Musiques actuelles  :: WOMEX is proud to announce the winner of the WOMEX Award 08...

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 - 10:05 PM

   Muzsikás in this, their 35th year. This is the group of artists who put Hungarian folk music on the international map. With their collaborations with Márta Sebastyén, and now in their superlative work since she departed, they have been the foremost ambassadors for music from Hungary, with a special emphasis on music from Transylvania.

"Without Muzsikás, the Hungarian "táncház (dancehouse)" movement, the

special Hungarian klezmer-revival and the bridge between Hungarian

folk music and Béla Bartók's work would not exist," says Csaba Lokös,

Promoter of the world music stage at the Sziget Festival and a

long-term collaborator with the artists.



On behalf of Muzsikás, band leader Daniel Hamar, says, "It is the

greatest honour that could happen to us this year to recieve this

special award from WOMEX. We never thought 35 years ago when we

started playing and collecting traditional Hungarian folk music in

Hungary and Transylvania that one day we would receive such a

prestigious award. While we were following the routes of the two great

Hungarian composers Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, we always dreamt

that with our interpretation this pure village music can travel the

whole world. We feel that we arrived to a certain stage in our life

were music plays a major role. With this award we receive new energies

to continue this musical journey for at least the coming next 35

years!"



In an essay to be published in the WOMEX 08 Guide, Joe Boyd, whose

Hannibal label released the artists internationally from 1987-2001,

writes, "Exposure on the world stage certainly bestows pride and

confidence on beleaguered traditional cultures, be it the Garifuna

people of Central America, the Griots of West Africa or Occitan

speakers of the Mediterranean coast of France. But it is not often

that music places itself at the centre of the most important issues of

the day, and even rarer that that music touches the hearts and minds

of those both within the culture and those who have only the vaguest

notions about it. The Hungarian group Muzsikás, recipients of this

year’s Womex Award, has accomplished all of that and more.



"They began their careers at a time of political tension and conflict

over culture far more intense than anything most of us have

experienced," continues Boyd. Under Soviet control, "most urban

residents' idea of their own folk music was shaped by the stodgy,

choreographed, fake music performed by state, regional and local

ensembles." The emphasis was on dance and, under the Soviets, they

were stereotypically stylised. In Budapest, "the small 'Bela Bartok'

dance ensemble came up with the radical idea to go into the villages

and observe how people danced in the countryside. The resulting

performances were so radical that an outraged state ensemble

challenged them to a 'dance-off'. The audience booed the state

ensemble off the stage, and the great Hungarian 'dance-house' movement

was born."



>From within the movement, the members of Muzsikás met, joined up, and

made history. "One idea favoured at these early dances," says Boyd,

"was that musicians must learn to dance and dancers must learn to

play - it was impossible to do either with real feeling unless you

understood both sides of the bandstand." With that pact came the birth

of the new Hungarian folk music scene.



László Marton Távolodó, journalist and Artistic Director of The Sziget

Festival world music stage, sees their contributions spread evenly

over their many years of activity. In 1977 their first album launched

the Living Hungarian Folk Music series, putting on vinyl the music

that would influence generations to follow. At the beginning of the

'90s, says László, "Muzsikás also helped strengthen the international

klezmer-revival. Their "Máramaros - The Lost Jewish Music of

Transylvania" album from 1992 contained not only touching and lively

music, but it is also of great significance to music history." This

was a remarkable project where the artists, still joined by Márta

Sebastyén, went searching throughout Máramaros in Transylvania,

finding aged Roma musicians who still remembered the tunes played by

Hungarian-Jewish musicians 30-40 years before. "The album recalls

these tunes," explains László, "witnessing the existence of a special

Hungarian-Jewish instrumental music which had particular

characteristics in comparison to the better-known Hungarian and Jewish

folk music." And so a music that would have disappeared altogether in

a matter of a few more years was brought back to life on the

international stage. Then 1998 brought yet another major milestone,

"The Bartók Album" that "reconstructed the experiences of Béla Bartók

as folk music collector, recalling the particular music that so

inspired Bartók" in some of his key compositions. The renown that came

from the project, he says, "inspired Muzsikás to take further steps in

exploring the meeting ground between classical and folk music." 



In recent years, says Joe Boyd, some members have gone and others

joined, but the core remains intacts, as does the vision. "Whatever

their line-up, they inspire, they communicate and they bring a sense

of history, both ancient and modern."



"If you want to hear Hungarian traditional music at its best then

start with Muzsikás," says Songlines editor Simon Broughton. "They can

play with the authenticity and energy of a real village band, but also

make sense of that music for an international audience in a big

concert hall. Muzsikás know their music inside out - they have been to

the Transylvanian villages where it is played and have worked with the

master musicians who live the music. In Hungary, the band have brought

traditional Hungarian music to thousands of school kids showing its

beauty and relevance. Sadly, as the villages of Romania catch up with

the rest of Europe, this music is disappearing. The international

success of Muzsikás not only makes the music better known, but helps

it survive at source as people realise that it has a value

internationally."



"Muszikas didn't only bring this gift to the people of their land,"

says Mondomix Editor Benjamin MiNiMuM, "they shared it with the whole

wide world. They not only presented us one of the most moving voices

of our era, when they played with Márta Sebestyén, but introduced us

to the roots of klezmer music as played in Transylvania, and so, too,

the wonderful tradition of Táncház music and dance. Yes, we are so

blessed that Muzsikás exists."



"We take so much now for granted," says Boyd. "Listening to Muzsikás

connects us to a time and a place when music was intrinsically a

political statement and playing your instrument a certain way was a

courageous act. The intensity of those times has never left Muzsikás

and we remain lucky to be able to commemorate the spirit of those

times and these wonderful musicians with this award."



Muzsikás will be performing live at WOMEX to close the Sunday Awards

ceremony on the 2nd of November 2008.



The WOMEX Award is now ten years old. In the past we have alternated

our honours between the extraordinary artists and professionals from

our community. This year we have decided to present two WOMEX Awards,

one to Muzsikás and the other to the folk music department of the

Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland.  



For more information on both WOMEX Awards:

http://womex.com/realwomex/awards



For more information on Muzsikás:

http://www.muzsikas.hu