There is an amazing thing making its rounds on social media, at least among Hungarian users: The Hungarain Cultural Heritage Portal has arranged its collection of folk songs on a map, where you can zoom right in to your home region, even your home village, and listen to the folk songs recorded there.
Of course I tried it myself, and was pleased to see that the small village I grew up in, Vésztő close to Romanian border, had 202 elements listed. Of course I went on to open the file right away. Though the site is not the most user friendly, eventually I got to listen to a half an hour of recording of twenty one folk songs. Let me make it easy for you if you want to experience the songs from my home town, and give you the direct link. Of course you can browse the various regions, which include areas outside of the present border of the country, where there is also a large presence of ethnic Hungarians.
The music itself was quite what I expected: folk songs tend to sound pretty similar in any cultural region. The only thing sticking out are the regional references, which in this case is merely the mention of the name of the town.
The recording was made in 1959 by folklorist Dr. Géza Paulovics, and the performer is 33 year old Terezia Tóth, originally from Vésztő, though living 25 km away, in the town of Újkígyós where she got married.
The songs themselves deal with everyday subject matter, usually starting with a statement about nature or the weather, then moving on to an equally general statement about the actions of a person or a group of people. Next, it's contrasted with another fact of life, before the fourth line wraps it up in a shocking or scandalous result of the two preceding lines.
Don't worry if you don't understand the language, though. For anyone who doesn't speak Hungarian, this collection is a beautiful immersion
into the folk tunes from the Carpathian basin. And though they may sound completely identical after the fifth one you hear, all together they carry a distinct style, making it unique among folk songs from around the world.
Please Visit my Previous Posts in my Music Monday Series:
Party Tunes from the Wild East - The "Russendisko" Experience
Gloomy Sunday - The Hungarian Suicide Song
Memorable Weirdness - What Do You Want A Japanese To Do Again?
Songs of the Mexican Revolution: La Adelita
Accordion-Rock You May Not Know (But Really Should) - Los Tabascos
Beyond the Boundries of Styles and Genres - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
No Prophets in Their Own Land - Rodrigo y Gabriela
The First Hip-Hop I Actually Liked - Things Fall Apart by The Roots
The Harder Sound of the Middle Ages - Corvus Corax
Party Like There's No Tomorrow, Cry Like Everything Is Lost - Hungarian Gypsy Music
Classic Canadiana: Stan Rogers
Floating Into the Night by Julee Cruise
Obligatory Line-Dance at Mexican Parties - El Payaso de Rodeo
The Sound of the Hungarian Zither
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