Culture helps to fund some forms of music, as
   does the government-run National Cultural Fund. Non-profit
   organizations in Hungary include the Hungarian Jazz Alliance and the
   Hungarian Music Council.

                           Music of Central Europe

   Austria - Czech Republic - Germany - Hungary - Liechtenstein - Poland -
                      Slovakia - Slovenia - Switzerland

                              Finno-Ugric music

     Estonia - Finland ( Karelia - Lapland) - Hungary - Khantia-Mansia -
          Komi Republic - Mari El - Mordovia - Nenetsia - Udmurtia

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