Page 167 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2021. Opereta med obema svetovnima vojnama ▪︎ Operetta between the Two World Wars. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 5
P. 167
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-055-4.165-178
Identity-machines.
The Nationalism of Hungarian Operetta
between the Two World Wars
Magdolna Jákfalvi
Univerza za gledališče in film, Budimpešta
University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest
Maybe it was due to the bitterness of Trianon, maybe due to our
vulnerability, but in that moment, this unassuming little fairytale
became an incredible success.1
The identity of a nation reveals itself in various manifestations. Brief
lines of poetry and music are capable of transmitting the national idea, of
rendering it quotable. Landscapes sometimes gain sentimental meaning,
and musical motifs call forth personal emotions from a shared national
memory. Music is especially well-suited to impressing the (current or for-
mer) unity of the community upon the individual, as the structure of na-
tional anthems written in the 19th century still demonstrates.
From the beginning of the 20th century, Hungarian national identity
has been strongly shaped by the operetta genre. More people grow up lis-
tening to the music of Lehár and Kálmán, than to the music of Bartók. It is
nevertheless surprising that the most widely known musical manifestation
of love-for-the-homeland is derived from the finale of what might very well
be the least well-known Hungarian operetta. Only one song is remembered
of the 1922 Kulinyi-Vincze operetta titled The Hamburg Bride, the one that
became a melodic essence of national awakening. In my paper I examine
the wanderings of a melody torn from its musical and theatrical context,
I demonstrate how a banally simple, boilerplate tune by a composer and a
librettist of Jewish origin became an irredentist anthem, then an outlawed
1 Felsőmagyarországi Reggeli Hírlap 50, no. 44 (22 February 1941): 5.
165
Identity-machines.
The Nationalism of Hungarian Operetta
between the Two World Wars
Magdolna Jákfalvi
Univerza za gledališče in film, Budimpešta
University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest
Maybe it was due to the bitterness of Trianon, maybe due to our
vulnerability, but in that moment, this unassuming little fairytale
became an incredible success.1
The identity of a nation reveals itself in various manifestations. Brief
lines of poetry and music are capable of transmitting the national idea, of
rendering it quotable. Landscapes sometimes gain sentimental meaning,
and musical motifs call forth personal emotions from a shared national
memory. Music is especially well-suited to impressing the (current or for-
mer) unity of the community upon the individual, as the structure of na-
tional anthems written in the 19th century still demonstrates.
From the beginning of the 20th century, Hungarian national identity
has been strongly shaped by the operetta genre. More people grow up lis-
tening to the music of Lehár and Kálmán, than to the music of Bartók. It is
nevertheless surprising that the most widely known musical manifestation
of love-for-the-homeland is derived from the finale of what might very well
be the least well-known Hungarian operetta. Only one song is remembered
of the 1922 Kulinyi-Vincze operetta titled The Hamburg Bride, the one that
became a melodic essence of national awakening. In my paper I examine
the wanderings of a melody torn from its musical and theatrical context,
I demonstrate how a banally simple, boilerplate tune by a composer and a
librettist of Jewish origin became an irredentist anthem, then an outlawed
1 Felsőmagyarországi Reggeli Hírlap 50, no. 44 (22 February 1941): 5.
165
