L’ambassadeur parisien de la nouvelle musique hongroise, Géza Vilmos Zágon Sa carrière et sa correspondance choisie

Abstract

A forgotten figure of the new Hungarian musical movement of the 1910s, Géza Vilmos Zágon (1889–1918) was a talented composer, pianist and music writer. He belonged among those young composers who turned toward French culture instead of the traditional German orientation and searched for new inspiration in Paris. He was, at the same time, one of the few to be personally acquainted with leading personalities of the city’s musical life: letters by Claude Debussy, Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, Louis Laloy, Émile Vuillermoz and Albert Zunz Mathot have survived in his legacy. During his stay in France between 1912 and 1914, he acted as the representant of the former UMZE (Új Magyar Zene Egyesület, New Hungarian Music Association), and did not only bring attention to himself as a performer of his own works, but was also instrumental in promoting those by Bartók and Kodály. In the present study, I seek to demonstrate that Zágon served as an important liaison for Bartók’s circle with some of the most influential groups of French avant-garde, the Société Musicale Indépendante, as well as Calvocoressi. In an effort to document these important relationships as well as Zágon’s activity, I publish a selection of his correspondence in original language, with French translation provided where appropriate.