Accepted Abstracts -- 2021

Building Culltural Ties between Hungary and the U.S. by the "Singing Youth Movement" Launched by Lajos Bárdos (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Lajos Bárdos – composer, conductor, professor of the Franz Liszt Music Academy – was born in 1899 and became an early member of the boy scouts movement in Hungary. He joined the troop of the Verbőczi Gimnázium – his high school – when he was 13 years old. Later the scout troop published different folksong collections for the entire scouting movement. In 1921 he composed the “Tábortűznél” campfire song, which is now known worldwide. (Its text was translated into many languages, including Hebrew and Japanese.)
In 1926 the Hungarian Scouts Association published the ‘101 Hungarian folksongs” collection edited by Lajos Bárdos (with the foreword by Zoltán Kodály) which became the musical bible of the young Hungarians and made possible the widespread popularity of folksongs among scouts in Hungary. Bárdos became the musical leader of the scouts.
Later in 1934 he established the “Singing Youth Movement” which had followers outside the borders of Hungary, even in the United States. Schools in the New Brunswick area and of many other parts of the U.S. organized these joint singing events and concerts. They performed Hungarian folksongs and enjoyed the experience of singing together. This movement – which remains active today – helped to make Kodály’s dream of “Singing Hungary” become true.
The works of Lajos Bárdos are still popular worldwide including the United States. Thanks to Bárdos and many other composers the Hungarian cultural ties in music remain very active and vibrant.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Huba Brückner has studied at the Technical University in Budapest and earned his Ma degree in 1970. He also studied education at the same university and received his second Ma in 1970. Later he was the head of development of Educational Technology and Methodology at the International Computer Education Center in Budapest. In 1974 he received a UNDP fellowship to the United States where he was involved in different Computer Aided Instruction projects (PLATO, TICCIT etc.). In 1992 he became the founder/director of the Fulbright Commission in Budapest, where he has served for 21 years. He retired from that position at the end of 2012. Now he is a research adviser of the newly established Corvinus Institute for Advanced Studies, which is part of the Corvinus University of Budapest. His PhD is in the use of computers in education.

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The Secret Influence of Kodály on the Baby-Toddler Music Industry in the United States (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Since 1960, Katinka Daniel and other Hungarian-trained music educators promoted the pedagogical approach of Zoltán Kodály as a cornerstone of K-5 music education in the United States. Starting in 1964, Kodály protégé and Hungarian innovator, Katalin Forrai, adapted Kodály’s teachings to preschool education. Although Forrai is known internationally as founder of the field of early childhood music education, the Kodály concept that was so central to her teachings has never been widely used in formal U.S. preschools. It is a secret, however, that Kodály’s handprint can be heavily traced to another form of preschool education in the U.S. – stand-alone baby-toddler music classes. In the 2000’s, baby-toddler music enrichment exploded in popularity as the children’s activity industry became one of the fastest growing sectors of the U.S. market. Only a handful of unique, local programs are explicitly Kodály-based, such as NYC’s “Yo Re Mi,” a Kodály toddler music curriculum that integrates yoga. On the other hand, the major U.S. providers of baby-toddler music classes map histories that are culturally distinct from Hungary. For example, Kindermusik (NC-incorporated) claims genesis in the German music education system, while Music Together (NJ-headquartered) is said to be the product of a Princeton University research lab. But detailed study of their pedagogies reveals strong Hungarian influence – with shared foundational practices such as singing high-quality folk music in the children’s mother tongue. This paper explores how the Kodály concept in U.S. baby-toddler music programs may be the secret behind their impressive profits and musical excellence.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Angela A. Chong (née Wu) was a 2001-2002 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Hungary, studying at the Kodály Intézet in Kecskemét. Her research under Dr. Ittzés Mihály culminated in a paper entitled, “Moral and Political Education and Kodály,” presented at the Hungarian Fulbright Commission’s 10th Anniversary Conference. Ms. Chong received her B.A. in Religion and Government at Harvard College, writing a magna cum laude thesis entitled, “Moral and Political Education: Twin Pillars of a Democratic, Pluralistic Society.” With a J.D. from Harvard Law School, she now practices law in Los Angeles where her 3- and 4-year-olds attend baby-toddler music classes.

