# ARTS #### FINE ARTS MUSIC DANCE ### FINE ARTS #### Art in the age of the conquest Hungarian art is coloured by its multi-rooted origin: the influence of living together with Finno-Ugric peoples can be detected in existing folk art and folk traditions, in mythology - which preserves fragmentary memories of the past - and folk music. On the basis of contemporary burial traditions and archaeological findings, we could equally find dissimilar features among the memories of the ancient Hungarians. At the time of the conquest of the Carpathian Basin and the founding of the state, the population - being essentially Finno-Ugric in its language - had several features in its education, its social and military structure that were characteristic of the steppe. The archaeological findings from the 10th century are, of course, rather scant. The majority of organic materials decayed in the soil, so apart from pottery and animal bones, mostly only metal objects survived. The most frequent archaeological findings are objects of everyday use: decorations for clothes, weapons, jewellery and relics of food and drink sacrifices (pots and animal bones). It was characteristic of the burial traditions of the stock-breeding Hungarians to sacrifice one of the horses that belonged to the deceased person. The meat of his favourite animal was eaten during the funeral feast, its skin, skull and shin bones were put in the grave, alongside the corpse. The nomad world and way of life is reflected by men's saddle-horses and richly harnessed steeds, pointing to the one-time rank and social status of its owner. One of the characteristic features of Hungarian art is the palmette motif (leaf and branch) on pouch-plates. The pouch hanged from the right side of a man's belt and it usually contained tools for making fire (striker, flint and tinder). The metal plates were embossed from the back and patterned with a chisel (and punch) on its face; the surface of the background was often covered with the so-called fire-gilding (fine gold powder was melted on top). The main motif on pouch-plates - just as on clothes, sabres, cap ornaments or belt-mounts - was the palmette. On women's clothing and other findings the representations of animal shapes are more common, appearing on different braid-discs, bracelets and even on harness-mounts. Besides the usual floral motifs, animal-shapes can hardly ever be found on relics connected to men (strap-ends, snaffle sticks, disc ornaments and principal sabres). One of the best-known findings is the animal-shape motif on the pouch-plate from Bezdéd: a griffin with a dog head and the tail feathers of a peacock (senmurv) and a one-horned, winged animal - the figures of Iranian mythology - surround the Byzantine cross. It is a proof of contemporary syncretic beliefs. Turuls (eagle or hawk-like bird of prey), or stags appear most frequently on relics. They - like palmette - might be of Iranian origin. The embossing of motifs on pouch-plates has similarities with leather work. The representation of light and shadow might refer to textile precedents. The rich women's clothing at the age of the conquest included gold-plated silver braid discs, hangers, shirt-collar decorations, mounts on decorative kaftan caps and earrings. These accessories were not only decorations: the animal representations on them might have given protection to its owner, and the tree of life symbolised the living-space of helping spirits. Gold and silver coins, treasures and jewellery collected in the course of plundering campaigns were soon melted, and goldsmiths made various products from it according to their own system of symbols or the taste of their customers. To this great splendour, a large quantity of precious metals was required: for example, the average weight of men's belt-mounts showing their ranks and social status was about 200 grams, but some items of women's horse-furnishing might have required about 1.5 kilogram of silver. #### Art in St Stephen's age The founding of the state and the gradual transformation of economy brought slow but drastic changes. In the second half of the 10th century the Hungarians - having given up pagan traditions - attempted to join the community of Western European feudal states. The main motif of folk art, the palmette, became fashionable in stone-dressing, too. One of the oldest indications of this is the appearance of ribbon-braided decorations on the architectural remains of the Zalavár basilica with three naves. At the same time the use of acantus leaves can be seen. The preliminary of the Zalavár monastery, founded by king St Stephen in 1019, was a Christian church built in the 9th century, and the town of Pécs was also named after its ancient Christian church (Quinque martyrorum basilicae) in the Middle Ages (Quinque basilicae, Fünfkirchen). The oldest buildings of the Hungarians were Byzantine-type