The Gypsy String Band

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1959

Label: Rondo

Gypsy Music

In the 18th century there developed national Hungarian dances of a very picturesque character, e.g., the verbunkoche which was danced by soldiers in full uniform with swords and spurs. It is very wild in character and consists of two sections, a slow lassu and a quick friss (friska). A more civilized variety is the palotache, which is of a more regular design and shows the influence of Western idioms.
The Czardas (Tschardache) is said to be a 19th-century revival of the old verbunko and shows also the division into two sections, a slow and a quick one, sometimes with the addition of an ornamental middle section, the czifra. A typical feature of Hungarian dance music is the virtuoso treatment of the violin, chiefly in the bands of gypsies who added to the melodies their characteristic touch of rubato execution and of improvised cadenzas. Typical features of this music are alla zoppa-rhythms, augmented seconds (Gypsy scale), ornamented cadential formulae, and the playing of the cimbalom. There is also a genuine gypsy music amongst the rural gypsies in Hungary.

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