Submitted Papers - 2016

Traditions for Sale

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Traditions for Sale (1996) is a 50-minute documentary directed and edited by folklorist and filmmaker Sally Gati, focusing on some very special folk artists living in an area of Hungary known as Matyó. Hungary had already been looking westward when the Berlin Wall fell in l989, so for the traditional arts, Hungarian capitalism signaled the loss of government support. The village folk artists realized they would have to be entrepreneurial and sell the work themselves. It was not such an easy transition, but they did it. You will meet some very talented folk artists. We talk to a woman who creates the designs. We see older women who make the detailed embroidery goods to be sold in souvenir shops in their own town and in Budapest. We meet a woodcarver who makes furniture to sell overseas, and we watch his son paint the colorful flowers that will decorate items to be sold in their folk art store. We also hear lively Hungarian folk music as young costumed men and women put on a wedding for tourists. Spurred on by the marketplace, we see the dynamics of folklore and the revival of cultural traditions. It is a document with historical roots as well as present-day significance.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Sally Gáti received her Master of Arts degree from the Ethnographic film program at University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1969. She was a language instructor at City College of San Francisco until her retirement in 2012. Sally Gáti's documentary video productions include Traditions for Sale (1996), STARTING OVER IN AMERICA: The Story of the Hungarian 56ers (2003), BAY CITY LUV: Singin’ ‘n Livin’ on the Edge (2005), DAN CYTRON: One Artist’s POV (2011), ABOUT MY FATHER Sam Cytron: A Life in Music (2013). http://gatiproductions.blogspot.com/

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Interpretive Fidelity to Gypsy Creativity: Liszt’s Representations of Hungarian-Gypsy Cimbalom Playing

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies I–XV (1846–1853) draw our attention immediately to the pianist-composer’s indulging in showmanship through the predominant display of technical brilliance. At the other end of the spectrum of his Rhapsodies, nevertheless, Liszt faithfully emulates the elements of Hungarian popular Gypsy bands. Then what is the meaning of his fidelity to Gypsy-band music in the midst of these highly brilliant piano pieces? Throughout his Rhapsodies, Liszt effectively captures the distinctive sounds and effects of cimbalom playing in his creative pianistic renderings. Liszt’s own remarks on the cimbalom in his Des bohémiens (1859) and his continuous relationships with cimbalom players, makers, and pedagogues provide context for his connections to the instrument. The contemporary articles about the cimbalom evocations, “Die Musik der Ungarn” from Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (1852), as well as the method book Cimbalom iskola [Cimbalom School] (1889) by Géza Allaga provide useful examples to explore several essential techniques of the cimbalom in a systematic manner. Liszt’s renderings evoke five salient features associated with the instrument’s timbres and techniques: (1) visually stunning cimbalom trills, (2) rebounding hammers on the cimbalom, (3) the unique texture of the cimbalom when it interacts with the violinist, and (4) cimbalom improvisation. All of his cimbalom evocations illuminate how meticulously Liszt expresses each technique and effect with a particular type of notation and how convincingly his reworking methods approximate the instrument’s distinctive sounds and techniques. The result of his reworkings is a skillful coalescence of his sensitive attention to the integrity of the instrument and his inventive pianistic solutions.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Hyun Joo Kim received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in musicology from Indiana University. Her dissertation, “The Dynamics of Fidelity and Creativity: Liszt’s Reworkings of Orchestral and Gypsy-Band Music” (December 2015), is a study of Franz Liszt and musical borrowing. She minored in music theory and also studied piano performance at IU with the celebrated pianist Edward Auer. Her current research focuses primarily on keyboard music, musical borrowing, sound reproduction, and Hungarian-Gypsy [Romani]-style music. She is writing a book that analyzes Liszt’s approach to instrumental timbres on the keyboard, drawing on parallels between piano sound reproduction and its counterpart in the visual arts.

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High Stakes Cultural Politics: The Cold War and the New York Bartók Estate in the 1950s

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Béla Bartók lived in the New York City area for the last five years of his life. His American estate dates its origins to 1943, when he entrusted his music manuscript collection to the care of two fellow Hungarian émigrés, Gyula Báron and Victor Bator, both then living in the United States. After his death, in September 1945, the estate devolved into their care. By 1960, thanks to Bator’s astute management, the Bartók estate had become one of the largest collections of unique autograph materials anywhere in the world devoted to a single artistic figure – a cultural treasure of intense interest for Hungarians and for the Hungarian Communist government.
The onset of Cold War politics in the late 1940s presented numerous challenges to the estate, particularly when its beneficiaries – Bartók’s two sons and wife -- became separated by the Iron Curtain. Documents and letters recently located in Massachusetts allow us to reconstruct the inner workings of the Bartók estate for the first time. Victor Bator emerges as a fierce defender of democratic ideals, recognized by President Harry Truman as an important ally in the American foreign relations battle against Communism. As I’ll demonstrate, Bator neatly parried attempts by the Communist party to gain control over the estate and its royalty stream in international courts. The New York Bartók Estate emerges as another important arena for Cold War cultural battles in the 1950s and 60s.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Carl Leafstedt is a music historian on the faculty of the Music Department of Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He received his Ph.D. in music from Harvard University. He has taught at Southwestern University, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Duke University. He’s been on the faculty at Trinity University since 2001. His book on Bartók’s opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was published by Oxford University Press. From 2005-7 he served as President of the Southwest Chapter of the American Musicological Society.

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