Scan 229
The American history and encyclopedia of music .., 1908
10 lines. Read by computer on 6 September 2026. Printed page 157. See the scan on archive.org.
1imitation of the old tarogato and tilinko (flageolets); and the trumpet or cornet.
3All true gypsy bands play without their notes, the two leaders playing as their caprice dictates, and the others following with their natural instinctive feeling for the harmony. There is no attempt made at employing contrapuntal devices; that is, no separate melodies are played against the solo part, but there is just a completing of the harmony by the members of the band, who follow their leader as he indicates. Some of the harmonies, which are wondrously beautiful, are resultant from the use of the distinctive Hungarian scale, which differs from that of all other peoples. The piece played is always improvised, and as it is never done twice exactly the same, it has been almost impossible to note down such music. Hence, it is that so few records of true gypsy music exist.
5HUNGARY.
7In the latter part of the Ninth Century, the Turanian hordes of Finnish, Turkish or mixed races swept down across the Carpathian Mountains, entered Hungary and subdued the country. The descendants of these conquerors term themselves "Magyar;" we call them Hungarians.
9It must not be imagined that the gypsies have usurped all of Hungarian music. They are merely the professional musicians of the people and furnish music for dancing and "occasions." The Hungarian folk have had from early times their own characteristic songs, dances and instruments. There are records from the Tenth Century of hymns, dirges and martial songs, these being sung first by the minstrels and jongleurs and afterward adopted by the people at large. Ekkehard, a monk living in the Tenth Century, tells of a dance which he calls "Siebensprünge" (the Seven Steps). The old instruments were the lute, the strings of which were plucked with it lying across the knees; the hegedü or violin; the tilinkô, a sort of flageolet or shepherd's pipe; the kürt, a hunting-horn; and the tambourine.
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