The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-05-21
HUNGARIAN MUSIC.
It's Powerful Influence Over the Natlv
Peasantry.

RGaSanGrys
The national spirit pervades the an
cient Hungarian church music, and
colors the priests Grafton during high
mass even to-day. Our ancient chant
to St. Elizabeth fused by Liszt's as one
of the principal motives in his oratorio
Legend of st. Elizabeth) might be the
mother of some of our follx-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 hurricane at
the hearing of certain patriotic songs,
or such that may recall the memory OF
a pair of treacherous brown eyes.
Mighty Austria suffered more defeats in
1889, thanks to the Rakozy, 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 bade 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 1S49, after the country's vic
torious self-defense, the magnanimity
of Russian hordes intrusted Hungary to
the fatherly care of defeated Austria,
whose patronage, bravery and civiliza-
tory fervor fourished upon the gallows
and In dungeons, and the very utterance
of the names of the nations decapitated
heroic martyrs became a Majestatsver-
brechen (crime against his majesty,
and punished accordingly; when all the
refnements of the Spanish Inquisition,
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 its 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
1 harv,~, ~. 1oVya-I0c% lad ~. IoSo s;v,nr. %t,a
hearts exuberance in appropriate song
very often their own. One might
say that every single folk-sone
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) peasantry may be
naive in text and musical construction
but while almost never sinking intC
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 tn,
whole village having added its ow1
hearts share to the new song, they al
viii sing it, spread it, and by 'and-by tht
whole country re-echo with it. It il
then that this crystallized essence Of 81
many heart throbs and tears, trans
formed into precious pearl, enters tht
treasury of Hungarian folk-songs, anG
becomes the nations property.
But the two brown eyes which strucl
the first spark, and the loving hear
which nurtured it into the glowing frs
two or four lines, and the others, wher,
are they? Have they joined some trav
cling breezes laden with seeds of wilt
flowers 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 Hint to Landlords.
Stranger-How is it that you charg
me three dollars day instead of one
the usual price?