central churches and the little rotundas of Western-type baptising churches. Royal chapels, large circular churches and churches with a single nave were transformed into convent churches under the management of the abbacy. Soon huge cathedrals and magnificent abbeys were built on mount St Martin (today's Pannonhalma), in Bakonybél. The monumental product of secular architecture was chief prince Géza's palace on the castle-hill of Esztergom. King Stephen continued his son's building, so Esztergom could become the main ecclesiastical and political centre. Later Székesfehérvár became the royal residence, where the constructions of a colossal three-nave basilica began around 1018. The church had a 60-meter long main nave and a double-pillared colonnade. This church of the Virgin Mary was planned to be the church of the royal family, but eventually it became a secular centre with ecclesiastical privileges. The royal pulpit stood here, and the crown jewels were also kept here. According to his own will, Stephen was buried here in 1038: his first resting-place was a white stone coffin, made from a Roman sarcophagus, showing Byzantine elements in its iconography. The relationship of the donor and the founded institution was very important in this period. King St Stephen enacted a law, according to which every ten villages had to build a church. The furnishing of the church was provided by the king, the priests and books were provided by the bishop. Thus western-type Christianity and art was continuously spreading in the country. The most important relic of contemporary art is the coronation cloak. This is the only relic that in all probability belongs to the first royal couple of the Hungarians, St Stephen and Gisela. It survived in fact, and it was made in 1031 as a chasuble. The outstanding goldwork of the age is also connected to king Stephen's wife. It is the so-called Gisela-cross. Its gold plates were decorated with enamel cells, real pearls and precious stone settings. Its main figure is a golden Christ-figure, with Gisela and her mother, Isabella of Burgund, kneeling at its legs. The Hungarian queen had it made for her mother's tomb in Niedermünster, Regensburg. The minor remains of contemporary Christianity come with different bronze crosses. These relic-holders and crosses worn on the chest are considered as the first real Christian remains from the 10th century. The hollowed relic-holders from the Holy Land got into the country in large numbers after 1018, when king Stephen opened the Hungarian section of the pilgrimage route to the Holy Land. On the face of the embossed chest crosses we can usually see a Christ-figure, and on the back Mary or on the sides of the cross the donator is represented praying with raised hands. So far only objects connected to historical persons have been mentioned, but now at the end of this summary, let's talk about those memories of the history of art that can be connected to one of the outstanding figures of the Hungarians' early history only through legends. Writing about the 955 Augsburg defeat both Anonymus and Kézai mention Lehel's horn in their chronicles. This horn might have been the main characteristic of leader Lehel - it must have been his emblem of honour. In Hungary the legend refers to a Byzantine ivory carving, which is kept in the museum of Jászberény today. (This work of art is not unique, however, because there are at least 40 such ivory horns among the remains of the early Middle Ages.) Lehel's horn was carved from a tusk of an elephant around the 9th-10th century. On the horn is the representation of the opening ceremony of circus games - often organised by Byzantine emperors. The open palm within a magic symbol in the center may have been the hand of the emperor giving permission to open the games. Ritual drinking from different horns was an old tradition in the steppe. These horns were not only musical instruments, but also served as emblems of honour. The principals of the age of migration had gold horns, the rank of the leaders were shown by silver- or gold-mounted horns. The miniaturist of the Képes Krónika (Illustrated Chronicle) represented the Hungarians' arrival in the Carpathian Basin with a picture where Árpád, in the central scene, is holding a gold-mounted horn in his hand, and he is tasting the water of the Danube. With this, he symbolically takes over the new country. ### MUSIC No written memories of ancient Hungarian music have survived. To reconstruct the musical traditions of the conquering Hungarians, researchers must compare folk music noted down in the 20th century with the musical remains of people related to the Hungarians According to Nestor, the author of ancient Russian chronicles, the songs of the Hungarians entranced Kiev, too, in 885. Ekkehard - in his chronicle compiled at around 1108 - wrote that the Hungarians had