Verbunk 

Recruitment Songs

The birth of national dance

“Recruitment Songs” conjures up the Age of Romanticism and national revival in Hungary. The contemporary society created “national” forms of music and dance through a process of countrywide “globalisation”; this resulted in a common dance dialect that existed above the different traditions belonging to the various regions. During this process the tastes and fashions of different social strata were unified through the careful mediation of contemporary dance gurus. This performance is a memorial to the development of the “national dance”, and its survival in folk tradition.

In the first part we give the viewers a glimpse of archaic dance forms (jumping dances, whirling dances, pair dances, and military dances), which were used as source material during the unifying programmes of the Romantic Movement. The “verbunk” (recruitment dance) developed from archaic men’s dances, whilst the “czardas” developed from the closed, whirling, stooping and cajoling couple dances, which appeared during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in the Carpathian Basin. Thus, the verbunk and czardas are combinations of past forms. The reinterpretation of such forms meant the synthesis of Hungarian dance figures and styles into a form that expressed the Romantic Age and the development of national identity in Hungary.  At first the development of the czardas signalled the awakening of national identity in the more narrow upper echelons of society, but later, after the defeat of the 1848 Hungarian War of Independence, it signalled the self-awakening of a much broader social strata: even the word czardas (from csárda, “inn”) has its roots in the language of the common people. The dance’s influence lives on today in both Hungary and the neighbouring countries.  The second part of the show gives us a taste of this variety, showing us the different folklorized versions of the former national dance.

As the most common musical performers of the age were the gypsy bands that have survived through to today, the orchestra of the Hungarian State Folk Dance Ensemble plays a dual role: in addition to performing the music accompanying the dances, it gives voice to independent concert pieces from the period as well.

Video is available: please click here

Part I.

László Kelemen: Opening

Zsolt Szilágyi– Zoltán Varga: “I Begin My Dance…”                       

Old Hungarian Jumping and Cajoling Dances

Zoltán Varga: Kázmér Sárközy’s Magyar Dance                        

Vonulós and Slow Hungarian Dance fromTransylvania

János Bihari: Colonel Hadik’s Favourite Song and Fast Dance                       

Recruitment Songs from the First Third of the Nineteenth Century

Zsolt Juhász: “Make those Spurs Jingle…”                       

In Memory of the Recruitment Songs of the Eszterházy Hussar Regiment

János Lavotta: Slow Magyar Dance and Fast Dance                       

The Popular Music of National Regeneration

Márk Rózsavölgyi– Zsolt Juhász: Recruitment Dance                       

Recruitment Dance Fantasy to Popular Music of the Reform Age

Ferenc Sebő– Zsolt Juhász: Palotache – Magyar czardas                        

A Dance Evoking the Lofty Atmosphere of the Illustrious National Salons 

Part II. 

Zoltán Varga: Rákóczi March, Circle Dance and Skipping Dance                       

Peasant Couple Dances and Male Dances from Rábaköz

János Bihari: Recruitment Song and Fast Dance                       

The Popular Music of Gypsy Lead Violinists in the Reform Age

László Kelemen– Zoltán Varga: “From the City of Vienna, West to East…”                       

Recruitment Song and Czardas from Kisnemes

László Kelemen: After the Revolution                       

The Collapse of the 1848 Revolution…

Zsolt Szilágyi: “Let’s Dance a Czardas, Stamp the Floor…”                       

Hungarian Dances from the Szilágyság Region

Zsolt Juhász– Zsolt Szilágyi– Zoltán Varga: “Let’s Dance Now As Others Danced Of Yore…”  

Conductor: Jenő Oláh

Dance Ensemble Director: Richárd Kökény

Assistants: Gabriella Bakos, Beatrix Borbély, Péter Galát   

Artistic Director: Gábor Mihályi (Harangozó Prize)