Reflecting on Hungarian Diasporic Identity Through the Music of the Vojvodina-based Sógor Együttes

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Vojvodina-based band Sógor was active on the musical scene of former Yugoslavia and of Hungary between May 1986 and the end of 1990. They released five albums in total: Sógo Rock (1986, platinum record); Vörös bort ittam az este (1987; gold record); Rólad álmodom ma éjjel (1988, silver record); Az a rendes iparos, aki mindig italos és sohasem részeg (1988); and Ne várj az életedtől száz csodát (1989). Four of these were produced in former Yugoslavia, the first three by the company Jugoton in Zagreb, Croatia and the fourth one by PTP in Belgrade, Serbia. The fifth and last album was produced in Hungary. The musical genre of the band along with similar music that gained huge popularity in the same period has been branded in recent years as “muskátli” (“geranium”) music. We will critically engage with this branding and argue that it only partially relays the unique musical fusion present in the Sógor songs, a fusion that combines Hungarian folk songs, Hungarian popular music (“sláger”) from different periods, original compositions, and even Hungarian rock-versions of Bosnian folk songs.
In this joint presentation, we will further argue that the music represented by the Sógor band, which found its expression in the final years of the multinational and multiethnic state of Yugoslavia in which ethnic minorities, including the large Hungarian minority, enjoyed full cultural rights, is an expression of said minority’s unique and hybrid identity, an identity that soon came under threat with the violent breakup of the Yugoslav state, a political event anticipated with the end of the band’s activity. In this context it is also noteworthy that this music was mainly enjoyed by a mature Vojvodina and Croatian (Baranya) Hungarian audience that had grown up with the Yugoslav idea. We will build our argument on theories of music and national/ethnic identity.



Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Agatha Schwartz is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Ottawa, Canada. She is currently president of the Hungarian Studies Association of Canada. She has taught at the University of Belgrade, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of Ottawa. She has published extensively and internationally on Austro-Hungarian literature, culture, and feminism; on contemporary women writers from East Central Europe; on ethnic minorities from the Vojvodina; and on narratives of trauma.

Robert Svarc (MA, University of Novi Sad) is an independent researcher with an interest in the history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in ethnic minorities. He is based in Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia.