{"id":57892,"date":"2023-01-20T16:08:26","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T16:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/?p=57892"},"modified":"2023-01-20T16:08:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T16:08:27","slug":"day-of-hungarian-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/day-of-hungarian-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Day of Hungarian Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On January 22nd 1823, Ferenc K\u00f6lcsey \u2013 one of the most important literary characters in Hungarian history \u2013 completed his manuscript of the Hungarian National Anthem which is now considered his work of art. It was first mentioned as the national anthem in 1989 and since then the day when the poem was completed is called the Day of Hungarian Culture.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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According to the manuscript, kept in the\nNational Museum, he finished his poem on January 22nd, 1823. The poem evoked\nthe glory of Hungary\u2019s past, titled \u201cHymnus, a\u2019 Magyar n\u00e9p zivataros\nsz\u00e1zadaib\u00f3l\u201d (Hymn, from the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people), and\neventually, it proved to be the most important Hungarian poem ever written.\nK\u00f6lcsey first published his poem in 1828. In 1844 Ferenc Erkel composed the\nmusic to the poem, and that\u2019s when what later became the national anthem of\nHungary, was born. Although it was 145-years-old at the time and was regarded\nas such for almost as long, K\u00f6lcsey and Erkel\u2019s collaboration was mentioned in\nthe Hungarian constitution as the national anthem for the first time in 1989,\nafter the proclamation of the Hungarian Republic. And since then, the day when\nthe poem was finished is called the Day of Hungarian Culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 1989 anniversary commemorations have been held nationally and internationally on this day to celebrate and nurture the Hungarian cultural heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hungarian artists who conquered the world <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the centuries, Hungarian culture has earned\ninternational recognition, but we can never rest in strengthening its\nreputation. It is of the utmost importance to transmit and show the values of\nour cultural and artistic life to the world. The question is: What have Hungary\nshown the world of the diversity of Hungarian cultural life? No question, a\ngreat deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hungary’s message to the world is that every\nnation must preserve and nurture its culture, which is a fundamental condition\nfor the survival and development of nations, and that culture is a universal\nlanguage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In honor of the Day of Hungarian Culture, we have gathered and presented – without claiming to be exhaustive – some of the most prominent Hungarian artists who have spread the good news of Hungarian culture to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mih\u00e1ly Munk\u00e1csy \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mih\u00e1ly Munk\u00e1csy is among the iconic Hungarian artists whose life and art impacted his whole generation. The legacy of his paintings and technique elevated him to remarkable international renown and is considered as an essential influence even today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In addition to saving the folk song treasure, the name of Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly, the three-time Kossuth Prize-winning Hungarian composer, musicologist, music teacher and folk music researcher, is also well known in the world for his pedagogical methods. The Kod\u00e1ly method is to teach children everything when and how they are most receptive to it. It is now a proven fact that students who learn music according to Kod\u00e1ly’s ideas also perform better in other areas of study, and that the brain functions acquired through music also have an effect on other areas of the brain. The Kod\u00e1ly method is now more popular in Western Europe or Japan than it is here in Hungary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gy\u00f6rgy Cziffra<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He was a huge success in the world’s great concert halls and festivals and soon became world famous. In 1966 he initiated the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu organ festival and in 1969 he inaugurated the Versailles Piano Competition in his name. He later created the Cziffra Foundation to support talented young artists. Some say Gy\u00f6rgy Cziffra is the reincarnation of Franz Liszt. His piano playing is comparable to that of Liszt, especially because of his dazzling improvisational skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mih\u00e1ly Kert\u00e9sz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mih\u00e1ly Kert\u00e9sz, aka Michael Curtiz, who emigrated from Hungary after the First World War, directed the most famous war melodrama in film