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Dualistic Csárdáses and Gratuitous Gypsies: Hungarianism in Strauss and Kálmán (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Johann Strauss II’s Der Zigeunerbaron (1885) depicted Hungary as an “exotic land of mystery” defined by fanciful conceptions of the “Gypsy” and “Hungarian fire” (Baranello 2013). For Hungarians who saw Hungary as more cosmopolitan than “exotic,” such an image was problematic. This presentation compares the treatment of Hungarianness and Gypsiness in Zigeunerbaron with that in two works by one internationally successful Hungarian composer, Imre/Emmerich Kálmán (1882-1953). In two of his most successful works, Die Csárdásfürstin (1915) and Gräfin Mariza (1924), Kálmán both satisfied the Viennese audience’s appetite for “Hungarian fire” and transformed the depiction of the Hungarian onstage into a sophisticated European type that better fit the Hungarian self-image. Rather than conflating Gypsy and peasant into one exotic “Hungarian” stereotype, Kálmán used plot and music to highlight class conflicts and urban/rural contrasts. Showpieces in both works provide the stereotypes international audiences expect, but their framing, musical as well as dramatic, foregrounds a cosmopolitan twentieth-century Hungarian identity that was absent from Strauss’s work. Adjustments made in these works for their presentation on the Hungarian stage are also revealing, particularly as Gräfin Mariza became Marica grofnő: Hungarian translator/librettist Zsolt Harsányi’s transformation of “Komm mit nach Varaždin” into “Szép város Kolózsvár” offers a window into nostalgia for pre-World War I Hungary, as it celebrates the Hungarianness of a city that became part of Romania after the war. Mariza combines a “goulash stew” of Hungarian imagery for the international audience, musical topoi from all over, and Hungarian nostalgia for territories lost.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Lynn M. Hooker is Associate Professor of Music at Purdue University. She studies music and identity in nineteenth- to twenty-first-century Hungary and Central Europe. Her book _Redefining Hungarian Music from Liszt to Bartók_ was published in 2013 by Oxford University Press. She has published on music and modernism, nationalism, race, and popular and folk music and theater, in _Musical Quarterly_, _Ethnomusicology_, _The Cambridge Companion to Operetta_, and _Twentieth-Century Music_. Her current project addresses the transformation of Hungary’s “Gypsy music” industry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, using oral history and archival research.

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Basic Dance Motifs of Hungarian Folk Dances: How to Teach them with a Constructive Folkdance-methodology. (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Hungarian folk dances basic smallest forms are called motifs (by György Martin). These forms content different rhythm, space, dynamics and aesthetics. But the folklore researchers in the past collect many of motifs from different dance types and forms from the different „performers” from the traditional villages. The biggest problem is nobody gave answer for that question how can we „translate” today's folkdancers - especially for the children's tuition - in the teaching methodology the motifs with all characters above. My presentation and workshop shows one of possible way to understand the basic motifs and presentation facilities.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Péter Lévai as a professional folk dancer started his career in the Hungarian Folk Dance Ensemble in 1979. His danced professionally for 15 years. He graduated as folk dance teacher in 1996, in 2012 he attained the master grade. He has a master of arts from University of Debrecen Faculty of Teacher's training College, and ELTE doctorate of education. He has been a master teacher in the Hungarian Dance Academy since 1998, in the adult folk dance teacher educational system. His research is in the area of the teaching possibilities in children's folk dance methods, in elementary and secondary art schools.

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Hungarian Folk Dance Method and Movement Development Research

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
My main research is how to understand the movement possibilities to young age children (6-12) and how help them the different shapes and colors to understand the basic motifs of the Hungarian Folk Dance.





Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Professional folk dancer with level fee in the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, Kodály Chamber Folk Ensemble and Budapest Ensemble 1979-2002. Methodology teacher in the Hungarian Dance University from 1998. Awarded with Hungarian Gold Cross 2019.

