When Hungarians sought connections with Mari music

In the second half of the 1950s, the renowned Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) sent his student László Vikár (1929–2017) on an expedition to Mari El, accompanied by the linguist Gábor Bereczki (1928–2012), who was fluent in the Mari language. The first research expedition of these Hungarians to what was then the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic took place in 1958. In total, the researchers organised six expeditions, the last of which took place in 1979. The researchers recorded hundreds of songs from the Hill Mari, Meadow Mari and Eastern Mari regions.

The first recordings made during the fieldwork inspired Zoltán Kodály’s major creative output, and in 1961 the composer completed a collection of Mari folk songs entitled “Öt hegyi-mari népdal” (“Five Hill Mari Folk Songs”), the lyrics of which were translated into Hungarian by Géza Képes (1909–1989).

Cheremis folksongs (1971)

The culmination of this long-term work was the pioneering anthology Cheremis Folksongs (1971). Vikár and Bereczki published the book in Budapest in 1971. Later, the Hungaroton record label released a series of archive recordings, which are now available on YouTube. Hungarian researchers noted the outstanding quality of traditional Mari music. Today, related languages sound foreign and incomprehensible to unaccustomed Hungarians, but, for example, the authors believe that a Hungarian ear immediately perceives a sense of kinship in a Hill Mari melody. Common features are evident in the pentatonic scale and the characteristic alternation of phrases by a fifth. The melody is repeated a step lower, creating a deep sense of inner unity between the cultures, the authors argue. At the same time, the authors believe that Hill Mari songs are more flexible, more poetic and seem to be ‘imbued with the wind blowing from the right bank of the Volga’.

Hill Mari melodies

The authors of the book argue that Kodály sensitively preserved the natural character of authentic Mari singing, opening the first song of the cycle in B flat minor and 5/4 time. The piano gently guides the bass line, whilst the mounting dissonances emphasise the melody’s sadness and unresolved emotional pain. Of the five songs in the cycle, only one is performed at a varied tempo. All the other pieces are imbued with concentrated sadness and deep emotion. According to the authors of the book, the melodies reflect the people’s centuries-long history, which has been carefully preserved by folk singers. Hungarian musicologists have also pondered the origins of this melancholy: perhaps it is precisely this worldview that unites many related peoples – the Finno-Ugric peoples – notes musicologist Máté Hollós. In his view, the surviving recordings and anthologies serve as a living bridge between Hungarian and Mari cultures.