Folk Music from Transylvania, Then and Now

The revival of authentic Transylvanian music was central to the Hungarian táncház (dance house) movement in the 1980s and 90s. Around 2000 the trend started to change and new bands were more inclined to experiment and create their own sound – this includes the records of vocalist Ágnes Herczku. But this, her new album, is a throwback to the earlier style, perhaps because it's a tribute to the late Transylvanian ethnographer Zoltán Kallós (1926-2018), who did so much to bring Transylvanian music to the world.

In 2005, Herczku made field recordings in the small Transylvanian village of Visa (Vişea in Romanian), north-east of Cluj in what the Hungarians call the Mezőség. Twenty-five or so of these unaccompanied songs comprise the second CD, Then, although they're a challenge for non-Hungarian speakers. Much more appealing is the Now CD, with four dance suites of music in the distinctive major-key Mezőség style. Featuring revival musicians from Budapest, including the aptly monickered Máté Hegedűs on violin (his name actually means ‘violin’), this is earthy Transylvanian music at its best. They also perform two of the field recording songs, but also sung unaccompanied. It would have been more interesting to hear them accompanied by the band – to really get across that idea of ‘then and now.’