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Subject-Position and Béla Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936) in Stanley Kubrick’sThe Shining (1980) (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Twentieth-century art music composed by Bartók, Ligeti, and Penderecki constitutes a large portion of the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel The Shining. This music was not written for the film, and the use of these pieces might leave listeners doubtful as to the legitimacy of a connection between them and the scenes in the movie they were used to enhance. However, in the case of the Bartók work excerpted in the film—Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936)—an analysis of the subject-position of the music allows for another interpretation. Eric Clarke identifies subject-position in music as “the way in which characteristics of the musical material shape the general character of a listener’s response or engagement,” a definition based on earlier explorations of subject-position in film studies. My analysis of the subject-position of Bartók’s piece and the scenes in which excerpts of the work appear in The Shining reveals similarities in their potential effect on an audience member. In this paper I show that the first, second, and fourth movements of the piece place the listener outside the music as an observer, while the third movement—the only one used in The Shining—pulls the listener inward, due in part to its unique form and elements of “night music.” The paper further explores the relationship between the subject-position of this movement and the subject-position of the scenes in The Shining accompanied by excerpts from it.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Sarah Lucas completed her PhD in musicology at the University of Iowa in 2018. Her dissertation, “Fritz Reiner and the Legacy of Béla Bartók’s Orchestral Music in the United States,” is based on archival research carried out in the U.S. and Hungary, where she conducted research with the support of a Fulbright Award. Her master’s work at the University of Missouri culminated in her thesis “Béla Bartók and the Pro-Musica Society: A Chronicle of Piano Recitals in Eleven American Cities during his 1927-1928 Tour.”

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Building Community and International Scope at the Méra World Music Festival (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Méra World Music Festival grows out of a spirit of community awareness and activism that has marked this part of Transylvania for centuries. Through interviews with founder/managers of this festival, an examination of the program and layout, and discussions with participants and townspeople this study explores the development of this festival, choices behind its offerings, and its relationship to community activism throughout the area. I will also evaluate the festival’s support of its stakeholder participants--performers, musicians, dancers, artisans, local businesses and households, pulling apart local and global elements of the organizers’ moniker “glocal.” Méra is a central community of the Kalotaszeg region, a prosperous farming area known for its traditional dance. The festival itself is a grassroots effort inspired by the dance group Kalotaszeg Néptáncegyüttes as part of the Kalotaszeg NTE. It is a generational triumph with organizers near thirty. From its start in 2016, Méra has offered a stage to top musicians, singers, and dancers of the Hungarian folk music revival (this year Csik Zenekar, Romano Drom, Ferenczi György, legényes competition finalists) and folk groups from other parts of the world (Sirani Guevara from Mexico, Dikanda from Poland). Performances are followed every night by jam sessions and dance parties (táncház) featuring local masters from Kalotaszeg’s neighboring regions and revival band members. It draws participants from traditional music/dance camps all over Transylvania, who party into the night with locals. As the festival grows it includes multi-lingual interviews, museum shows, lectures, and film screenings and a regional market.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Judith E. Olson (M.Phil, NYU, M.M. University of Colorado) historical musicologist working with traditional Hungarian music/dance in Romania, Hungary, and among Hungarians in the United States/Canada. She combines research in traditional settings, Hungarian dance camps, and revival groups with analysis of dance structure, process, and improvisation. She presents frequently at International Council for Traditional Music, International Musicological Society, Society for Ethnomusicology, and AHEA. She performs research and organizes táncház (dance parties) in New York City for the American Hungarian Folklore Centrum. Secondary research areas include International Folk Dancing in the US, Balkan brass bands, and 19th century German music/culture.

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Renewal of Hungarian Music Education: New Kodály-Based Methodologies to Enhance the Social Impact of Music Making. (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Kodály’s educational legacy has been a constant reference point in Hungary from the 1960’s until these days. Although his educational philosophy has had a defining impact on Hungarian music pedagogy over the past five decades, Kodály himself considered the humanistic and social aspect of his pedagogical system (not the mere musical one) as its most important, indeed defining, facet. According to his pedagogical philosophy, every methodological detail in music pedagogy must be motivated by its overall social and humanistic impact. However, based on recent empirical research conducted in Hungarian public schools, some of the most influential constructions and practices of the so-called ‘Kodály method’ haven’t succeeded to reach, or even address, this aim. Further to this, although Kodály’s philosophy was a key to the success of Hungarian music pedagogy after the 1970s, it does not seem any more to be able to address some of the most important educational challenges of our time. In this situation, how can Kodály’s influential pedagogical system be reconsidered and put into a wider context of social planning, following the original intentions of its author? This process is expected to include the renewal of some old and the introduction of several new pedagogical methodologies and practices, all based on Kodály’s pedagogical principles. I intend to give an introduction to new Kodály-based methodologies that are gaining increasing popularity and expect to make significant social impact through empowering engagement with music of children from highly diverse socio-cultural backgrounds.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
László Stachó is a musicologist, psychologist and musician, Research Fellow and Lecturer at the Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest) and the University of Szeged. His research focuses on early 20th-century performing practice, Bartók analysis, emotional communication in music performance, and enhancement of attentional skills in music performance. As a pianist and chamber musician, he has performed in several European countries and the US, and conducts attentional training workshops and chamber music coaching sessions at international masterclasses at prestigious European and Israeli conservatoires. In 2014, he was a CMPCP Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge; in 2017, he was Visiting Fellow at the Cambridge Faculty of Music and Downing College.

