European Parliamentary Election 2004: the Case of Hungary Barnabas Racz, (Eastern Michigan U., MI) trcz@emich.edu The enlarged European Union Parliamentary elections were held on different dates in 2004; Hungary s on the 13th of June. This study explores the sharp controversies among the major parties about the projected Hungarian representation in the European Parliament. The campaign deteriorated into domestic problems and largely bypassed European perspectives. The campaign and the voting outcomes are compared to other – especially the new states – election efforts. The data suggest that the lack of European orientation on national elections is largely due to structural weakness. The EP mandates nature and meaning are presently undefined “the EU is a governmental system without a government”. Future perspectives of possible and controversial improvements/reforms are examined and suggested. Iskola and ethnicity: Education in Hungary Mary Bridget Gurry (marybri1211@yahoo.com) Miami University Department of Teacher Education A joint Fulbright, American Hungarian Foundation and Miami University Graduate School research project Along with other government institutions, the public education system of Hungary has experienced continuous development and changes, particularly in the years since the fall of Communism. With the nearly yearly Acts on Public Education passed by the Hungarian parliament, efforts have been made in some sectors to improve education for minorities, including Romani (gypsy) students. In this joint Fulbright research and master s thesis project, the role of teacher training and Romani education was examined through the lens of descriptive research. Specifically, the preparation teachers-in-training receive and their attitudes towards Romani students were considered. Three methods of data collection were used: surveying teachers and student teachers; interviews with experts; schools observations; and professional literature. The research was conducted mainly in Szeged, Hungary, though schools and experts throughout the country were visited by the researcher. Suggestions made as a result of this research include those of the researcher and some of the teachers themselves. It is debated whether the proper term is Roma, gypsy, or Romani. The researcher chose to use Romani, as is used by the European Roma Rights Organization does in its publications. "Circles and Cycles: The Use of the Circle Dance Form in Staged Folk Dance Presentations of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble" Lisa Overholser, Indiana University, IN (overhols@indiana.edu)

In Hungarian folk dance, the circle form has been a significant historical dance form. It is also a dance form that has had an important place in the cultural histories of the European continent and the Carpathian Basin. My paper will examine the use of the circle dance form in staged folk dance choreographies, where the theoretical boundaries of “folk” and “art” are brought under close scrutiny. I will focus my analysis on the use of the circle dance form in recent choreographies of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble, where the circle form is transformed in specific ways to create a range of meanings. Human Memory, Inhuman Memories. Péter Nádas and William Gass This paper is intended as a comparative reading of two critically acclaimed late-twentieth-century novels, A Book of Memories by the Hungarian author Péter Nádas and The Tunnel by the American novelist William H. Gass. Both novels explore the way human identities and individualities are shaped by recollecting, by actively reinterpreting the past. In reading these novels, I intend to emphasize the complex interplay between self-fashioning and textual composition. Any narrative must draw heavily on memory, but these highly reflexive novels also offer a commentary on how personal identities and artistic representations depend on sometimes dubious memory effects. While the two texts differ greatly in style, basic narrative structure, etc., they also display clear similarities. By foregrounding the act of recollecting as writing and by presenting their narrators memoirs as identifiable bodies of written work within, or on the borders of, the fictional world, both novels highlight their own open-endedness and compel attentive readers to transgress the carefully-drawn boundaries of the fictional realm. This structural open-endedness may, however, seem at odds with the sheer difficulty of both novels, a feature that makes them practically inaccessible to most readers. I suggest that this aporia may be taken as a sign of a gap between individual and cultural memory, indicative of linguistic operations of memory that are not accessible to either subjectively or sociologically informed inquiries. A window to the Aftermath: Looking through the eyes of two Hungarian twin brothers Wayne Brinda, Duquesne University, PA (brinda062@duq.edu) While historical documents, museums, and artifacts help us see Hungary and the West after the Holocaust, the real depth of understanding the Aftermath is best experienced through reading non-fiction literature. Adrienne Kertzer (1999), Professor of English at the University of Calgary, wrote: “The history that makes us wish fairy tales did happen, that life were like a children's book and we all lived happily ever after, is not an easy history to read or write. . . . We will need to

consider narrative strategies [that] . . . teach us a very different lesson about history.” Using the book by Eugene Pogany,, In My Brother s Image: Twin Brothers Separated by Faith after the Holocaust, we have a compelling, detailed, and emotionally-ripping window into life before the Holocaust, during the conflicts, after the war, through Communism, and to America. Two Hungarian twin brothers separated physically and by faith during the war reunite for a brief time in New Jersey. But the effects of their individual choices and experiences have left permanent scars that make reconciliation impossible. Pogany allows us to hear, learn, and experience truths not found in historical textbooks, or on museum placards through spirited and impassioned debates between his father, Miklos, and his uncle, Gyuri. During one account, Miklos, shares deep-seated bitterness with Gyuri: “Not everyone flocking to America from Hungary is a fascist or a Nazi. Far from it. And no one should have to life under the domination of the Soviets. I don t wish that on anybody. But American hates communism so much that they are welcoming these former Nazis with open arms. . . . We are powerless. But one of these monsters was let in and he settled only a few miles from here. . . . And someone like this should be welcomed into the United States of America?” What was life like after the Holocaust? It is essential that students of all ages comprehend life after 1945, during the 1950 s, and what some Hungarians, who experienced the Holocaust, Communism, and its Aftermath, brought with them to America. This work of literature is one account of those experiences. Through it we have a window into the Aftermath. * Please provide an overhead projector to show transparencies. Integrating culture in the Hungarian language course at college level Judit Hajnal Ward (Rutgers University)- Gabor Tamas Molnar (Rutgers University) (jhajnal@rci.rutgers.edu) The recent shift in foreign language education theory reflects on language and culture in an integrated way, which enables language instructors to focus on intercultural communication competence in addition to developing language skills, and prepare the learners to use the foreign language in a variety of intercultural contact situations. This paper presents the efforts in the Hungarian Studies Program at Rutgers University to link linguistic performance, communicative competence, and cultural awareness in the classroom by means of a visual and aesthetic approach and the use of advanced technology. The paper addresses the definition of culture as well as the different perceptions of culture in Hungary and the United States. The authors present some guidelines for evaluation and selection of instructional materials in Hungarian Studies, while some best practices are also discussed,