history, Casablanca, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director in 1943. At the time of its production, the major studios were making one film a week, which meant that some fifty feature films were made every year – Casablanca was only one of them, and it is still one of the most watched and quoted films. He was extremely prolific, directing one hundred and sixty-six films between 1912 and 1962. Although he was able to assert the German expressionism and artistic vision he had absorbed in Vienna in his forays into film noir and drama, he was first and foremost a fantastic industrialist who knew how to speak to tens of millions of people in a way they could understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victor Vasarely<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Victor\nVasarely is a very special artist in the history of 20th century art. He became\nfamous during his lifetime and distinguished himself in contemporary art by\ncreating a new trend: optical art. His work is part of a great coherence, from\nthe evolution of his graphic art to his determination to promote a social art,\naccessible to all. Victor Vasarely was born in P\u00e9cs, Hungary in 1906. In 1925,\nafter his baccalaureate, he undertook brief medical studies at the University\nof Budapest, which he abandoned two years later. From this period, Vasarely\nkept a will of method, objectivity, a thirst for knowledge\u2026 close to the\nscientific world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vilmos Zsigmond<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The world-famous Oscar-winning\ncinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond captured the events of the ’56 revolution in\nBudapest with a camera hidden in a shopping bag. Working with several of his\nfellow cameramen, they were careful not to get into any fights, the most\nshocking scene being when they filmed “a street duel” with a\n“freedom fighter shot from upstairs by the guards”. After 1956, the\nfootage was smuggled out to the West with L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Kov\u00e1cs, later the cameraman of\nthe Gentle Bikers. Lacking language skills, he started his career in Hollywood\nas a garbage collector, but in 1978 he won an Oscar for Encounters of the Third\nKind. He was nominated three more times, including for his favourite film, the\nVietnam war drama The Deer Hunter. He has worked with legendary film directors\nsuch as Steven Spielberg, Brian de Palma, Woody Allen, Richard Donner, George\nMiller, Robert Altman and John Boorman. Vilmos Zsigmond also encouraged\ntalented Hungarian cinematographers who had gone abroad, including Lajos Koltai\nand Gyula Pados, who later became world famous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k is the best-known and most internationally acclaimed Hungarian\ncomposer of the 20th century, whose musical innovations and revolutionary works\nchanged the way music is perceived. His only opera, The Bluebearded Prince’s\nCastle, is still considered a landmark in music history. The diversity of his\nwork makes it difficult to categorise him, and he has been singled out as one\nof his favourite composers by celebrities who are otherwise difficult to\ncompare, such as Margaret Thatcher and Frank Zappa. In addition to his work as\na composer, he was a virtuoso pianist, a leading collector of folk music, and a\nresearcher in mathematics and goldsmithing. Moreover, he was one of the few\npeople who not only recognised the common destiny of the peoples of the\nCarpathian Basin, but also actively worked to preserve national traditions. Not\nonly his works, but he himself was very popular in the United States, where he\nemigrated in 1940, after the death of his mother and the outbreak of war. He\ntaught at Columbia University, where he was later awarded an honorary\ndoctorate.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imre Kert\u00e9sz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The only Nobel Prize winner in Hungarian literature to date, Imre Kert\u00e9sz\ncreated the ideas for his first novel, Sorstalans\u00e1g-Fatelessness, from his\nwritings between 1955 and 1960. His success, and the fact that he was able to\nmake a living from his work as a writer and translator, came with the change of\nregime in Hungary. His first novel was already a resounding success in the year\nof its publication, but it was not until the 1990s that the reviews that placed\nhim in the canon of post-modern Hungarian literature were published. Kert\u00e9sz is\nhugely popular in German, his collected works are published by Rowohlt, in\nEnglish by Random House, and at least one of his books has been translated into\nevery major language in the world \u2013 Sorstalans\u00e1g-Fatelessness is also available\nin Hindi and Arabic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Capa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Foreign\nliterature has erroneously combined the names Robert Taylor and Frank Capra to\ncreate the name Robert Capa, but in fact he was called Shark in high school in\nBudapest because of his big mouth and pushy nature. Born as Endre Friedmann,\nthe