Klarinet Archive - Posting 000278.txt from 2005/09

From: David Oakley <guiomarks@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Pinky again
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 14:12:52 -0400

Questions about the linguistic history of Transylvania can easily wander
into a nationalist's booby trap. Hungarians and Rumanians still hotly
debate which of the two groups made it to Transylvania first. Politically,
Transylvania is now part of Rumania, and most of the people speak
Rumanian. (The Hungarian minority -- the existence of which is hotly
denied by some Rumanian nationalists-- gradually been moving to Hungary.)
Before the First World War it was a part of Hungary. There was also a
strong German minority until some time after the Second World War.
Transylvania was also home to smaller ethnic groups like the Roma
(gypsies), the Jews, the Szeklers, etc.

So the answer to your question might also involve another question about
the ethnicity of the composer. And about the ethnic awareness of the
composer. I seem to remember that at least one composer (Liszt? Brahms?)
used the term Hungarian in the title of a work based on themes borrowed
from Roma musicians.

David Oakley

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:

> Lelia and Roger Shilcock, since you folks appear to know about this
> stuff (and you can reply off-list if you wish because probably this
> doesn't interest most Klarinet subscribers), I am interested by a piece
> of chamber music based on Transylvanian folk music. Do you know from
> which linguistic branch Transylvania's language of a few hundred years
> ago came? (I don't know which language was spoken in what used to be
> called Transylvania.)
>
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