Hungarian Folksongs [antikvár]

The purpose and method of publishing folksongs may be twofold. First, to concentrate on gathering allsongs sprung from the people, considering completeness as the main aim, the individual values of thevarious songs being no object. Such a collection is something of a "comprehensive dictionary of folk-songs". The arrangement of its material should preferably imitate that of a dictionary, too. The bestexample of this kind so far is the Finnish folksong collection edited by Ilmari Krohn (Sus men Kansansávelmiá. Up to 1906 4 booklets). The songs were published in one part, in a carefully written authenticnotation, indicating all the variants. Nothing but a similar collection can serve as a basis for a scholarlystudy of folksongs.The other purpose of publishing folksongs is to introduce them to the public at large and to encouragedeveloping a taste for them. Naturally, for this purpose a "comprehensive dictionary" is not a suitablemeans, since it contains veritable gems and simple uninteresting pieces side by side.A meticulous selection is needed, and the choice pieces should be presented in a musical arrangementin order to make them more palatable to the taste of the public. If brought in from the fields into thetowns, folksongs have to be dressed up. However, attired in their new habit, they might seem shy andout of place. One must take care to cut their new clothes so as not to cramp their fresh country style.Whether arranged for choir or for the piano, the accompaniment should merely try to conjure up theimage of fields and villages left behind. As for the authenticity of the melodies, the songs of the popularedition should not be second to those of the complete one.Naturally, the first kind of publication presupposes that the work of collecting the material has beencompleted. In Hungary, where this work has scarcely begun, we cannot even think of it for some timeto come. However, selecting the pick of the crop can be commenced from the very beginning. The pres-ent edition contains such selected songs, hand-picked for the general public. By turning the entire incomeof this edition to the sole purpose of collecting folksongs, the first aim is also furthered.A part of the 20 songs was taken from the recordings of Béla Vikár, an old enthusiastic collector ofHungarian folklore, acknowledgements are due to him for his kind permission to submit them; the otherpart of the collection was selected from the songs we have collected ourselves in our recent endeavoursin this line. In consideration of the practice in this country, the melodies were also introduced into theaccompaniment. In the subsequent booklets (their publication will depend on the results of the collectingtours), we shall not adhere to this practice at all times, since we wish to supply melodies to be sung andnot to be played on the piano.May these ancient manifestations of the spirit of our folk meet with half the amount of appreciationthey deserve! It will take a long time before they can take their due place in our musical life, both in thehomes and in public concert halls. The greater part of present-day Hungarian society is not Hungarianenough, nor naive enough and, on the other hand, not well-educated enough for these songs to find theirway into the heart of these people. Hungarian folksongs in the concert halls! Sounds rather preposteroustoday. To be ranked with the master pieces of song literature on a world scale and also with the folksongsof foreign nations! But, time will come when Hungarian music-making at home has become a common prac-tice, and Hungarian families will not be content with the low music-hall songs imported from abroad,or with the imitation folksongs turned out in cheap series at home. Then we shall have Hungariansingers to sing our folksongs. By that time not only a mere handful of connoisseurs will know that thereexists another kind of Hungarian folksong than the "Ritka búza" and "Ityóka-pityóka" type of shampopular songs.Budapest, September, 1906.Béla BartókZoltán Kodály Ph. D.