'The American Spirit' [Az amerikai szellem]

Abstract

The composer and pedagogue Erzsébet Szőnyi (1924-2019), who studied with Zoltán Kodály, Nadia Boulanger, and Olivier Messiaen, is largely credited with advancing Kodály’s vision for music education around the world. In the second and third volumes of Szőnyi’s Biciniumok (two-part musical arrangements to be used pedagogically with children), the musician, educator, and translator László Lukin (1926-2004) provided Hungarian texts to twenty-four American folk songs. Lukin himself was a student of Lajos Bárdos and Jenő Ádám, who (along with Szőnyi) were pivotal in the development of Hungary’s system of music education in the early 20th century. This paper explores the challenges encountered when translating lyrics from English to Hungarian: navigating the idiomatic use of language in folk material; overcoming differences in prosody and its impact on both linguistic accents and musical meter; and differentiating between literal, cultural and artistic/creative avenues of translation. General patterns of word stress, syntax, and meaning will be addressed for all twenty-four of the folk song arrangements. Through a detailed analysis of four of the pieces (“Madarak”, “Bricskán Járok”, “Postaváró”, and “Ausztrál Tájak Felé”), the author will highlight the variety of approaches taken by Lukin regarding the process of translation.

Keywords

• Erzsébet Szőnyi
• László Lukin
• Zoltán Kodály
• Kodály scholarship
• American folk song research
• bicinia