GIPSY FESTIVAL IN HUNGARY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 83, 24 April 1937, Page 13

GIPSY FESTIVAL IN HUNGARY

500 Years of Music

JiHE TZIGANE ASSOCIATIQN. will fete the five hundred and seventeenth anniversary of the Tziganes' settling in Hungary this spring,® says the Bqdapest eorrespondent of the London Observer. In 1919, when the fete was due to be held, internal conditions in the country made it impossible, and later the economic crisis was responsible for- its postponement. In April a gala concert- pf the. best Tzigane orchestras and singers will be held in Budapest, and the musical history, of the past five hundred years will be passed in review. During the 44 June Weeks" a.- Tzigane contest will be held, and all the best musicians from the- city and' the. provinces. wilL be heard. • It is reported that the LPndon B.B.C. will relay this contest, and that Liszt 's Sec.ond Ehapsody will be played by spgcial.request; , , • . On S,t. Stephen's Day (August 20) a Gsardag contest Yill take . place at -Tattersall's, and a Tzigane wedding will be held with the assietance of thirty Tzigane beauties as bridesmaids. The permit to settle in Hungary was granted to the, Tzigane in 1419 by King Zsigmund..' As the-Tzigaiies penetrated into -Europe at the same time as the Turks, they were regarded with disfavour in some countries, and it is said that their welcome here - was - due to King Zsigmond's delight at the playing of a gipsy musician. . The Tziganes brought three new instruments into Hungary, the Turkish . pipe, the violin. and the cymbal, and assumed tho "role of ' national troubadbur's - (4 4.regos'') transforming - the national music with their own rhythm. In -1707 they. f ollowed , Prince Eakoczi'e 4kuruc," or insurgents, with the Hungarian 4tarogato," a wind instruent. Panna Czinka, a Tzigane girl of rare beauty, has - beome one of Hungary 's legendary figures, in EaTcoczi's

train she bewitched all her hearers, being the composer of some of the songs which she interpreted on the violin.. Panna Czinka is believed to have been the grandchild of the famous Tzigane, Czinka, who lived at Rakoczi's court .with. two sona, and composed several songs praising his patron. In 1848 the Tzigane incited men to fight the Austrians by playing the "toborzo, ' ' and even f ollowed the troopB to the batlefields. The generals, Damjanich and Bem, kept private Tzigane orchestras, and one flrst violin, named Salamon, attained the rank of lieutenant. . , , The second half ,o£ the nineteenth century was tho Hungarian Tziganes' golden age. No name-day or birth or marriage could be celebrated without them, and they became the fashion at foreign courts. The Tzigane leaders made large fortunes, but spent the money,. and usually died in poverty. . King; Edward ."VII. was , a patron'^ the Tziganes, and never failed to ecijq^r their music when he eame to.Hungarjl A good story of the time is due to Lajos Pongracz, the. Tzigane violinist of Ko- s loszvar, who, after a shoot given for the then Pripce of .Wales and Milan, King. of Serbia, for which he .was engaged to playj remarked genially,/4We got on very well together, a, king, and a gipey, a king and a gipsy." The Tziganes' life has become eriti cal since the War. Of the thousand five hundred Tziganes liying in Budapest, only five -hundred are employed. In the provinces the . situatidn is even wqrse, onlj about twelve kundred. out of fotir thousand five hundred Tziganes having regular workTwo hundred- Tziganes have serenaded the mayor of a small town caUed Gyongyos, and beseeched him to proteet .them from the Jazz invasion. A Tzigane exchange has been created in Budapest, owing to a kind-hearted res-taurant-keeper offering the use of a hall. Here the Tziganes may practise and talk from the afternoon till early Inorning, Instead of waiting In a small exposed street for employer.s to seek them out.