39. évfolyam / 4. szám (2001)

The Musical Traditions of the Cappella Sistina Reflected in Liszt’s Church Music
Zsuzsanna Domokos

This study deals with the influence of Palestrina’s music on the repertory performed at the Cappella Sistina during the nineteenth century, and especially its relationship to individual Liszt compositions. Several of the letters Liszt wrote in the 1860s show how deeply he was impressed by performances at the Sistina most probably with the hope to become its director. According to Liszt’s plan the Missa choralis ought to have been performed in the Cappella or in St. Peter Basilica, and have borne a dedication to the Pope. The compositions performed in Liszt’s time at the Cappella were brief, more (rather than less) homophonic, more easily performed and more easily understood by listeners. Liszt’s Missa choralis and his motets must have been composed with these criteria in mind. The study analyses and makes comparisons between the compositions of the Cappella’s 19^th century composers and that of Liszt in respect to the most characteristic features of the Cappella’s compositional methods. The comparisons suggest that much of the church music Liszt wrote during the 1860s correspond in certain significant ways to the compositional ideals and practices of the Sistina’s composers, without remaining subject to their control.

A Letter by Wolfgang Ebner and Wendelin Hueber to László Esterházy
some Data for a Lesser Known Period of the Music of the Esterházys
Péter Király

His study presents a letter written on 22. October 1651 by the Vienna court organist, W. Ebner, and W. Hueber, organist at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, to the Hungarian aristocrat László Esterházy. In their short reply they promised Esterházy, who had summoned them, to appear at a given date, exactly as Esterházy requested. The author also outlines in the article the available data on László Esterházy’s musicians during the years 1645-1652, while he was head of the Esterházy-family.

The Genealogy of György Kurtág’s Hommage à R. Sch. op. 15d
Friedemann Sallis

The gestation period of György Kurtág’s Hommage à R. Sch. Op. 15d covers a period of approximately fifteen years (1975-1990). Using sketches and drafts conserved in the Kurtág Collection of the Paul Sacher Foundation, this paper seeks to examine how compositional style and technique change over time and how these changes effected the composer’s work concept. Over the past thirty years, sketch studies have opened up new avenues of research, promising wider knowledge of compositional processes and providing insights into the genesis of specific works. Nonetheless, they also render problematic our ability to circumscribe work identity. Rather than focusing on the finite nature of the completed composition as it appears in the published score, the study of sketch material sets the work in a compositional process, revealing not only sources but also half-realised possibilities and unrealised potential. For all the problems it brings to the study of music, such an approach seems particularly apt for a better understanding of Hommage à R. Sch., which appears to emerge out of a network of both complementary and contradictory tendencies.

Musikbezüge der Illustrationen mittelalterlicher hebräischer Manuskripte
András Borgó

Eine bedeutende Anzahl von Bildern in den Illustrationen mittelalterlicher hebräischer Handschriften hat musikalische Bezüge. Die abgebildeten Musikinstrumente sind teils die in der Bibel erwähnten, teils zeitgenössische, manchmal sind es auch reine Phantasiegeräte. Die Instrumente unterscheiden sich nicht von denen in christlichen Manuskripten, aber die Anlässe des Musizierens differieren. Grundthemen der Miniaturen sind Festtagsbräuche, biblish-historische Ereignisse und Personen. Da nicht selten auch nichtjüdische Miniatoren an der Ausschmückung hebräischer Bücher beteiligt waren, ist die Unterscheidung der Herkunft mancher Illustrationen oft nur an der Darstellung kleiner Details, die von tatsächlicher Kenntnis jüdisch-religiösen Lebens zeugen, möglich. Die Abhandlung vermerkt die innerhalb der hebräischen Buchmalerei nachweisbaren Abweichungen, die auf die Eigenarten der sephardischen und der aschkenasischen Bildkunst zurückgehen.
Es wird auch die Frage nach dem Grund der übereinstimmung der Darstellungsweise häufig illustrierter Themen erörtert. Für die hebräischen Manuskripte fehlt – im Unterschied zu den christlichen Handschriften – bis jetzt eine umfassende Analyse der musikalischen Elemente.
Der Aufsatz ist die Zusammenfassung einer ersten diesbezüglichen wissenschaftlichen Arbeit.

Musical Practice and Theory in Relation to the Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Research in Musicology
Jenõ Keuler

Music-theoretical rules are not objective laws. Some music-theoretical problems (e.g. effect of tone system or enharmonic phenomena) may be based on deterministic connections. Diverse sound features require diverse generative time for springing into existence. Unrevealed deterministic connections should be investigated by means of exact sciences to give new viewpoints for the makers of cognitive models.

Kazakh Folksongs from the Two Edges of the Steppe, 4
János Sipos

These four articles are to serve as a comprehensive study on the folk music of two Kazakh ethnic groups, one living on the eastern shore of the Caspian See and the other living some 3000 km apart to the East, in Bayan Ölgiz, West Mongolia. In the first article I wrote about the antecedents of my expeditions, described the collecting trip to south-west Kazakhstan and began to characterize the Kazakh musical styles. In the second article we made acquaintances with the remaining south-western Kazakh folk music styles and types, and with their connections to the folk music of other Turkic peoples and the Hungarian. In the third article one can read about the folk music of the Kazakh minority living in Mongolia.
In the last article I try to give a comparison between the music of the two Kazakh groups mentioned above. Whenever possible, analogies or contacts with the musical styles of other Turkic peoples living elsewhere and with the Hungarians are also pointed out.
An English book based on these articles was published by the Academian Publishing House under the title János Sipos, Kazakh Folksongs from the Two Edges of the Steppe with a CD supplement (www.akkrt.hu).

Drei zeitgenössische Gedichte an Franz Liszt
Ferenc László

Anläßlich der großen Konzertreise, welche Liszt durch das Banat, Siebenbürgen, die Walachei, Moldau und Bukowina bis Istambul und die Ukraine führte (1846-1847), wurden laut Presseberichten des öfteren Gelegenheitsgedichte lokaler Autoren dem Publikum verteilt, von welchen bis jetzt nur drei rumänische Beispiele veröffentlicht worden sind. Im Beitrag wird diese Begleiterscheinung der Tournee mit drei unbekannten Stücken illustriert. Zwei davon sind anonym und verewigen deutsch bzw. ungarish Liszts Besuch vom 28.11.1846 im Musikverein von Klausenburg (Kolozsvár, Cluj), das dritte ist ein undatiertes Werk des vielsitigen ungarischen Klausenburger Diplomjuristen und Schriftstellers György Urházy (1823-1873). Die Gedichte sind bezeichnend sowohl für die allgemeine Verherrlichung des „Klavierkönigs“, als auch für das Niveau der literatischen Kultur der siebenbürgischen Stadt im Vormärz.

A Leaf from My Diary
Hugh Reginald Haweis

Hungarian translation of Hugh Reginald Haweis’ (1838-1901) book: My Musical Life (London: 1886).