found a simple-minded fellow called Heribald in the deserted monastery of St Gallen. Having seen his stupidity they mercifully did not kill him. They even had dinner with him. After drinking an enormous quantity of wine, which they found in the cellar, "they began shouting to their gods in terrible voices". After this loud revelry, their interpreter, a captive priest, who spoke Hungarian, - together with Heribald - started to sing the antiphony of the Holy Cross (Sanctifica nos - Sanctify us) in a hoarse voice, as it was the feast of the Holy Cross the following day, on 3rd May. The Hungarians listened to the strange song of the captives in astonishment, until the horns and cries of their watchmen drew their attention to the approaching enemy. In the description of the 993 Merseburg battle, Liutprand, bishop of Cremona, mentions that the pagan Hungarians hurled themselves on the Germans singing the prayer "Kyrie eleison" (Lord, have mercy on us) with the battle-cry "hui, hui". Anonymus also wrote about the revels of the Hungarians in his chronicle. Formerly, in connection with the fights near Kiev, he mentioned the battle horns, too. The description of pagan revolts after king Stephen's death refers to the ritual-like music of the Hungarians in some way or another: in 1046, János, son of Vata, collected numerous shamans and prophet- priests around himself, who praised their lord with enchanting songs. In 1060, when the crowd demanded the restoration of pagan religion from king Béla I - who hid behind the walls of the Fehérvár castle, their leaders attacked Christianity with disgraceful carmens (charming songs). According to researchers, there might have been many style levels in the development of the music of the Hungarians. The first major period of music comes with the time when they lived together with Ugric peoples; the second one may have developed in course of the centuries of contact with Turkic peoples. The group of dirges - the oldest layer in Hungarian folk music, presumably from the age when they lived together with Ugric peoples - represent archaic forms, and show a relationship with a certain type of Ostyak songs. In this type of songs features of ritual and memorial, praising and weeping (for the dead heroes) are still interwoven, although they subsequently become independent genres. The memorial function continued in epic genres, the praising style lived on in hymnic works, while the role of calling spirits continued in funeral songs. Soloistic recitative, that is, half-spoken, half-sung presentation is a typical feature of the dirges. The best-known descendants of mourning-style are the ballad of the big mountain thief, "Rosemary Grown on the Snow-covered Mountain of the Rainbow" and "Pannonia Faces Tremendous Decline". While dirges can be connected to Ugric influence, the appearance of five-note pentaton melodies in Hungarian musical traditions can be explained by the centuries-long co-existence with the Turkic peoples. Musical beauty and the expression of emotions played an important role. A well-known example is the folk song entitled "The Peacock Has Settled" from the county of Somogy. Feasts connected to nature can presumably be traced back to the age of the Conquest and the founding of the state. The musical components of these have survived among the people till today. Minstrel songs are memories of the feast of the winter solstice; the minstrel refrain itself has its equivalent in the refrain formulae of Byzantine rituals. Midsummer night songs - which are connected to the summer solstice - and the musical elements of other spring folk traditions refer to the reception of the influence of European agricultural states, Byzantium and other Slav peoples. Originally, minstrels were performers of heroic songs from the pagan age in princes' courts. Today's folk minstrels are accompanied by loud musical instruments, such as flute, jug-pipe, stick with chains on it, and minstrels' pipe. Musical remains of nature-magic were preserved in some children's songs. Lullabies were adjusted to the rhythm of rolling, they are simple melodies, or without melody, and petting was a typical characteristic feature in them. The strong rhythmic choosing-rhymes, counting-rhymes and nursery rhymes also refer to their ancient origin. With the adoption of Christianity a significant change occurred in Hungarian music: the cultural heritage and melodic repertoire, which was already common property in European Christian thinking at around the turn of the millennium were transmitted into the Carpathian Basin together with the new religion. It is also very important that the network of institutions supporting the maintenance, cultivation and transmission of these spiritual values had already been set up. Monastic, parish and chapter schools spread literacy, science and music in Hungary, too, and they had remained