adventurous, restless photographer brought his spirit and coolness from\nHungary, which he left in 1931 with a bar of salami in his luggage. His war\nreportage photographs of the Spanish Civil War, the Japanese invasion of China,\nthe European theatres of war in the Second World War, the first Arab-Israeli\nwar and Vietnam have made his name in the history of photography. One of his\nbest-known images is The Death of a Militia Man, which made him a world\ncelebrity. The stories about him made him a legendary figure, especially his\nquote that ‘if your pictures weren’t good enough, you weren’t close enough’. He\ngot too close: he stepped on a mine and died in Thai Binh in 1954. His memory\nhas not faded at home or abroad, and there is no photographic history in the\nworld today in which Capa’s name is not at the forefront.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

G\u00e1bor Szab\u00f3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\nundeservedly forgotten Hungarian guitar genius, “the guitar Nurejeve”\nplayed with true superstars and influenced the world’s greatest guitarists and\nperformers. G\u00e1bor Szab\u00f3 was a self-taught musician, learning his craft from\nradio, records and the small Buda taverns of the early 1950s, where he would\nlisten to the secrets of improvising musicians who had no chance of a career\nunder communist communism. In the late 60s, after the death of Wes Montgomery,\nhe became the number one guitarist in America, where he was celebrated as a\nstar and interviewed by the world’s leading jazz magazine, DownBeat. He was an\nunrecognisable artist, well ahead of his time, whose music was often\nmisunderstood. Few people have understood G\u00e1bor Szab\u00f3’s teachings as well as\nCarlos Santana, who founded his world-famous ensemble partly using elements\nthat Szab\u00f3 used and offered. The Gipsy Queen, made famous by Santana’s Abraxas\nalbum, was originally written by Szab\u00f3, but he can be heard throughout\nSantana’s oeuvre, playing with Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger, in several pop\nsongs by John Legend and on Madonna’s Ray of Light album with William Orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferenc Leh\u00e1r<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ferenc\nLeh\u00e1r, the most famous Hungarian operetta composer, lived most of his life in\nAustria but always remained a Hungarian citizen. The composer is credited with\n31 operettas, most of which premiered in Vienna, but some of which were also\nperformed in Budapest within a short time. The Count of Luxembourg, Gypsy Love\nand The Land of Smiles were world successes, and his works The Three Graces,\nThe Caravaggio, Paganini, Friderica and Giuditta are also frequently performed.\nLeh\u00e1r’s unique, in many respects innovative, imaginative and colourful works\nrevived the Viennese operetta style, which by then had become stiffly stereotypical.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background\nfor Your information:<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day of Hungarian Culture: How \u2018Himnusz\u2019 Became Hungary\u2019s National Anthem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\nday of Hungarian culture is celebrated across the country and the World on\nJanuary 22. Ferenc K\u00f6lcsey finished his poem Himnusz 200 years ago on January\n22nd 1823. Little did he know that his poem\u2014one he didn\u2019t even consider as his\nbest work\u2014would go on to become Hungary\u2019s national anthem. Literary historian\nand writer Kriszti\u00e1n Ny\u00e1ry recalled the adventurous and surprising story of the\nnational anthem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nHymn\u2019s birthday is just the anniversary of the final version as according to\nNy\u00e1ry, K\u00f6lcsey began writing Hymnus in 1822. He was inspired by what he thought\nwas a Balassi poem\u2014although it later turned out to be J\u00e1nos Rimay\u2019s work\u2014 in\nwhich a national death was avoided by God\u2019s grace. In his new poem, K\u00f6lcsey\ncombined the traditions of peasant and kuruc songs and the 7+6 rhythmic formula\nof the Hungarian folk dance canon. When K\u00f6lcsey died on August 24, 1838, he did\nnot anticipate that this piece would become a national anthem known by\neveryone. In fact, he has never once included the Himnusz among his best works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many believed the subtitle \u201cFrom the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people\u201d (A magyar n\u00e9p zivataros sz\u00e1zadaib\u00f3l) was added expressly to enable the poem to pass Habsburg censorship by emphasizing past national troubles rather than contemporary ones. However, according to Ny\u00e1ry, K\u00f6lcsey published the poem in K\u00e1roly Kisfaludy\u2019s Aurora in December 1828 with the title Hymnus. So, it appears the poet did not write his poem with the subtitle in order to avoid censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The\nmanuscript of Himnusz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1843, Endre Bartay, director of the National Theater, suggested that Hungary\nneeded its own national anthem. However, the Himnusz was not his first thought,\nand a competition was held to write music for Mih\u00e1ly V\u00f6r\u00f6smarty\u2019s Sz\u00f3zat, won\nby B\u00e9ni Egressy. A year later, another competition was held to write music for\nK\u00f6lcsey\u2019s Himnusz. Ferenc Erkel participated in the competition and finished\nhis music months before the official deadline; in fact, the final product was\ncompleted in only one hour. Nowadays, two manuscripts are known: the choral orchestra\nversion for the 1844 competition and another quartet choral version completed\nmuch later in 1880.