Music/Folklore paper by Lengyel, Emese
‘First in the History of the World’ − Júlia Hajdu (1925–1987), Career of the first ever woman operetta composer (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentationAbstract (max. 250 words):
The object of this presentation is the career of Júlia Hajdu, the only Hungarian woman operetta composer. Musical history worldwide and in Hungary is not abundant in women composers, most of them are treated badly by the canon, although their pieces are valuable and worth researching. Júlia Hajdu (1925–1987) composed in several genres during her rich creative career, such genres included dance songs, operetta, revue, dance suit, and background music. Alongside composing, Júlia was an excellent piano player. Her masters at the Music Academy were Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) and György Ránki (1907–1992), the latter composed operettas himself. Júlia Hajdu studied folk music with Kodály and jazz arrangements with Ránki. Her peers and critics said she was one of this genre's most well-known and popular composers. She worked in popular music programs of the Hungarian Television, moreover, she accompanied Hanna Honthy on the piano. Júlia marks hundreds of dance songs, revues, and dance suites, as well as fourteen operettas, including radio and television operettas. Her creative career is interpreted in the context of socialist cultural policy and giving context to Júlia’s work is not simply another reconstruction of an operetta composer but a mirror of a certain era. However, she had to compromise on several occasions, for which she accounted her trying to succeed in different cultural areas dominated by men. I have concluded the reconstruction of her career based on different narrative patterns, therefore, I am discussing Hajdu’s way of life along the following three narratives: 1. ‘woman composer as a sensation’ narrative, 2. ‘Who’s whose student?’ narrative, as well as 3.‘background specialist’ narrative.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Emese Lengyel is currently a student of the Doctoral School of Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Debrecen. There, he earned a communicator degree and then an honours degree in ethnography and folkloristics. She mainly deals with the history of Viennese and Hungarian operettas, and the representation of minorities on the operetta stage. During her studies, she has won the researcher’s fellowship of the New National Excellence Program six times so far.