Hungarian composers and

nationalism
Franz Liszt, Bla Bartk and Zoltn Kodly
Siti Hasia Binte Abdul Hakeem (F13MU0158), Goi Ywei Chern
(F13MU0200), Kelvin Leung Poa Yin (F13MU0238)

QUESTION
How did composers bring out their strong nationalistic
sentiments through musical expression? Select a country and
talk about its composers and compositions.

When asked in a 1929 interview whether he considered himself a German

or a Jew, Albert Einstein replied, It is quite possible to be both. I look upon
myself as a man. Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of
mankind.1 Einsteins cutting words may have stemmed from his observation of
politicians and states abusing nationalism to justify acts of war. 2 However, it
cannot be denied that nationalism cuts into the center of prevailing social
cohesion and binds people together even today. After the fall Napoleonic
imperialism in 1814, nationalism was used to reorganize Europe politically and
culturally. Nationalism in this sense was not a mere love for country, but a
political force. Indeed, nationalism had a profound effect of the social and
political atmosphere for both World Wars I and II, and this was especially true
with regards to the Eastern European nation of Hungary. This nationalist
sentiment pervades many works by Hungarian composers, most notably Franz
Liszt and Bla Bartk. Zoltn Kodly also expressed similar attitudes as his
contemporary and frequent collaborator Bartk. Franz Liszt was part of a
generation before Bartk and Kodly, with nationalist notions completely
different from the other two composers who lived through the turn of the 20 th
century but this generation gap was not the only reason for their differing views
on magyarsg, or Hungarianness.
Franz Liszt was born 1811 in the town Doborjn3 in the Hungarian territory of the
Austrian Empire in 1811, during the Napoleonic Wars. His father Adam Liszt
worked as a musician for the Hungarian aristocratic family Esterhazy just as his
father did before him, Franzs grandfather Georg. Both could play the piano and
little Liszt learnt to play the piano as a child from his father and began
composing soon after beginning his training. He was soon recognized as a
prodigy and began performing in concerts. Liszt was soon sponsored to study in
Vienna, where he studied piano playing under Carl Czerny and composition under
Antonio Salieri.
Excluding a last visit to Hungary during May of 1823, Liszt and his family stayed
in Vienna until 1827 when Liszts father passed away. Liszt then moved to Paris,
where he worked as a piano and composition teacher. Used to the success of his
youth as a child prodigy, Liszt came across a stumbling block in his career when
he was refused admission to the Conservatoire due to a decree issued the year
before Liszt arrived in Paris. The politically-motivated declaration made it near
1 Viereck, George Sylvester. "What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester."
Home of the Saturday Evening Post. Saturday Evening Post, 26 Oct. 1929. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wpcontent/uploads/satevepost/what_life_means_to_einstein.pdf>.

2 O. Abdulsattar, Tammam. "Does Globalization Diminish the Importance of Nationalism?"

EInternational Relations. E-International Relations Students, 1 June 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.e-ir.info/2013/11/14/does-globalization-diminish-the-importance-of-nationalism/>.

3 Doborjn is the towns Hungarian name. It also has the German-Austrian name Raiding, and the
Croatian name Rajnof.

impossible for the Conservatoire to accept foreign students. The minister in

charge of education had issued that on nadmettra aucun lve tranger non
franais (one will not admit any foreign student who is not French). 4 While the
rare exception was allowed, no such concession was conferred on young Liszt, in
spite of a letter of recommendation from Prince Metternich, then State
Chancellor of the Austrian Empire.
However, Paris was still receptive to artists from all over Europe and it was here
that Liszt was greatly influenced by the unparalleled virtuosity of the great
violinist and composer Niccolo Paganini. Liszt perfected his own technical ability,
eventually embodying an unprecedented level of piano virtuosity. He toured
Europe and further, composing and performing to huge crowds of adoring fans
from Russia to Portugal to Turkey to Ireland. Later in life, Liszt would move to
Weimar as well as Rome, as he turned his focus more to composition. He
eventually died in 1881 in Bayreuth, Germany.
Despite a clear cosmopolitan lifestyle and a beguiling internationalism, Liszt
considered himself Hungarian for most of his life. His father and grandfather both
worked in the service of Hungarian Prince Esterhzy and in following the vein of
the feudal system of citizenship inherited from Medieval times, both were
considered Hungarian citizens. This was despite minimal fluency of Hungarian
Magyar language as they lived in the German-speaking parts of Hungary. Despite
not knowing how to speak or read in the Hungarian language, from his
upbringing and the political atmosphere of the time not only did Liszt see himself
as Hungarian, but was by circumstances unable to see himself as anything but
Hungarian.
In 1840 Liszt gave a concert in Pest and started the concert by declaring to the
crowd, Je suis Hongrois. (FrenchI am Hungarian) In that Liszt spoke these
words in French and not in Hungarian is in itself quite telling of his own
disconnect with his homeland and Hungarian heritage. While Liszt was an
excellent master of several languages, the difficult Hungarian language was one
language he couldnt quite wrap his tongue around and never developed an
advanced level of fluency for. Even the other piece of evidence often quoted for
Liszts Hungarianness is one that is in Germanessentially Liszts true mother
tongue.
Man darf mir wohl gestatten, dass ungeachtet meiner beklagenwerthen
Unkentniss der ungarischen Sprache, ich von Geburt bis zum Grabe im
Herzen und Sinne, Magyar verbleibe Liszt, in a letter written to a
Hungarian nobleman in 1873.

