Accepted Abstracts

Workshop:Hungarian Folk Singing (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Held in English, this traditional Hungarian folk singing workshop is open to participants of all musical and language backgrounds. The beautiful songs will be taught directly from village source recordings, as famously collected by Bartók and Kodály, and materials include printed Hungarian song lyrics, English translations, and background information on the songs and style. The workshop is held by Zina Bozzay, active teacher of Hungarian folk songs in both the US and Hungary, known for her accessible teaching style, academic rigor, and contagious enthusiasm.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Zina Bozzay is an active performer, researcher, arranger, and teacher of traditional Hungarian village folk songs. Trained in Hungary by master folk singers, Zina collects from last living village singers who learned in the oral tradition. She founded the Hungarian Folk Singing Circle in San Francisco and has taught thousands of Hungarian speakers and non-speakers from six continents for a decade in the US and Hungary, including at the Hungarian Heritage House in Budapest. Zina holds a Masters degree in Music Composition and tours internationally with her ensemble Vadalma, performing her acclaimed original arrangements. www.zinabozzay.com.

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Liszt the European and His Transylvanian Rhapsody: An Idyll of Intercultural Harmony (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Ferenc Liszt, the Hungarian who spoke hardly any Hungarian, was a committed pan-European. For example, he composed songs to texts from the literatures and in the languages of Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Hungary, Russia – and even America. Of course, he supported Hungarian political goals, but especially charitable and cultural goals. His most famous works include his series of Hungarian Rhapsodies (published as Rhapsodies hongroises, S. 244). Still obscure – partly because of their extreme technical difficulty – is his earlier set, published as Magyar dalok és magyar rapszodiak, S. 242. One of these latter, no. 20, deserves special attention. Its first publication in 1936 was entitled “Rumanian Rhapsody.” Upon inspection, it contains Hungarian themes (of urban café origin) and a Transylvanian Saxon march Liszt calls a “Hermannstädter.” And it contains the most remarkable theme of all, an authentic Romanian folk shepherd tune he titles “Walachische Melodie,” set in harmonic and pianistic colors that would not be written again until Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, many decades later. Liszt develops and combines these themes in a manner idealizing the potential harmony between three cultures, in what is neither a Hungarian nor a Romanian rhapsody, but truly a Transylvanian one. He epitomizes the concept of a harmonious cultural crossroads and presents a musical vision of the human ideals at the center of the European Union project, one to set beside the EU anthem, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy with its alle Menschen werden Brüder. Musical excerpts will illustrate the talk.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Peter Czipott (B.A. 1975, physics, University of California, San Diego; Ph.D. 1983, physics, UCSD) has had four decades’ experience in R&D and management of projects, personnel and intellectual property. He has contributed in areas ranging from oceanography of the Arctic Ocean to development of sensors for detection of threats and contraband, medical diagnostics, and nondestructive evaluation. He holds 12 patents and is co-author of over 40 technical publications. He is a literary translator with three book-length publications and two more seeking a publisher, plus over thirty shorter translations and scholarly articles. He is a 2010 Balassi Memorial Medallion laureate.

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Hungarian-American Music and Dance Event in Seattle 2020: Journey of a Project (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
I engaged Molnár Viktor, composer and pianist, graduate of Liszt Ferenc
Zeneművészeti Egyetem, to write a piano piece for dance. As the choreographer,
I requested a blend of traditional Hungarian Folkdance music and music
reflecting contemporary artistic trends in Hungary. Through my dance
interpretation of this unique and beautiful music composition, I aim to enlighten
American audience members about Hungarian artistic traditions and transitions.
The project's music and dance themes deal with human beings' sense of place
and displacement. This is an exploration of the role that folk music and dance
play in connecting people across generations, cultures, trends, and nations. As
lives move forward through time and space, traditions must not only be
remembered, they must be carried along for the ride.
From concept to inception to completion of the project, nearly a year and a half
will have passed. Many supporters, artistic and logistic, have eagerly jumped on
board to help me realize this project. The composer will perform with dancers on
stage, and he will give a separate piano concert for the Hungarian American
Association of Washington in April and May 2020.
This paper will chronicle the process, production, and reflections of the artists,
planners, and supporters in Hungary and the U.S. It will demonstrate the power
of art to create greater understanding and build relationships across cultures and
generations.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Claudia Lawrey Dancer, Choreographer, Dance Arts Educator. MFA, MA, University of Arizona;
BA in Dance, Point Park University. Extensive choreography in Opera, Musical
Theatre, Concert Dance. Dance History scholar. Taught Jazz Dance at The
Academy of The Hungarian State Ballet. Professor of Dance: The University of
Tennessee, La Roche College, Penn State University, Point Park University,
Montgomery College, Bellevue College. Co-author of book: From Paris to
Pittsburgh, My Life in Dance. Presented paper at Hawaii International
Conference on The Arts and Humanities: "Dances at the Wedding of Lucrezia
Borgia and Alfonzo d'Este". Performance collaborations with poets, composers,
cinematographers.

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Viennese-Hungarian Operetta and its Dance Music (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
It is well-known that Viennese-Hungarian operetta was one of the most popular musical-dramatic productions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its musical structure had included different types of dance music. Furthermore, the music could reflect on the ethnical and cultural variety of the Empire. That type of reflection had represented the ideological contrast between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. Although in the history of the genre, the connection between dance music and politics had started when the structure and the functions of French operetta have been inventing by composer Jacques Offenbach and his contemporaries in the 1850s, and the Viennese-Hungarian composers had followed that pattern. The presentation tries to investigate the roles of the dance music in a historical perspective among the structure of Viennese-Hungarian operettas.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Emese Lengyel holds a BA degree in the field of Communication and Media, and studies Ethnology and Folkloristics at University of Debrecen (Hungary). Her research interest includes 20th-century Viennese and Hungarian operetta, specifically its music and dance. She also investigates 19th-and 20th-century Hungarian comic opera and folk drama. She has received the New National Excellence Program’s research scholarship three times (2017/2018, 2018/2019, 2019/2020). She is a member of University of Debrecen Talent Management Program (DETEP), Imre Bán College for Advanced Studies in Cultural Studies, and István Hatvani College for Advanced Studies.

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„We never had that much chance” National Narratives in Albums of Beatrice, Edda and Omega Bands, after 1990 (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
My lecture is part of a broader research in connection with the national narratives of Hungarian popular music between the sixties and the eighties. The examination uses statements, terms and approaches of nationalism theory (“everyday nationalism”) and cultural studies, and it attempts to show, from these perspectives, different actualisations of the Hungarian national history, national identity and nationalism in the generational rock music of the Kádár-era. Beyond the time period from the middle of the 60s to the end of the 80s, my analysis extends to the popular musical tendencies of the post-communist era (1990–) and deals with representations of the national topics in reflections of certain remarkable Hungarian musicians. Besides, the research pays attention to the reproduction of national narratives in the Hungarian (“official”) pop history and pop-legendary as well. This presentation is aims to show contexts and relations of national narratives and pop music through the songs and albums of three bands (Beatrice, Edda, Omega), between the Hungarian regime change (1990) and 2016.

Supported by the ÚNKP-19-3 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Dániel Szabolcs Radnai is a PhD-student at University of Pécs, in the Doctoral School of Literary Studies (2019-). His research field is regionalism and Hungarian regional literature of 19th century, as well as the literary representation of Lake Balaton. Besides he does scholarly examinations on Hungarian popular music.

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