Verbunkos

Verbunkos (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈvɛɾbunkoʃ], other spellings are Verbounko, Verbunko, Verbunkas, Werbunkos, Werbunkosch, Verbunkoche) is an 18th-century Hungarian dance and music genre.

The genre itself has many origins in Hungarian folk and popular music (Bellman 2001; Loya 2011, 17). The name is derived from the German word Werbung, a noun derived from the verb werben, that means, in particular, "to enroll in the army"; verbunkos—recruiter. The corresponding music and dance was played during military recruiting, which was a frequent event at these times, hence the character of the music.^vague

The genre was sometimes attributed to Gypsies, because the accompaniment was usually played by Gypsy musicians in characteristic Gypsy style (Bellman 2001; Head 2005, 89).

The verbunkos is typically in a pair of sections, slow (lassú), with a characteristic dotted thythm, and fast (friss), with virtuosic running-note passages. In some cases, this slow-fast pair alternates at greater length (Bellman 2001).

The Gypsy composer János Bihari remains the most well-known composer and interpreter of verbunkos. Eighty-four compositions of his remain.^{citation needed} Bihari was an accomplished violinist during his lifetime, and he played in the court in Vienna during the entire Congress of Vienna in 1814. Another composer of verbunkos was József Kossovits (d. c. 1819).

In the second half of the 19th century verbunkos appeared in opera. The most successful operas of Ferenc Erkel, namely Hunyadi László and Bánk bán were heavily influenced by this genre.^{citation needed}

Béla Bartók's Contrasts (1938), a trio for clarinet, piano and violin, is in three movements, the first of which is named Verbunkos. His Violin Concerto No. 2 is also an example of verbunkos style.^{citation needed}

Slovácko verbuňk

The Slovácko verbuňk is also an improvised folk dance in the South Moravia and Zlín districts of the Czech republic, and was Inscribed in 2008 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO (Anon. n.d.).

References

Anon. n.d. "Slovácko Verbuňk, Recruit Dances". UNESCO website (Accessed 8 April 2012).
Bellman, Jonathan. 2001. "Verbunkos". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Head, Matthew. 2005. "Haydn's Exoticisms: 'Difference' and the Enlightenment". In The Cambridge Companion to Haydn, edited by Caryl Leslie Clark, 77–94. Cambridge Companions. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521833479 (cloth) ISBN 9780521541077 (pbk).
Loya, Shay. 2011. Liszt's Transcultural Modernism and the Hungarian-Gypsy Tradition. Eastman Studies in Music 87. Rochester: University Rochester Press. ISBN 9781580463232.

Verbunkos

Slovácko verbuňk

References

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