4 De Kenessey, Stefania. "Enduring Encounters: Liszt in Paris." American Arts Quarterly 25.4
(2008). Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies Center Archives. Newington-Cropsey Cultural Studies
Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.nccsc.net/legacy/liszt-in-paris>.

It must surely be conceded to me that, regardless of my lamentable

ignorance of the Hungarian language, I remain from birth to the grave, in
heart and mind, a Magyar.5
That Liszt perceived himself as Magyar, or ethnically Hungarian, is
uncontestable. Even in his letter, he chooses the Hungarian word Magyar,
referring to Hungarian ethnicity instead of the German term for a Hungarian
citizen Ungar.
From his return to Hungary again in 1839, some 16 years after his last visit there,
Liszt began collecting Hungarian melodies and arranging them for his concerts,
his consciousness as Hungarian reawakened with the return to his homeland.
Liszt brought much of what he perceived as his Hungarian heritage into many of
his compositions. However, the most significant representation of Liszts
expression of Hungarian nationalism has to be the Hungarian Rhapsodies. On his
return to Hungary, Liszt found himself a national hero, the Hungarian people
clamoring to claim his celebrity. The Rhapsodies were concert arrangements of
Hungarian melodies Liszt collected but also the embodiment of Liszts need to be
the rhapsodist6 of Hungarian music. It was Liszts intention that by referring to
these arrangements as Rhapsodies hongroises7, he would be able to convey the
fantastically epic element8 of Hungarian music.
Growing up, Liszt fed both his interests in sacred music as well as Hungarian
Romani music.9 The sound of Hungarian Romani motifs and harmony from
childhood observations was accepted into his soundscape as quintessentially
Hungarian. As such, it is no surprise that we see elements of Hungarian Romani
music within the Hungarian Rhapsodies, specifically the Hungarian Rhapsody No.
15 subtitled as Rkczi March.
This piece is an arrangement of the patriotic Hungarian band piece Rkczi
March, so named after Hungarian hero Francis II Rkczi, who fought for
Hungarian independence against domination by the Habsburgs nearly two
centuries before in 1676. In a time where Hungarians were once again vying for
independence and autonomy from the Habsburg Emperor, the Rhapsody echoed
5 Lubliner, Jacob Coby. "How Hungarian Was Liszt?" How Hungarian Was Liszt? University of
California at Berkeley, 15 Aug. 2006. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~coby/essays/liszt.htm>.

6 a term referring to classical Greek professional performer of epic tales

7 French for Hungarian Rhapsodies
8 Wright, Craig M., and Bryan R. Simms. "Chapter 57: Nationalism and Virtuosity." Music in Western
Civilization. Belmont, CA: Thomson Schirmer, 2006. pp 560. Print.

9 Romani music is often referred to in literature as Gypsy music. However, using the term Gypsy
to refer to Romani people and culture today is largely considered derogatory.

fervent nationalist feelings of the time. Both military bands and Romani
ensembles around Hungary commonly played the march.

Figure 1. First theme of Rhapsody No. 15 that quotes the Rkczi march in the faster
dance of the Verbunkos style and first trio theme which represents the slower dance of
the Verbunkos.

The style of No. 15 is also in a clear Verbunkos style, which was characterized by
a slower dance paired with a much faster dance. The style was widely popular in
Hungary, enjoyed by both the poorer peasantry and aristocracy, but the style
was most perpetuated by the Hungarian Romani musicians.
The Hungarian Romani influence can also be heard in Liszts arrangement with
the use of the Hungarian minor scale. Also in the music was the imitation of the
glissandos of the cimbalom, a Hungarian Romani instrument often used in their
ensembles.

