The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1891-03-26
HUNGARIAN MUSIC.
Its Powerful Influence Over the Native
Peasaufry.

HUNGARIAN MUSIC.
It's Powerful Influence Over the Native
Peasantry.
The national spirit pcrvadcs the an
Gent Hungarian church music, and
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 folk-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 mclo-
dies that the obedicnt 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
. pair Of treacherous brown eyes
Mighty Austria suffered more defeats in
1882. thanks to the Rakozy. Hunyady,
kossnth and klapka marches, than
through the inability of her proud gen
erals.
OF q more recent date may be men
toned the following incident: 1t was in
1859. during the occupation of Bosnia.
The battle of Maglaj was raging. The
enemy. well protected in its fortified POI
sition, repulsed the repeated attacks of
the third escadron of heavy dragons
tHohemians1. who, disheartened and
dccimated, retreated in wild disorder
Defeat seemed to be inevitable. Captain
Millinkovic's presence of mind babe him
to call in the second escadron Of the
Thirteenth regiment of Hungarian hus-
sars. Using no cloqEcnce. 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 put Of their hundred survived
the carnage. they dislodgcd the enemy
and woi the battle.
When in 1919. after the country's vic
torious self-defcnse. the magnaninity
of Russian hordes intrusted hungary to
the fatherly care of defeated Austria
whose patronage. bravery and civiliza-
tory fervor tlourished upon the gallows
and in dungeons. and the very utterance
of the names of the nations deeapitated
heroic martyrs became Majestatsver-
brechen (crime against his majesty,
and punished accordingly: when all the
refinements of the Spanish Inquisition,
revived and improved upon, were the
masters of the day: properties contis-
| Gated. the language suppressed. and
| monrnful 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
"HASI III dliCNidteS
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,
very often their own. One might
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 tMagyar) peasantry may be
naive in text and musica. 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
feart's share to the new song. they all
will sing it. spread it. and by and-by the
whole country re-ccho with it. 1t is
then that this crystallized essence of so
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 they9 Have they joined some trav-
cling breezes laden with seeds of wild
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.
Homes 1Iada Cabinet