Beyond “Gypsy” Stereotypes: Harmony and Structure in the Verbunkos Idiom

Abstract

Verbunkos elements were incorporated into European concert music, to a large extent, in order to represent “Gypsy” exoticism or Hungarian nationalism. Yet this representational impetus does not tell us enough about the transcultural influence of the verbunkos idiom during the long nineteenth century: What were its discrete musical qualities and how have these qualities interacted with composers' thinking and techniques? An examination of representative music—particularly that of Franz Liszt—reveals little-known harmonic practices and structural principles whose obscurity belies their importance to innovative composers, and by extension, to compositional developments in the nineteenth century.