Figure 2. Hungarian minor scale in the key of A, sometimes referred to as a "Gypsy

scale". In this key, the raise 4th and 7th scale degrees creating augmented 2nd intervals
become obvious.

Figure 3. Score of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15. The introduction outlines a Hungarian
minor scale, followed by the fanfare of the Rkczi March tune at Tempo di Marcia
animato.

Liszts expression of nationalism put into context could be considered reactionary

to his circumstances rather than stemming from his rootedness to the Hungarian
nation. Indeed, most material on Liszt available for historical study invites a
debate between what can be distinguished as truly authentic artistic expression
or mere showmanship. Nevertheless, it is from this looming shadow of Liszt
Ferenc10 in Hungarian classical music that later Bla Bartk finds himself working
against as a young musician in Budapest. Further on in this essay, it will become
clearer that there are key ways in which Liszts musical expression of nationalism
differed from Bartks.
Bla Bartk was born in the farming village Nagyszentmikls, near the southeastern edge of Hungary at the Hungarian-Romanian border. 11 Bla Sr., his father
was from a Hungarian lower noble family while mother Paula was an ethnically
mixed Hungarian from a Roman Catholic Serbian family whose mother tongue
was German. Nevertheless, she could still speak Hungarian fluently. In 1888,
father Bla Sr. passed away, which affected his family enormously as they moved
10 The Hungarian form of the name Franz Liszt
11 "Bla Bartk." Bla Bartk. Boosey & Hawkes, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.
<https://boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?
composerid=2694&ttype=BIOGRAPHY&ttitle=Biography>.

around until mother Paula could find a permanent job. It was Paula who
eventually gave little Bla his first lessons on piano and eventually Bla became
an accomplished young pianist, giving his first public concert at Poszony in 1896
at the tender age of 15. Throughout the course of his life, Bartks nationalism
would alter as the musician matured and his musicianship became more
nuanced. However, his strong love for Hungary and dedication to the music of his
country remained unchanged to his dying breath as an exile in America, as
illustrated by his own words in a letter to his mother written as a young adult
For my own part, all my life, in every sphere, always and in every way, I
shall have one objective: the good of Hungary and the Hungarian Nation
- Bla Bartk, 1903 in a letter to his mother.
At 18, Bartk moved from the countryside to the city to study at Liszt Ferenc
Zenemvszeti Egyete, or The Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. It was here
that he first met Zoltn Kodly, fellow future ethnomusicologist and where the
seeds of nationalism first sprouted. Bartk is often portrayed in literature as an
unadventurous nostalgic, especially in reference to his careful work in
ethnomusicology. This couldnt be further from the truth. Indeed, Bartk as a
young adult most likely thought of himself as a radical. Bartk and Kodly were
strongly discontent with the heavily German musical culture in Budapest as
German was the language of Austria, whom Hungary was struggling against for
independence.12 Eventually, this frustration with the prevalence of German in
Budapest drove Bartk sharply toward a chauvinist nationalism.
This chauvinist and extreme form of nationalism gave rise to the tone poem
Kossuth which for better or for worse, firmly established Bartok as a patriotic
composer. Richly textured, Kossuth was heavily inspired by Richard Strauss Also
sprach Zarathustra and celebrated Lajos Kossuth, leader of the 1848 War of
Independence. It was for all intents and purposes a nationalist rally and it
combined exemplified features of Hungarian music style within a Western
European harmonic vernacular, essentially following the established vein of
Liszts nationalist expression in music. In this tone poem, Bartok relied heavily on
easily recognizable Hungarian verbunkos style features such as front-accented
shortlong rhythms, dotted figures and quick ornaments at the ends of beats. 13
Also present was the use of a raised fourth degree of the scale, which suggests
the use of the Hungarian minor scale. However, the most distinctive feature of
Kossuth is undeniably the caricature of the Austrian anthem Gott erhalte which
Bartok set into a mocking minor key. Unfortunately for Bartok, Kossuth was a
struggle to get to performance and it was followed by a windfall of compositional
failures.
12 Hooker, Lynn. "Part 1.1: The Political and Cultural Climate in Hungary." The Cambridge
Companion to Bartk. Ed. Amanda Bayley. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.

