Longing for a National Rebirth: Mythological Tropes in Hungarian Music Criticism 1968–1974

Abstract

The article analyses the reception of György Kurtág's The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza op.7 in Germany in 1968 and Hungary in 1968 and 1974 in terms of cultural values and ambitions that were incommensurably divided in the Cold War era. Initially contextualizing The Sayings within Hungarian post-war musical society, it then explains the 'delegation' of Hungarians who travelled to Darmstadt to perform it (and other contemporary works) there. German reception reveals a sense of feeling in the cultural 'centre', and a tendency to exoticize the Eastern visitors. Hungarian reception back home reveals both a pretence that the German reception had been wildly successful, and a need to assert a positive future for Hungarian music that drew on mythical tropes of regeneration and redemption. When The Sayings was subjected to musicological study in 1974 this tendency was yet stronger, the work itself seen as a statement about a positive future and a rebirth for Hungarian music.