Little Hungarian Culture Book

The Hungarian culture

Hungarian culture stepped into the limelight in the recent past when Imre Kertész was awarded with the Nobel prize for literature for his book ‘Fatelesness’. The hero of the book is an adolescent boy who grows matured by the horrible experiences gained in a Nazi death camp and then is therefore unable to get back to normal life. The objective, almost documentary style of the novel has created a new literary approach to Holocaust. The novel was adapted into film by cameraman and director Lajos Koltai.
Artistic styles, though not born in Hungary, have their greatest figures in each era in our country as well. Just take Mór Jókai, the greatest Hungarian tale-teller, the ‘Hungarian Victor Hugo’ or ‘Hungarian Jules Verne’, whose life-work is no inferior to the before-mentioned Western masters, neither in terms of quality nor in terms of quantity. Just to name a few of the most well-known Hungarian writers and poets: Sándor Petőfi, János Arany, Mihály Vörösmarty, Endre Ady, Attila József, Dezső Kosztolányi, Mihály Babits, Gyula Krúdy.
The greatest ‘star’ in music in the 19th century was Franz Liszt, the world-famous piano player and composer. One of the world’s most prestigious musical institutions, i.e. the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Budapest, was named after him. One of Budapest’s largest and most beautiful concert halls can be found in the Conservatory and, naturally, musical education is of the highest standards here in all fields of music.
The Hungarian folk arts and crafts are world famous, including handicraft, folk dance and especially Hungarian folk music (which is not to be confused with Hungarian gypsy music and folk-style songs). In the first half of the 20th century Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály gave European music a new momentum by collecting Hungarian folk songs and the folk music of the neighbouring nations as well as using them in their musical compositions. Both of them were world-famous. Zoltán Kodály was one of the greatest figures of modern choir music, whose method of musical education, i.e. the Kodály method, is well-known all over the world and used by many teachers of music.
In the recent past Budapest has become a real cultural centre where cultural and art festivals are organized in every season; world-famous performers and artists in various spheres and at various levels of culture can be seen in the capital day by day. Life is always bustling in Budapest, however, some of the cities and towns in the country can also boast of a great cultural life. Pécs, a large city in the south, was successful in applying for the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2010.

Let me say a few words here about my father, Imre Timár, the freeman of Siófok, who deceased last year, in 2007. He was a conductor who was recognized throughout the whole country. I do not intend to present his biography here but I would like to mention that he was a student of Zoltán Kodály in the 1950’s at the famous Budapest Music Academy. If you have the time, please, listen to two pieces performed by children and girls living in Siófok. The first is one of Kodály’s most beautiful choral works, the Pünkösdölő (Whitsun Gaieties), while the second one is a wonderful finale from one of the masses of the great master of Vienna, Joseph Haydn.

Sport:

Sports life has a long history in Hungary. With a total of 157 gold, 137 silver and 159 bronze medals Hungary is ranked 7th in the all time Olympic Games medal count, right after countries with a huge population and a significant sports history. The most successful sports: kayak-canoe, swimming, modern pentathlon, fencing, water-polo, handball and gymnastics. Football is another sport with a great history in the country. The so-called ‘Golden Team’ of the 1950’s was considered to be the best football team of Europe, the one that first triumphed over England after a long time and was the best bet at the ’56 World Cup, however the final against Germany was lost. The Hungarian team was second at another Olympic Games in the 1930s. Our Olympic football teams have already won 6 medals, including three golds.