Music of Hungary

Hungary has made many contributions to the fields of folk, popular and classical music. Hungarian folk music is a prominent part of the national identity and continues to play a major part in Hungarian music.^[1][2] The Busójárás carnival in Mohács is a major folk music event in Hungary, formerly featuring the long-established and well-regarded Bogyiszló orchestra.^[3] Instruments traditionally used in Hungarian folk music include the citera, cimbalom, cobza, doromb, duda, kanászkürt, tárogató, tambura, tekero and ütőgardon. Traditional Hungarian music has been found to bear resemblances to the musical traditions of neighbouring Balkan countries and Central Asia.^[4][5]

Hungarian classical music has long been an "experiment, made from Hungarian antedecents and on Hungarian soil, to create a conscious [variant of] musical culture [using the] musical world of the folk song".^[6] Although the Hungarian upper class has long had cultural and political connections with the rest of Europe, leading to an influx of European musical ideas, the rural peasants maintained their own traditions such that by the end of the 19th century, Hungarian composers could draw on rural peasant music to (re)create a Hungarian classical style.^[7] For example, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, two of Hungary's most famous composers, are known for using folk themes in their music. Bartók collected folk songs from across Central and Eastern Europe, including Croatia, Czechia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia, whilst Kodály was more interested in uncovering a distinctively Hungarian musical style.

One of the most significant musical genres in Hungary is Romani music, with a historical presence dating back many centuries. Hungarian Romani music is an integral part of the national culture, and it has become increasingly popular throughout the country.^[8]

During the era of Communist rule in Hungary (1949–1989) a Song Committee scoured and censored popular music for traces of subversion and ideological impurity. Since then, however, the Hungarian music industry has begun to recover, producing successful performers in the fields of jazz such as trumpeter Rudolf Tomsits, pianist-composer Károly Binder and, in a modernized form of Hungarian folk, Ferenc Sebő and Márta Sebestyén. The three giants of Hungarian rock, Illés, Metró and Omega, remain very popular.