Abstract
The Hungarian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric linguistic family, but several pre-Conquest strata of Hungarian folk music are connected to Turkic groups. Intrigued by this phenomenon, Hungarian folk music researchers launched thorough comparative examinations. Investigations authenticated by fieldwork have also been ongoing to the present day, parallel to theoretical research. Initially, the main goal was to explore the eastern relations of Hungarian folk music, which gradually broadened into the areal research of the Volga-Kama-Belaya region. I further expanded this work to encompass the comparative investigation of Turkic-speaking groups living over the vast Eurasian territory. This paper provides a summary of the findings of this field research examining the folk music of Anatolian Turk, Azeri, Karachay, Kazakh, Turkmen, Uzbek and Kyrgyz people. I briefly describe the sources, the fieldwork, the methods of processing the collected material, and most interestingly, I summarize new findings. After providing an overview of traditional songs of several Turkic peoples, selected results are provided in three tables: 1) a grouping of Turkic folk-music repertoires; 2) Turkic parallels to Hungarian folk music styles; and 3) the current state of Turkic folk music research conducted by Hungarian scholars.
Highlights
Hungarian prehistory demonstrates a peculiar duality of language and music: the language belongs to the Finno-Ugric family, while several pre-Conquest strata of Hungarian folk music are connected to Turkic groups
Katalin Paksa studied the eastern relations of Hungarian narrow-range tetra- and pentatonic tunes.[5] (This outline mentions only the most significant scholars.)
In keeping with the integrity of Hungarian folk music research, investigations authenticated by fieldwork have been ongoing to this day, parallel with theoretical research
Summary
My long-term research goal is to categorize and compare, by musical criteria, the traditional songs of Turkic groups and other ethnicities living amongst and around them. Systematized archives for the investigation of Azeri, Karachay-Balkar, Kyrgyz, Aday and Mongolian Kazakh, Turkmen and Sufi Islamic music did not exist, while the Anatolian and Kazakh collections were barely accessible Contributing to this situation, the latter material was poorly annotated; basic genres were missing such as laments, lullabies, and religious folk tunes. The resulting Turkic folk music collections of the Anatolian Turkish, Sufi Turkish Bektashi of Thrace, Azeri, Turkmen, Uzbek and Tadjik, Karachay-Balkar, Kazakh and Kyrgyz, rely on the material of my expeditions, as well as incorporating the Turkic groups in the region demarcated by the Volga, Kama and Belaya, which draw on the works of Vargyas and Vikár (listed in notes 3 and 7)
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