Istvan Pavai: Hungarian Folk Dance Music of Transylvania – Review

Abstract

Among the territories of the Carpathian Basin inhabited by Hungarians, Transylvania proved to be the most suitable field for the interethnic research of the music related to choreographic folklore. Most professional musicians in the rural areas, who receive regular or intermittent payment in money or other forms of remuneration, are of Romani ethnicity. The existence of musical instruments in the accompaniment of dances is richly documented since the 15th and 16th centuries. Hungarian ethnochoreology defines three types of musical accompaniments for the dances: rhythmic accompaniment (without melody), merely melodic accompaniment, and complex accompaniment created by the combination the first two types. A number of accompaniment types, considered ideal by local communities, had been established. These include the duos flute–gardon, fiddle–gardon (the gardon/gordunǎ being a stringed percussion instrument), fiddle or flute with koboz/cobzǎ, the trios made up of violin–cimbalom/ţambal–bass, or fiddle–kontra–double bass, the most common band consisting of a fiddle, a three-stringed kontra with flat bridge, and a bass (without cimbalom/ţambal). The rhythmic formulae provided by these instrumental ensembles specialized in accompaniment-playing constitute the musical support of the dances, at the same time they play an important role in defining the dance types. The three main types of rhythmic accompaniment are: slow dűvő/duva (in quarters), fast dűvő/duva (in eighths) and the estam (produced by eighth notes, alternately played by different instruments). The musical folklore of Transylvania inherited several principles of harmonization, such as the drone/ison principle, various forms of heterophony, polyphony focused on pivotal melodic notes, the accompaniment with mixtures of major triads, and the tonal-functional harmonization.