THE AMERICAN-HUNGARIAN FOLK-SONG

Abstract

C a .OR Ages has the Lord punished you oh Magyar and yet the Hungarians are one of the greatest of the singing people. The Hungarian awakes with song and sings himself to sleep; song is his companion in work and misery, nay, even at burials the song plays a most important role. In the grim struggle for existence the Hungarian race dropped somewhat behind its Western neighbors in the development of culture and sciences, but the primitive power of the race lies beneath the surface, and under favorable peaceful conditions this will help it to overtake its neighbors, who can thank the Hungarians partly for the long peaceful periods which made the handicap possible. One cannot but admire their inclination for song, when one considers that but very little was inherited by later generations from the primitive poetry of the race. The early nomad tribes of Magyars were subjected to a cumpulsory missionary influence which went far toward extinguishing their keen appreciation of naive but powerfully poetic instincts. Notwithstanding this, here and there one can still find traces of this unique and forceful poetry in their later folk-songs, giving ample proof of the beautiful esthetic riches which were most common with these nomads.