Nationality: Hungarian

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20th Century Hungarian

BARTÓK, Béla

Béla Bartók, photographed in 1927

Born in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary [now Sînnicolau Mare, Romania], March 25, 1881
Died in New York, Sept 26, 1945

[PRONUNCIATION]

  • Although we know Bartók today primarily as a composer, during his lifetime he was active as pianist, teacher, and an ethnomusicologist dedicated to Hungarian folk music. 
  • Along with Liszt, Kodály, and Dohnányi, Bartók is one of Hungary’s best known and most esteemed composers.1

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Short biography

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20th Century Late Romantic Hungarian

DOHNÁNYI, Ernst [Ernő]

Born Pozsony [now Bratislava], July 27, 1877
Died in New York, Feb 9, 1960

Pronunciation
Pronunciation in IPA: [ˈɛrnøː ˈdohnaːɲi]

  • Dohnányi was a virtuoso pianist, composer and conductor. Brahms was one of the early supporters of his composing career. After teaching at the Berlin Conservatory, he became a leading musical force in Hungary, championing the work of his Hungarian contemporaries Kodály and Bartók.
  • Later in life he became pianist- and composer-in-residence at Florida State University.
  • Although Dohnányi’s compositions were romantic in style, he was one of the earliest musicians to recognize and support Bartók’s modernist music.
  • Dohnányi’s students included Georg Solti and Géza Anda.2

Short biography

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Romantic Hungarian Polish

DOPPLER, Franz

Franz Doppler

Born in Lemberg [now L’viv], Oct 16, 1821
Died in Baden, near Vienna, July 27, 1883

Also known as Albert Ferenc Doppler

Doppler was a flutist and composer who was born in Poland and made his career in Hungary.3

Biography from AllMusic

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Romantic Hungarian

ERKEL, Ferenc

Born in Gyula, county of Békés, Nov 7, 1810
Died in Budapest, June 15, 1893

  • Erkel was a virtuoso pianist and opera conductor based in Budapest.
  • Erkel was interested in developing a Hungarian style of composition and took inspiration from Hungarian folk music.
  • Erkel is the most prominent figure in the development of 19th C. Hungarian opera.
  • Erkel founded something of a musical dynasty: his sons Elek, László, and Sándor all became professional musicians as well.4

Biography

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20th Century Hungarian

FARKAS, Ferenc

Born in Nagykanizsa, Dec 15, 1905
Died in Budapest, Oct 10, 2000

Composer website

  • Farkas was both a composer and a teacher of composition. He studied with Respighi and his students included Ligeti.
  • Farkas composed concert music, and radio music, and film music. He wrote over 70 film scores.5

Pieces

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Late Romantic Hungarian

HUBAY, Jenő

Jenő Hubay, photographed in 1897

Born in Budapest, Sept 15, 1858
Died in Budapest, March 12, 1937

Name pronunciation

  • Hubay was a violinist and composer. He performed frequently with his mentor and fellow Hungarian, Liszt, and was friends with Belgian violinist Henri Vieuxtemps, who recommended Hubay for Head of Violin Studies at the Brussels Conservatory.
  • Hubay created a violin pedagogy legacy at the Budapest Academy of Music, where he taught both before and after fleeing the short-lived Soviet regime in Hungary.6

Biography

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20th Century Hungarian

KODÁLY, Zoltán

Born in Kecskemét, Dec 16, 1882
Died in Budapest, March 6, 1967

  • Kodály was an ethnomusicologist who taught at the Academy of Music in Budapest. In addition to composing, he was dedicated to promoting youth musical literacy in Hungary. 
  • Kodály worked throughout his life with Béla Bartók to study and preserve Hungarian folk music, and to promote new Hungarian compositions. 
  • Kodály’s love for authentic Hungarian folk music began in childhood; he heard folksong as he grew up in a small town in the Hungarian countryside where his father was a railway station master.7

Biography from Boosey & Hawkes

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Late Romantic Austrian Hungarian

LEHÁR, Franz

Born in Komáron, Hungary, April 30, 1870
Died in Bad Ischl, Oct 24, 1948

  • Born in Hungary, Lehár (accent on first syllable) entered the Prague Conservatory at 12, and served as an army bandmaster for more than a decade until his career as a conductor and composer of operetta got off the ground.
  • Later in his career Lehár founded a music publishing house and composed original film scores.
  • Not-Fun Fact: Lehár’s situation during WWII was complicated: Hitler loved Die lustige Wittwe, but Lehár’s wife was Jewish and a number of his friends perished in concentration camps. Lehár was criticized outside Germany and Austria for not taking an early and vocal stand against Hitler.8

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20th Century Austrian Hungarian

LIGETI, György

Gyorgy Ligeti

Born in Transylvania, May 28, 1923
Died in Vienna, June 12, 2006

  • As a Hungarian Jew, Ligeti had several traumatic experiences during his early life. His father and younger brother were both victims of the Holocaust (a fate that Ligeti only narrowly escaped himself).
  • After the war, Ligeti finished his musical studies and began teaching in Budapest. However, during the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the composer fled to Vienna, eventually becoming an Austrian citizen.
  • Ligeti shared a lifelong long of math and natural sciences in addition to music. He drew much inspiration for his music from these outside disciplines.9
  • Ligeti’s music became widely known after three of his compositions (Atmosphères, Requiem, and Lux Aeterna) were featured in Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).10
    • Ligeti’s music was used for the film without the composer’s knowledge or consent.11

Short biography
Composer’s website (translate to English)

Pieces

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Romantic Hungarian

LISZT, Franz

Franz Liszt, photographed in 1858 by Franz Hanfstaengl

Born in Raiding, (Doborján), Oct 22, 1811
Died in Bayreuth, July 31, 1886

Biography

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20th Century American Hungarian

RÓZSA, Miklós

Born in Budapest, April 18, 1907
Died in Los Angeles, July 27, 1995

  • Rózsa grew up in the city of Budapest, and in his family’s country home, where he got to hear plenty of Hungarian peasant folk music.
  • He took piano lessons from his mother, who had been a Budapest Academy classmate of Bartók.
  • Rózsa studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and gained recognition for his concert music in Europe as a young man.
  • His first Hollywood gig was completing the score for The Thief of Baghdad (1940), and subsequently he was in high demand as a film composer and conductor.
  • Rózsa taught film music at the University of Southern California from 1945-1965.12

Short biography

Pieces