The folksongs and wider public songs in 1865 after the published song book of Karoly Színi: the Hungarian folk songs and melodies

Abstract

Karoly Szini's song collection was rather unique in its time, since it indicated the melodies in one voice, without any piano accompaniment. According to his prolog, and by including the national Anthem – and other patriotic songs, which were born in the middle of the 19. century –, as well as other songs still sung in the beginning of the 19th century but since then partly forgotten, the author intended to highlight the importance of preserving the song tradition of the contemporary collective consciousness. In this publication we can find songs of a wider variety of social classes that were preserved through unwritten tradition, and also fresh folklorisations (such as popular art songs written to the poems of the greatest contemporary poet, Sandor Petofi).