13 Schneider, David E. "Chapter 11: Hungarian Nationalism and the Reception of Bartk's Music."
The Cambridge Companion to Bartk. Ed. Amanda Bayley. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.

Not too long after Kossuth, Bartk together with Kodly first started research into
the Hungarian folk music of peasantry and started publishing in 1906 collections
and arrangements of Hungarian folksongs. The famous incident of Bartk hearing
an authentic Transylvanian folksong sung by a young maiden remains welldocumented as the trigger for the turning point in his career to folksong
collecting. Though the Bartk and Kodly made much advancement and set the
groundwork for modern ethnomusicology, in truth their arrangements of folk
songs were not well-received and quite simply did not sell. The two composers
were actually playing a dangerous game in peddling their authentic Magyar
songs free from the clichs of verbunkos and gypsy (Hungarian Romani)
influence, stirring political sensitivities among the upper classes of Hungarian
society.
According to the way I feel, a genuine peasant melody of our land is a
musical example of a perfected art. I consider it as much a masterpiece,
for instance, in miniature, as a Bach fugue or a Mozart sonata movement
is a masterpiece in a large form. A melody of this kind is a classic example
of the expression of musical thought in its most concise form with the
avoidance of all that is superfluous.
- The Folksongs of Hungary, from Bla Bartk essays
Out of context, the statement above by Bartk seems innocent enough.
However, since early 1800s, the Hungarian nobility and bourgeoisie felt they
were the keepers of Hungarian identity in music, with Hungarian Romani
influence just as part of Hungarian culture. In suggesting that a nationalist
identity of Hungary could be found among the peasant, whom many of the upper
echelon of society did not even regard as part of the nation, Bartk and Kodly
became dangers to the customary view of the nation of Hungary held by the
upper-class.
While Hungarian music with Romani influence featured familiar tonal harmonies,
rhythmic clichs and were more similar to Western European musical
sensibilities, Bartks and Kodalys exploration of modal or pentatonic melodies
of the folksongs harken back to the earlier Magyar tribes who travelled down
from Asia minor into the Carpathian Basin.

Figure 4. From Bartk's Eight Hungarian Folksong, Fekete fd. The billowing arpeggios
in the beginning outline a pentatonic scale that the folk song is in.

In his studies in collecting and documenting folk music, Bartk found several
features unique to Hungarian peasant song. These included: a flexible rhythm
free from beat, a pentatonic melody, a chant-like parlando-rubato speaking style
(other folk songs had a dancing tempo giusto) as well as the typically Hungarian
short-long rhythmic figure.
Eventually, Bartk expanded his study of folksong into neighboring territories
and beyond, studying the ethnic music of Slovakian, Ukrainian, Rumanian
sources and even Arab and Turkish traditions. It was during this expansion of
study that Bartk observed the intermixing of diverse musical influences.
Eventually, he came to believe that the most important music was not isolated
pockets of music untouched by urbanism, but instead music that were a melting
pot of different ethnic influences. However, to scientifically preserve and classify
folksongs was only part of his nationalist ideal. He also wanted to promote
performances of Hungarian music both locally and internationally.
Unfortunately, just as his successes was picking up in the 1930s, World War II
struck. Bartk eventually made the difficult decision to move to the United States
of America in 1940. In America, Bartk quickly fell ill with leukemia. Homesick,
physically weak and professionally in ruins, it was at this lowest point that
violinist Josef Szigeti and conductor Fritz Reiner presented Bartk with a
commission opportunity14 that would be the spark for one of Bartoks greatest
14 "Classical Notes - Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra, Classical Classics, Peter Gutmann." Classical
Notes - Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra, Classical Classics, Peter Gutmann. 1 Jan. 2002. Web. 26

works, the Concerto for Orchestra, which at its premiere became an immediate
success with audience members and critics alike.
While clear Hungarian influences (folk or otherwise) pervade the entire piece,
such as the pentatonic outline of tones and the short-long rhythmic figures, the
piece also carries folk influences from a few other the cultures studied by Bartk
during his time as a folklorist. The Concerto so named for its soloistic treatment
of the instrument parts is essentially in the format of a symphony. The Concerto
for Orchestra stood out not merely for all the diverse ingredients Bartk put into
it, but also for his powerful personality that bound these elements together in
such an intense and profoundly personal way that spoke of more than mere
nationalistic sentimentthis was a celebratory reflection of a true love of life and
a longing for home.

Feb. 2015. <http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics/bartok.html>.

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