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nrhythm of the two pieces differs from one another and it is difficult to decide\nwhich is the \u201coriginal.\u201d Interestingly, neither of them is the same as today\u2019s\nversion as both have a faster pace. In 2013, the Hungarian Olympic Committee\nadopted a more bouncy version for use in sporting events. This version is far\nmore similar to the original and has been performed by the M\u00c1V Symphony\nOrchestra at the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Himnusz\nand 1848<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1848, it was already evident that the piece would be regularly played at\nrevolutionary events, however, not always played first. On March 15th at the\nNational Theater following J\u00f3zsef Katona\u2019s B\u00e1nk B\u00e1n opera, the audience\ndemanded the anthem be played fourth behind the R\u00e1k\u00f3czi March, the Marseillaise\nand others. But from the revolution on, Himnusz slowly became the national\nanthem of Hungary. Over time it became common practice to hear the piece at\npolitical events, public celebrations and end of school events. Yet, the\nHimnusz was never played in churches given the dogmatically questionable nature\nof this line: \u201cThis nation has suffered for all sins.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\ntook 80 years for it to be suggested as the official national anthem of\nHungary. However, some politicians (such as K\u00e1roly E\u00f6tv\u00f6s) had strong beliefs\nas to why Himnusz should not be the anthem. They argued that although the poem\nis beautiful, \u201cthe glorious song of the nation, the national anthem, should not\nbe about complaints and lamentation.\u201d At the end of World War I, Gotterhalte,\nthe \u201cKaiserhymne\u201d of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was last heard in Hungary.\nAfter that, only Erkel\u2019s work was played as a national anthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe lost First World War<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe Trianon Treaty, Erkel\u2019s original score changed to a slower, more tragic,\nverbunko rhythm. In 1938, Ern\u0151 Dohn\u00e1nyi produced a new orchestral version of\nthis slower piece. A year later, the Minister of Culture issued a decree on how\nthe anthem is meant to be performed, saying that \u201caccording to the prayerful\nnature of the anthem, it can only be given on serious occasions.\u201d As a result,\nit was not permitted to be played at sporting events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communists\nwanted to replace it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During\nthe communist regime, the music was mostly played without text, followed\nimmediately by the Soviet anthem. There was an effort to change the anthem in\nHungary as well and J\u00f3zsef R\u00e9vai, Minister of Culture, wanted to entrust\nmusician Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly and poet Gyula Illy\u00e9s with the writing of a more\noptimistic and non-denominational national song. However, they all eventually\nagreed that Erkel and K\u00f6lcsey\u2019s work should not be replaced and succeeded in\nconvincing the leadership of the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Himnusz\nbecomes the official national anthem, finally<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nthe dawn of the regime change on 23 October 1989, the anthem was again brought\nto the political decision-makers. On the basis of a governmental decision, the\nbirthday of Himnusz (22 January) became the Day of Hungarian Culture. XXXI. tv\n36. \u00a7 states: \u201cThe Anthem of the Republic of Hungary is Ferenc K\u00f6lcsey\u2019s\nHimnusz, with the music of Ferenc Erkel.\u201d 166 years after Ferenc K\u00f6lcsey wrote\nthe poem, it finally became the official national anthem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 22nd 1823, Ferenc K\u00f6lcsey \u2013 one of the most important literary characters in Hungarian history \u2013 completed his manuscript of the Hungarian National Anthem which is now considered his work of art. It was first mentioned as the national anthem in 1989 and since then the day when the poem was completed is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":57908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[302,306,296],"tags":[3390],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57909,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57892\/revisions\/57909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}