The Good Musician

AVAE choral tour — Budapest, Hungary

by csnowden on June 24th, 2008

Castle Hill, Budapest, Hungary. The largest spire is the Basilica of St. Mattias, one of the venues where AVAE was privileged to perform.

A bit of background

The Danube River separates Buda (west, Castle Hill) and Pest (east, government and commerce). Built in the first century B.C. by Celts, the Romans occupied the town as the eastern border of the Roman Empire. In the fifth century, Goths and other peoples on the run from the Huns overran the Roman defenses. These in turn were routed by Ostragoths and Huns. The name Attila is still popular today.

Over the following centuries, Buda and Pest were dominated by various populations, emerging as an important trade center between Europe and Constantinople in the 15th and 16th century. Cultural growth was particularly active during the reign of King Matthias, with the second Hungarian university established in 1395, and the first book was printed in 1473.

Composers and music

By the 19th century, Budapest emerged as a major intellectual center, and a rich environment for the simultaneous development of musical performance, composition, and pedagogy. Hungary produced Ferenc (Franz) Lizst, composer, wicked-good pianist, and founder of the (Hungarian) Academy of Music. That in turn fostered the famous Zoltan Kodaly (Ko-die) method, a brand-new musical pedagogy, culminating in the internationally-known Kodaly Institute.

Then you have Bela Bartok, musicologist, educator, and composer extraordinaire, teaching at the Academy at the same time as Gustav Mahler, one of the orchestral gods.

Coming up next…more about Hungary, Slovenia

POSTED IN: Baroque, Byzantine, Classical, Ethnomusicology, Medieval, Romantic, music history, musicology