a Budapesti Történeti Múzeum Királypincéje
a Budapesti Történeti Múzeum Királypincéje
Dames and Witches
Hungarian Maidens' and Wives' Acts from the 17-19th Century
Researchers of folklore and music history have long
been interested in ancient Hungarian secular poetry, as it shows
innumerable parallels with the texts of ancient English and German
songs. These texts spread either with the help of handwritten
song-books, or via popular prints such as pulp literature and
calendars. A great part of these lyrics flowed into the peasants'
folklore in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries; without them, we
would not have the full scope of folk poetry. It was mainly Imola
Küllős's research which showed how these texts — preserved by students,
soldiers, apprentices and civilians — could later on serve as a
mediator between literature and oral tradition (the latter cannot be
reconstructed). It popularized these poetic compositions, and at the
same time it preserved and advanced the fragments of oral tradition
towards literature.
This so-called "public poetry" is mainly a unique and volumnious corpus
which consists of various topics taken from the authors' social and
private life, sometimes with a didactic or a personal flavour. One of
its most popular groups consists of poems dealing with marriage and the
role of females. These contained important rules of wedded life — with
a didactic hint — so that a wife would not tyrannize her husband.
Though most songs are personal monologues enriched with epic details,
some sort of teaching is also hidden in them. Some examples: the
pondering of a future husband, a dispossessed or unfortunate widower's
lament, caricature-like pub songs of deviant women, jocular ballads of
infidelity. Lazy and dirty or haughty girls are also not missing from
the scene, and even we can encounter the portrait of some outrageous
spinsters chasing men. We can also find stories of magical tricks by
elderly women forced to be married for financial reasons into marriages
of convenience. These texts are also a veritable source concerning the
history of musical composition and social entertainment in the 17th and
18th centuries.
Before this CD is accused of one-sidedness and misogyny, we would like
to emphasise that our aim was just the opposite. On the one hand, the
overarching female roles were just reactions to the oppression within
family in early modern Hungary. The carnival and the wedding (with an
absurd, upside-down image of the world) have been served as a sort of
social "valve" as early as the era of antiquity, where such songs could
hardly be heard publicly throughout the year. On the other hand, the
authors' humorous, educational intention might have overwritten
reality. Lamenting husbands sometimes cast such faults in their wives'
faces, which in themselves obviously exclude and question the existence
of the mentioned faults. The reciting, cataloguing editing practice
helped enter the girls' and wives' characteristics into a sort of
inventory. Thirdly, these songs are not meant to mock only the ambigous
female roles, but the male ones as well. The hysterical spinster's
counterpole can be found in the figures of immature men busy with
themselves, shrewy wives living with helpless, whiffling husbands, and
women frequenting pubs and running away from their husbands'
indifference. The image of drunkard wives buried into a barrel derives
from the medieval Archipoet (#13). Whoever stares into the distorted
looking-glass will see a distorted face, as the anonymous poets from
old times draw our attention in many different ways to the twistings
and turnings of a relationship between women and men. This sort of
humour is a particular form of communal mental hygiene, with a great
portion of liberating laughter and mockery.
Musica Historica released its 4th CD with a gap-filling purpose. Besides the representatives of public poetry, the poems of Mihály Csokonai Vitéz (1773-1805) (#17) and Ádám Pálóczi Horváth
(1760-1820) (#1, 16) can be heard as well; they became acquainted with
this genre in their daily experiences. The poems were categorized
according to the following themes: songs mocking girls and spinsters,
others mocking married women and old women. A genre-like song (#14)
takes place at the age of Maria Theresa: the soldiers staying in the
peasant houses aroused strong interest among women in the village.
These compositions bear different styles and their music is from
different sources: contemporary melodies, traditional tunes, which can
be collected along with the lyrics. Sources of Hungarian folklore are
especially abundant outside its borders, like in 'Felvidék' (Northern
Hungary, now Slovakia) and in Transylvania. With certain experimental
purposes we recorded a poem from 17th century Transylvania (#7)
accompanied with an internationally known late Renaissance Italian
melody, arranged by Caccini, and its version can also be found in the codex of János Kájoni
from about 1680. Historical and folk melodies are performed according
to their original characteristics and the arrangement mixes the
elements of both musical fields. The lyrics — with the exception of a
few — do not originate from the same source: they are compilations from
the same period, so the verses were arranged freely following the
original compiler's method. The poems are completed with such
instrumental pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries which recall the
scenes and events when and where they were performed, be they carnival,
wedding feast.
Rumen István Csörsz
(Translated by Kinga Morvay and Éva Petrőczi)
