Music history of Hungary

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Hungarian. (March 2021) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Hungarian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Hungarian Wikipedia article at [[:hu:Magyar klasszikus zene]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|hu|Magyar klasszikus zene}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Part of a series on the
History of Hungary
Early history Hungarian prehistory The Carpathian Basin before the Hungarian conquest Roman Pannonia Hunnic Empire
Early medieval Kingdom of the Gepids 454–567 Ostrogothic Kingdom 469–553 Avar Khaganate 567–822 Hungarian invasions of Europe ~800–970 Hungarian conquest 862–895
Medieval Principality of Hungary 895–1000 Kingdom of Hungary 1000–1301 Personal union with Croatia 1102–1918 Golden Bull 1222 Mongol invasion of Hungary 1241–1242 Kingdom of Hungary 1301–1526 Ottoman Wars 1366–1526
Early modern Reformation 1520 Ottoman Wars 1526–1699 Eastern Hungarian Kingdom 1526–1570 Royal Hungary 1526–1699 Ottoman Hungary 1541–1699 Principality of Transylvania 1570–1711 Bocskai uprising 1604–1606 Wesselényi conspiracy 1664–1671 Principality of Upper Hungary 1682–1685 Kingdom of Hungary 1699–1867
Late modern Rákóczi's War of Independence 1703–1711 Principality of Transylvania 1711–1867 Hungarian Reform Era 1825–1848 Revolution of 1848 1848–1849 Hungarian State 1849 Austro-Hungarian Monarchy 1867–1918 Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen 1867–1918 World War I 1914–1918 Interwar period 1918–1941 Hungarian People's Republic 1918–1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic 1919 Hungarian Republic 1919–1920 Treaty of Trianon 1920 Kingdom of Hungary 1920–1946 First Vienna Award 1938 Governorate of Subcarpathia 1939–1945 Second Vienna Award 1940 Revisions of Délvidék 1941 World War II 1941–1945
Contemporary Second Hungarian Republic 1946–1949 Hungarian People's Republic 1949–1989 Revolution of 1956 1956 Goulash Communism 1956–1989 Third Hungarian Republic 1989–2012 Hungary since 2012
Topics Hungarians Timeline History of Transylvania Hungarian language Kingdom of Hungary Árpád dynasty Holy Crown Hungarian Kings Nobility Great Officers Transylvanian Princes Military List of Wars Christianity Economy Flag Coat of arms Literature Music Székelys Jews Budapest
Hungary portal
v t e

Little is known about Hungarian music prior to the 11th century, when the first Kings of Hungary were Christianized and Gregorian chant was introduced. During this period a bishop from Venice wrote the first surviving remark about Hungarian folk song when he commented on the peculiar singing style of a maid. Church schools in Hungary taught Western Christian chanting, especially in places like Esztergom, Nyitra, Nagyvárad, Pannonhalma, Veszprém, Vác and Csanád;^[1] and later schools began focusing on singing, spreading Latin hymns across the country.

Information about music education during this period is known thanks to manuscripts such as the Notebook of László Szalkai, Jacobus de Liège's Speculum musicae (c. 1330–1340, which mentions the use of solmization^[1]), the Hahót Codex, the Codex Albensis and the Sacramentarium of Zagreb. The Pray Codex is a collection of "liturgical melodies ... in neumatic notation ... containing among other things the earliest written record extant of the Hungarian language, the Funeral Oration, ... independent forms of notation and even independent melodies (Hymn to Mary)".^[1]

The first known example of exchange between Hungarian and Western European music is from the 13th century, the "first encounter with the more secular melodic world of the Western world".^[1]

The earliest documented instrumentation in Hungarian music dates back to the whistle in 1222, followed by the koboz in 1326, the bugle in 1355, the fiddle in 1358, the bagpipe in 1402, the lute in 1427 and the trumpet in 1428.^[1] Thereafter the organ came to play a major role.

Though virtually nothing is known about them, Hungarian minstrels existed throughout the Middle Ages and may have kept ancient pagan religious practices alive.^[1] At the Synod of Buda in 1279 the church banned their congregation from listening to them, despite their having come to be employed by noblemen in courts. By the 14th century instrumental music had become their most important repertoire and minstrel singers had become known as igric.^[2] The golden age of courtly music (which had followed French models for most of the early Middle Ages before musicians from Flanders, Italy and Germany arrived) was during the reign of Matthias Corvinus and Beatrice.^[1]