Muzsikas
gives the Al-Bustan festival a taste of folk music from
Hungary Group
makes the evening entertaining amusing and even informative
By
Hannah Wettig Daily
Star staff
Marta
Sebestyen can play the bagpipes without bagpipes. A deep strident
sound coming from her chest, she trumpets short peeps through her
lips. "An old lady taught me this," she said. "The
old lady said you could never learn it, it's talent. But I
practiced a lot." Sebestyen is the most famous folk
singer in Hungary. She sang two songs in the Oscar-winning film
"The English Patient," and another one of her songs is
on the soundtrack of the Robert Altman film "Pret-A-Porter."
On Thursday night, she performed with the folk ensemble Muszikas
at the Al-Bustan Festival in Beit Mery. Her deep almost
haunting voice filled the packed Crystal Garden at the Al-Bustan
Hotel, as she and the four musicians gave the audience a tour of
Hungarian folk music. Far from the fast and happy folk dances one
might associate with Eastern Europe, this was a rather
melancholic evening of ballads and sad love songs. The title
of the concert may have been a bit misleading, said Myrna
Bustani, the coordinator of the festival, before the show
started. It was entitled Selections from the Bartok Album. Yet
Muszikas were not playing anything by the Hungarian composer Bela
Bartok. Bartok was fascinated by Hungarian folk music and
collected it, traveling to remote regions and recording what
village people sang to him. The ensemble explored these
recordings a little, almost unrecognizable because of the poor
sound quality at the beginning of last century, with noises
reminiscent of tractors in the background. From this musical
archive, they derived their repertoire. There was the fast and
short song Bartok had found two girls singing. It seemed like
Sebestyen was performing a miracle with her voice when she
imitated this guttural singing, which was almost a screech. There
was a ballad from Moldavia about a shepherd who asks his
murderers to place a flute on his grave so it may play on its own
when the wind blows. There was also a long, sad love song.
Sebestyen said those were her favorites because of the deep sad
emotions conveyed in these songs, which are found in many
cultures. She intoned Ya Habibi, saying that Arabic love songs
must be similar. In its sometimes strident tunes, the melodies
were indeed at times reminiscent of Arabic music. Much of Eastern
European music can only be written on what in European music is
called a gypsy scale, because it includes, like Arabic music, not
only half, but also quarter tones. However, the deep
melancholy in Sebestyen's voice, the violins and flutes could be
much more easily associated with a country where forests are deep
and grass grows high on vast plains. Much of the happier pieces,
like a wedding song the ensemble played as an encore, sounded
like Irish folk music. So did a song the musician Daniel Hamar
introduced as Chardash. "This is sung in the countryside
after drinking the necessary amount of wine," he said. Hamar
and Sebestyen provided humor and background information
throughout the show. This is how the audience learned about the
gardon - an instrument looking like a small cello, but with rough
wood as if it was quickly put together in a carpenter's shop.
Despite its strings, it is only used as a percussion instrument
and exists nowhere in the world but in the Carpathian mountains,
Hamar explained. Other typical Hungarian instruments played
were the long flute and a special kind of mandolin. Even
though the sounds were sometimes strange and new to the ear,
Sebestyan and Muszikas proved to be another example of the high
quality of artists Myrna Bustani chooses each year for her
prestigious festival, whether they are classical or folk
musicians, ballet dancers or opera singers. Thus, when Hamar said
"You are very lucky people here because now you can buy a CD
from us," this was for many the thing to do.
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