A detailed investigation, based on extensive study of press reports and early recordings, of the popular Hungarian bands in Vienna who influenced Brahms and other composers. It has long been recognized that Viennese composers, especially Brahms, were profoundly influenced by Hungarian "Gypsy bands." Furthermore, the style hongrois repertory and style in which these bands specialized has been identified as important in its own right. The bands themselves, however, are generally relegated to the status of being part of an unknowable oral tradition, of which nothing remains apart from some highly exoticized literary hyperbole. Jon Banks's pathbreaking Hungarian "Gypsy-Band" Music in Vienna, 1850-1914 redresses this imbalance by presenting a detailed account of these "other" musicians and their interactions with the mainstream of Western classical music. To do so, it analyzes thousands of advertisements, news reports, and anecdotes in the Viennese press relating to "Gypsy bands" (whose members were often but not always Romani) and builds a detailed picture of who the musicians were, where they played, and how the conditions of their employment affected their lives and their music-making. The press notices are collated with evidence from contemporaneous Hungarian sources as well as an analysis of the hundreds of recordings that these bands made in the first decade of the twentieth century. In undertaking this first systematic examination of these different kinds of materials, Jon Banks's book provides a reanimation of some extraordinary personalities and careers in the light of their own achievements as well as their influence on others.
| ISBN: | 9781648251092 |
| Publication date: | 24th June 2025 |
| Author: | Jon Banks |
| Publisher: | University of Rochester Press an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 202 pages |
| Series: | Eastman Studies in Music |
| Genres: |
Art music, orchestral and formal music History of music Musicians, singers, bands and groups Theory of music and musicology Music reviews and criticism |
A detailed investigation, based on extensive study of press reports and early recordings, of the popular Hungarian bands in Vienna who influenced Brahms and other composers. It has long been recognized that Viennese composers, especially Brahms, were profoundly influenced by Hungarian "Gypsy bands." Furthermore, the style hongrois repertory and style in which these bands specialized has been identified as important in its own right. The bands themselves, however, are generally relegated to the status of being part of an unknowable oral tradition, of which nothing remains apart from some highly exoticized literary hyperbole. Jon Banks's pathbreaking Hungarian "Gypsy-Band" Music in Vienna, 1850-1914 redresses this imbalance by presenting a detailed account of these "other" musicians and their interactions with the mainstream of Western classical music. To do so, it analyzes thousands of advertisements, news reports, and anecdotes in the Viennese press relating to "Gypsy bands" (whose members were often but not always Romani) and builds a detailed picture of who the musicians were, where they played, and how the conditions of their employment affected their lives and their music-making. The press notices are collated with evidence from contemporaneous Hungarian sources as well as an analysis of the hundreds of recordings that these bands made in the first decade of the twentieth century. In undertaking this first systematic examination of these different kinds of materials, Jon Banks's book provides a reanimation of some extraordinary personalities and careers in the light of their own achievements as well as their influence on others.
Hungarian "Gypsy-Band" Music in Vienna, 1850-1914 features in the following genres: Art music, orchestral and formal music, History of music, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Theory of music and musicology, Music reviews and criticism
Hungarian "Gypsy-Band" Music in Vienna, 1850-1914 is available in Hardback
Hungarian "Gypsy-Band" Music in Vienna, 1850-1914 was written by Jon Banks and published by University of Rochester Press an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Hungarian "Gypsy-Band" Music in Vienna, 1850-1914 has 202 pages
Yes it is part of Eastman Studies in Music series