Folk Music of the Hungarians

by Lajos Vargyas, Judit Pokoly

This is a translation of a work first published in 1981, synthesizing research done on Hungarian folk music by Hungarian ethnomusicologists. Detailed discussions address characteristics of the music--melody, tonality, rhythm and meter; form; performance; instrumental music; text; variation; folksong types; and music in peasant societies. A collection of folksong tunes and texts by category takes up the second half of the book, along with English translations. Indexes are by subject, first line, cadences, syllable numbers, genre, and name, as well as references to tunes mentioned in the text. A CD includes some of the songs and other works by the author. The research is scholarly, but the translation includes some strange sentence structures and word choices. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005