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Written in Folk Roots issue 45, 1987


VARIOUS ARTISTS
Folk Music From Lörincréve - Dance Music By The Maros Riverside (edited & arranged by Ferenc Sebö)
Hungaroton SLPX 18102 (1986)

Before World War 2 there existed in the area of the River Maros (which runs through Transylvania, starting in what is now Rumania and joining the Tisza in modern Hungary) groups of gypsy musicians, playing dance music largely on fiddle, viola and double bass. To quote this record's sleeve notes, "Their vacant place in the past decades has been taken by less skilled peasant-musicians. Such a musician was Zsigmond Székely." Székely was a fiddler, and though apparently many recordings were made of his playing, they weren't considered of adequate sound quality for release.
      Instead, the sound of those earlier gypsy orchestras has been reconstructed. Original recordings of Székely's singing are included, together with that of another carrier of the tradition, Zsigmond Karsai; the rest is an exercise similar in nature, I suppose, to attempts at accurate copies of American blues or string bands, for example.
      The result is probably of more interest to the ethnomusicologist or the seeker after tunes than to the casual listener or anyone wanting an introduction to East European traditional music. However, it's a welcome arrival from the mighty Hungaroton state record company catalogue. What would be even more welcome would be a sampler.

 
© 1987 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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