The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-03-20
HUNGARIAN MUSIC.
rs Powerful Influence Over the Natiy
Ps3santry.

colors the priests Grafton during high
mass even to-day. Our ancient chant
to st. Elizabeth fused by LISTS as one
of the principal motives in his oratorio
Legend of st. Elizabeth) might be the
mother of some of our folll-songs. those
songs which from the cradle to the end
remain the peoples faithful friend. Their
power seems to be omniptotent, and
their sway irresistible. The wild and
untamed son of the ''puszta" (plains)
will listen in tears to the pathetic melo-
dies that the obedient gypsy plays for
him, and the peaceful peasant farmer
may be transformed into a hurricane at
the hearing of certain patriotic songs,
or such that may recall the memory of
pair of treacherous brown eyes.
Mighty Austria suffered more defeats in
1889, thanks to the RalSozy, Hunyady,
Kossuth and Klapka marches, than
through the inability of her proud gen.
erals.
Of more recent date may be men
toned the following incident: 1t was in
1889, during the occupation of Bosnia.
| The battle of Maglaj was raging. The
enemy, well protected in its fortified po
sition, repulsed the repeated attacks Of
the third escadron Of heavy dragons
| (Bohemians), who, disheartened and
| decimated, retreated in wild disorder.
Defeat seemed to be inevitable. Captain
Millinkovie's presence of mind babe him
to call in the second escadron of the
Thirteenth regiment of hungarian hus-
sars. Using no eloquence, no encour-
aging word, he simply ordered the band
to play three Hungarian melodies for
them. The laundering hurrah which
drowned the songs last chord led the
lads into the fire, 'and although only
| twenty out of their hundred survived
the carnage, they dislodged the enemy
and won the battle.
When in 1919, after the country's vic
torious self-defense, the magnanimity
of Russian hordes intrusted Hungary to
the fatherly cara of defeated Austria,
whose patronage, bravery and civiliza-
tory fervor tiourished upon the gallows
and in dungeons, and the very utterance
of the names of the nation decapitated
heroic martyrs became Majestatsver-
brechen (crime against his majesty,
and punished accordingly: when all the
refnements of the Spanish 1nquisition,
revived and improved upon, were the
masters of the day; properties confs-
Gated, the language suppressed, and
mournful silence accompanied the ma
tons requiem-song was still soaring
in the air.
The love songs, those genuine poems
OF nature, renewing and arraying them
selves in eternal youth and variety,
kept on eXhaling the perfume of the
fields, and the spirit of sincerity, warmth
and truth. The corn fields; the flowers
the maidens' brown eyes, or the stars in
heaven; the sunlight upon the plains,
with it's fairy structure the Fata Nor
CANA, finishing the horizon; the myster.
les of night in mountain and forest; the
heroic brigand, who single-handed com
bats armed soldiers to capture the horse
which strikes his fancy, or alleviates
the rich nobleman's purse to give its
contents to the poor; the rushing waters
of the Tisza river, or the fiery juice OF
the country's wine, and the almighty
power of song-they are all subjects
and elements existing merely to glorify
the bliss couched in pair of brown
eyes, or to bewail deception and misery
that lie buried in them. Love and song
complete each other as melody and har-
mony. The yearning, the detected, the
happy or love-lost lad or lass, sings the
hearts exuberance in appropriate song,
hA, IL
say that every single folk-song
is the singing, ringing testament
of some actual love drama. Those
immediate and sincere creations of such
unspoiled and vigorous children of nature
as are to be found among the real Hun
garian (Magyar) peasantrS may be
naive in text and musical construction,
but while almost never sinking into
valgarity, they are true and original.
Their growth and development occur
frequently in the following manner:
The first two or four lines of newly
blossoming song will usually challenge
an appropriate sequence of so many
lines and bars in some sympathetically
afflicted companion, whose contribution
may be augmented by others, until the
whole village having added it's own
carts share to the new song, they all
will sing it, spread it, and by 'and-by the
whole country re-echo with it. 1t is
then that this crystallized essence of 50
many heart throbs and tears, trans
formed into precious pearl, enters the
treasury of Hungarian folk-songs, and
becomes the nations property.
But the two brown eyes which struck
the first spark, and the loving heart
which nurtured it into the glowing first
Two or four lines, and the others, where
are they? Have they joined some tray
cling breezes laden with seeds of wild
lowers to re-blossom somewhere else?
Or have they vanished into oblivion,
simply to make room for others to come?
Francis Korbay, in Harper's Maya
zine.
A Homemade Cabinet.
A knack at doing things" has such
money value that very satisfactory
results in household furnishings are
often reached with small outlay.
With the aid of a carpenter, very pretty