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Folk Dance and Music Camps in Transylvania as a Subject for Anthropological Research in Dance (Accepted)

Type of Abstract (select):

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The paper aims to introduce Transylvanian folk dance and music camps investigated from a dance anthropological viewpoint. The main topic of the proposal is to present research done in three different summer camps, including the description of the aim of the event, the organizers, their goals, the participants, programs, day and night dance occasions. One week-term camp consists of several dance events such as rehearsals, the so-called táncház, dance houses, and folk taverns, folkkocsma during the nights. The campers learn the region specialized dances during the day in 3 groups: beginners’, intermediate, and advanced dancers’ cohorts. The dances are being taught by professional folk dancers, teachers who have deep knowledge in the specific dance practice. The táncház gives an opportunity for the pupils to practice the movements that they have acquired during the day. Besides, at the folk tavern, the participants can freely carouse by singing, dancing, drinking and making conversations. Since 2014, I make observations with different approaches in the examined fields. The hypothesis of the ongoing research is that camps can be investigated as a micro-environment for the Hungarian revival movement. Camps can be studied from touristic aspects, and the investigation may raise the question of dance transmission as well as the issue of the encounter with authenticity and traditional culture during a cult sacred time and space. The applied research methods are participant observations, semi-structural- and deep-interviews, questionnaires, thick descriptions, and video materials.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Anna Székely studied at the University of Szeged at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. She did research on a Hungarian village’s dance traditions, and customs in the 1940-50s. She finished the Choreomundus international master in dance knowledge, practice, and heritage. She does fieldwork in Transylvanian international folk dance and music camps, festivals, dance houses and folk dance competitions where she investigates the issue of authenticity. She has two master’s degrees. She participated in the Erasmus Intensive Program: Movement of Past and Present in Trondheim, Norway. Her interest is in the Hungarian traditional folk dance and the revival movement.

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The Cimbalom Goes to Hollywood: Miklós Rózsa’s depiction of the Sinister Exotic in The Power (Accepted)

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Abstract (max. 250 words):
Miklós Rózsa was asked to score the British film, A Knight Without Armor (1937), because director Jacques Feyder considered a Hungarian uniquely qualified to compose a Russian theme. Such an assumption demonstrates the outsider view of an exotic and uniform Eastern Europe. Success on this picture lead to a long career in Hollywood for the composer who is most famous for his 1959 score to Ben Hur. In the 1968 horror film, The Power, Rózsa writes an eerie theme for cimbalom to represent a villain with the ability to move objects with his mind. Few American audience members would have identified this instrument as Hungarian, but they may have heard cimbalom in film scores evoking a sinister Eastern Europe. British composer John Barry first used cimbalom in several scores for film and television beginning with The Ipcress Files in 1965. While Barry’s cimbalom writing is merely an exotic color, Rózsa writes a theme that would have sounded at home in a Budapest restaurant. In this paper, I show how even though Rózsa’s knowledge of cimbalom in Hungarian music is clear in the film, he draws on the same stereotypes as his contemporaries. Analysis of the cimbalom theme’s appearances throughout the The Power contributes to understanding of how film music reinforced Cold War-era stereotypes about Eastern Europe as exotic, mysterious, and dangerous.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Jessica Vansteenburg is a lecturer in music in the Libby Residential Academic Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She also teaches woodwinds at Rocky Ridge Music Center. Previously, she taught at Salem State University, Luther College, and Belvoir Terrace Arts Camp. She earned a BA in Music and English from Luther College, Master of Music from Ohio University, Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Dr. Vansteenburg’s research has focused on works for clarinet by 20th Century Hungarian composers and Hungarian popular music at Transylvanian festivals. She has presented at annual meetings of the Society for Ethnomusicology, College Music Society, and the International Clarinet Association.

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