the only institutes of Western Christian culture up until the end of the Middle Ages. School education was divided into two main parts: grammatica and musica. At medieval schools children were obliged to sing for 2-3 hours a day during services. In spite of the fact that both the music sung and the unified liturgical frame connected Hungary to the European Christian community, a specific Hungarian Gregorian style - different from western Gregorian music - developed slowly. Hungary adopted the Gregorian repertoire in the Central-European, the so-called pentatonising version. Data show that around 1028 a monk from Regensburg, called Arnoldus, arrived in Esztergom and there, together with archbishop Anastazius, created a new series of songs in honour of St Emmran of Regensburg, based on ancient writings. The choir of the cathedral sang these songs on the day of the Saint. Musicians might have been encouraged to write similar songs by the flourishing cult of saints. The Hungarian Gregorian repertoire was supplemented by local variants from the beginning. The first cycle of Hungarian Gregorian music was a series of antiphons and responses written for the canonisation of king St Stephen - probably in Fehérvár. Its main movement was "God Save Late King Stephen", that survived in the Transylvanian codex from the end of the Middle Ages. Later, other rhyming chants were created in the honour of other Hungarian saints, like prince Emeric and king Ladislas. The first liturgical-musical settlement connected to church and state organisation probably took place during Stephen's reign. It influenced the repertoire and the structure of the service (mainly the office), and also the melodic variants, the songs, their order, and the choice of melodic variants. The birth of Hungarian musical composition, which combined the German neumatic writing and the French-Italian orientation, was also typical of the Hungarian Gregorian music culture; its first manuscripts can be found in the Pray-codex. At the same time, pipers and drummers were also employed in principal courts. They lived in groups in the neighbouring villages. Minstrels were associated to them, too. Latin (Western Christian) music songs from the pagan age - first of all in folk traditions - also continued. ### DANCE Concerning the early history of Hungarian dance culture - in the absence of evidence - we can only guess how people in the Carpathian Basin danced at the time of the Conquest. On the basis of the comparative analysis of the available scanty historical sources and the folk dance of today's European peoples, three big dance regions can be described: 1. South-East-European region: where the dominant dance is the chain- or circle dance, where dances are created in groups, half-settled. 2. Eastern-European region: where individual, free, soloic, improvisative dances dominate. 3. Western-European region: where totally settled, collective, space-formative paired dances (kodrills and contra dances) constituted the basic dances. According to theories based on the memories of dance history and numerous Western- European sources it turned out that these three regions actually represent the three periods of the historical development of European dance culture. People from the Balkans, isolated from the European cultural changes for a long period, perpetuated medieval collective chain-round dances up until today. Eastern-European peoples (including the Hungarians) preserved the renaissance "paired love dances", which became popular at the end of the Middle Ages, at the beginning of the Modern Age, while Western-European peoples preserved quadrilles and contra dances, becoming general in the 18th century. In this wide historical, geographical and social investigation we have managed to differentiate an older and a newer layer in Hungarian dance traditions, which are definitely dissimilar to each other. The dances of the old style layer show remarkable similarities with the dances of the neighbouring peoples in the Carpathian Basin. Circle dances at the borderline of the old and the new layer indicate South-East-European and ancient medieval connections. In a wider sense, sources from the age of the Conquest suggest that Hungarian culture showed ambiguity even at that time. In the description of the St Gallen adventure and in the set of martial games, songs and revels mentioned in Anonymus's Gesta Hungarorum, dances occur in an undifferentiated form, just as in Eastern history and folklore. Iconography from works of art from the 10th-11th centuries, include the joculators on Lehel's horn, and Mirjam-dances on the crown of the Byzantine emperor, Monomachos, and show another dimension of medieval Hungarian dance culture. They attest to how cultural elements (including those of dance culture) from further territories of Europe reached Hungary through dynastic relationships. |