Kárpátalja Népzenéje = Folk Music Of Sub-Carpathia

Artists

Album Info

Release Date: 1991

Label: Quintana

(1 sided insert with lyrics.)

Magyar, ukrán, román, cigány és zsidó dallamok / Hungarian, Ukrainian, Rumanian, Gypsy and Jewish Tunes

Helyszíni felvételek Ukrajnából, a történelmi Bereg, Máramaros és Ugocsa vármegyékből / Recordings on the spot



„It is no easy task to write this recording, since it inspires two contradictory emotions on the one hand, we are happy that the popular tradition of the inhabitants of these fairy-tale regions, who have all too often been subjected to grinding destitution, should be able to reach a wide audience, but on the other hand, we deplore the fact that we are unable to offer more than fragments of the once incredibly rich musical heritage of the peasants of eastern Carpathians.

The diversity of this music is due to the peculiar geographic situation of this „anonymus land”, to its cultural and historic traditions, and to its ethnic origins. It is, alas, exceptional that we have managed to have any contact at all with those of our compatriots living beyond borders that were closed for many decades. For this reason the demonstration of the wealth and the systematic collection of the musical and ethnological heritage of this region remains an idle fancy.

We wish to express our obligation and our gratitude to the intellectuals of this people who, in spite of difficult material conditions, lacking modern technical means, and in defiance of the authorities, have nonetheless sought out and rescued the musical patrimony of a two thousand year-old Hungarian population, reduced to a minority, living under conditions that threaten the complete decay of their folklore, and in which the children express themselves in their mother language in fear of reprisals. They have been of great assistance to us in discovering those performers who are still alive.

The technical quality of the recordings is by no means consistent: some of them were made in 1971-72, and it would be a vain undertaking to try to locate the performers of those years… We have preserved, before each piece, the comments and the presentation of the various protagonists, with a view to the preservation of the authenticity of the atmosphere.

We beg your indulgence for the instrumentalists’ and singers’ unsureness: we are dealing with musicians who had no opportunity to practise their art for twenty or thirty years… the clarinet was disinterred from the drawer, the accordeon from the cellar, the violin from the attic, and the voice that sings is hoarse and tired…”
(Ferenc Kiss)

Side A total time: 24:58
Side B total time: 24:15

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