Hungarian Music Quarterly 1/1989 [antikvár]

Dear Reader, The Hungarian Music Quarterly has been launched on its way, not without thorough preparation. Even if this event is somewhat belated considering our original intention, its chance tinning could not be more auspicious. Today, when this Central- or East-European country which has shrunk to the size of a man's palm but which endures and wants to live is seeking its identity, its place in Europe and in the world of culture, when in spite of the disadvantages deriving from its geographical position and the blows inflicted on it by history it is trying to keep pace with our high-speed age, when the attention of the most diverse parts of the world is focussed on its struggles and its talent, such an initiative justly deserves interest and response. However, our journal was not brought into being by the present political, social and economic processes. Hungarian music culture has long lacked the necessary wider publicity it deserves. In the course of our history, both in the last few decades and throughout earlier centuries a tendency has developed for our best musicians — performers and composers — to make their homes in richer western countries with a higher level of culture. The world music culture of our century is full of conductors, instrumentalists and teachers of Hungarian origin. Their activities have received the publicity they deserved in various artistic centres in the west. If we wish' to halt or at least to slow down this tendency if we want to preserve the best for ourselves, then we have to create the same publicity for those whose activities are partly or wholly bound up with this their homeland. It was only out of necessity and temporari- ly, as far as he intended, that Bartók left his homeland towards the end of his life. Kodály lived and worked here till his death. Still in a certain sense their life-work had to go into exile. Neither of them managed to find his "Ricordi" in Hungary, as Verdi managed to do in Italy in his day; both of them had to turn to foreign publishers for the publicity they needed. Editio Música Budapest feels it has a mission to establish this missing forum. Its international connections, which have expanded steadily in the last two decades, and its increasing fame and prestige enable it to do so. Through our publications we have introduced to the whole music world the works of noted composers, scholars, music teachers and music experts, the majority of them Hungarian. This periodical is an organic continuation of and supplement to this activity of ours and we rightly expect it to enhance the reputation of our country, our musicians and this publishing house. We want to open a window through which the cultured world can have a glimpse of the life of music culture in this country and our musicians can look out on the world. We would like to give an account of all the domestic phenomena and events that a foreigner might find interesting, and all the foreign phenomena and events that have some kind of Hungarian aspect. We don't wish to increase the number of Hungarian illusions but to strengthen our sense of reality. We don't claim to be a great power in music but we would certainly like to be a significant factor in the music culture of our time. Our publishing house would like this venture to help to achieve this aim. István Homolya Managing Director of EMB