Hungary, the cradle of Roma music

Hungary is well-known for its lively musical life and its internationally recognised performers. That is why it is rightly referred to as “the great power” in music. However, we very often forget about the ethnic musical culture represented by minorities living in the country that also contribute to the musical diversity of the Hungarian culture. In the following, you can gain an insight into traditional Gypsy music, its characteristics and its most outstanding representatives. Enjoy the musical journey.

Short historical background

Not long after the arrival of the Roma to Hungary, they started to play music in the most prestigious royal courts. Antonio Bonfini, the Italian humanist and poet, documented that it was not only in the court of Beatrice of Aragon that Roma people provided entertaining music, but also in the court of the archbishop of Esztergom. In the following centuries, their music became increasingly important.

During Rákóczi’s War of Independence, for instance, they enthused the kurutz army. Because of the fact that they moved more easily in the territory of the opponent, they played a huge role in military communication between the 2 parties.

In fact, the recognisable style of today’s Gypsy music started to form in the mid-18th century, and it is still very much appreciated. Let’s check out some of the characteristics of the music.

Some characteristics of the well-known style

Original Gypsy music is vocal, and the words of the songs are in Romany or Hungarian. As rombase.uni-graz.at points out, the music played for outsiders is referred to “Gypsy music”, the term first used by Ferenc Liszt. The performance of the music is much looser while its changes in pitch and volume are richer than what we see in other European melodies, reports sulinet.hu.

Singing and music have always represented a ritual ceremony for the musicians. For this reason, most of its representatives are so much under the power of music that their style cannot be reproduced or taught.

During the 19th century, they mixed several characteristics of Western music with the Hungarian dance music of earlier times thanks to the taste of European musical culture they obtained in aristocratic circles.

Therefore, Gypsy music is a combination of many different styles: Hungarian folk music from one side, ballads, dance songs and jazz from the other side. Its characteristics connecting it to ballads and dance songs are quite obvious as the music narrates a story and is traditionally polyphonic.

The tune is normally sung with a few words or without words. In fact, this technique that uses onomatopoeic words is called rolling or “pergetés” in Hungarian. And if you would wonder what connects Gypsy music with jazz, then it is no secret that it is improvisation that is fundamental in both.