Music/Folklore paper by Brückner, Huba
Building Culltural Ties between Hungary and the U.S. by the "Singing Youth Movement" Launched by Lajos Bárdos (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select):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.