such as establishing expected learning outcomes for cultural education, determining the cultural content of language courses, and classroom techniques for teaching culture at the various levels of language proficiency.

The 1956 Melbourne Olympics in the Changing Face of History Emese Ivan (The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada) (eivan@uwo.ca) In history the researcher approaches the topic of interest by gathering the available documentation, facts, and evidence of the subject area. Without sufficient primary and secondary sources historians cannot examine the topic of interest and are unable to explain what happened and why it happened that way. But history is not a separated discipline. Without engaging with the culture within which historians work, without looking at the common interests and themes running through much of diverse historiography it is easy to use historians writings simply as a storehouse of factual information. This study examines the conditions under which Hungarian historians in different times, and under different political discourses approached the same historical evidence, in particular the 1956 crisis and the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. The language used by historians, writers, or educators of History and Sport Sciences in general in their analysis of the historical evidence are in line with whole political discourse of the given time. "Survival and Revival of the Hungarian Hurdy-Gurdy (Teker lant): The Making of National Musical Culture in the Twentieth Century" Arle Lommel, Indiana University, IN (alommel@indiana.edu) The hurdy-gurdy or wheel fiddle was introduced to Hungary from Austria in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century by itinerant construction workers (kubikos munkások) from Austria. It flourished briefly in two limited regions of Hungary—the farmsteads (tanyák) around Szentes/Csongrád, and on Csepel island—before almost dying out by the 1930s. The earliest researchers, including Bartók, who studied it considered it of little value because the repertoire consisted largely of new style songs rather than the more “authentic” old style songs. In the 1960s and 1970s ethnomusicologists and participants in the táncház (dance house) movement made contact with the last surviving players in the southern Lowlands, many of whom had not played in decades. Through their efforts the teker , which had never been played by more than perhaps a few dozen people at its peak of popularity, was successfully revived and became part of Hungarian “national” musical culture. Today there are more players than ever and the teker is firmly entrenched in the lineup of village music ensembles. This presentation will present an overview of the history and revival of the teker and

its part in the opposition between Hungarian village music and State Socialist ideologies of Hungarian identity. The Free Europe Interviews of the 1956 Revolution Julius Nyikos, Washington and Jefferson College (jnyikos@staff.washjeff.edu) As an instructor in Hungarian language and linguistics at the U.S. Army Language School in Monterey, California, it was natural that my expertise would be utilized in 1956 to implement English language instruction for incoming Hungarian refugees in New York. But this role quickly evolved into a far more inclusive one, as an analyst and member of a small team which conducted-depth interviews for the Free Europe Committee throughout 1957. I will describe our work, and insights gained while conducting the carefully formulated, in-depth interviews with a wide spectrum of refugees, including some key figures who played pivotal leadership roles. “Fraudulent Historiography of the 1956 Revolution in Hungary” Károly Nagy (Middlesex County Coll., NJ) (ktnagy@aol.com) Orwell wrote in his 1984: “...who controls the past controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past”. On November 4, 1956, massive Soviet military aggression suppressed the 1956 Hungarian Revolution which started with a peaceful, unarmed demonstration of students on October 23, and which developed into a country-wide movement during the following ten days to achieve independence, sovereignty, freedom and democracy. The Soviet Army occupied Hungary until June 19, 1991, and restored a communist one-party dictatorial government headed by János Kádár until 1989. The dictatorial government instituted and perpetrated a seven-year period of severely violent reprisals with tens of thousands imprisoned and many hundreds executed. It also created a strictly enforced propaganda program which prohibited any publicly spoken or written reference to 1956 as a revolution to achieve independence and freedom, and which made compulsory in all spheres of life the use of various versions of the official definitions. That definition was summarized in the eighth-grade textbook mandated in all the public schools of the country thusly: “The building of Socialism was temporarily interrupted by the 1956 counterrevolutionary insurgence. Western imperialist circles and emigrant fascist counterrevolutionary elements were continually inciting against our people, our regime. They prepared the counterrevolution with the aid of secret local centers. Armed counterrevolutionary forces were pouring into our country from the West. They were striving to overthrow the people s democracy. They were murdering

the communists and the progressive people, they were jailing thousands of patriots... Our government requested the help of the Soviet army and liquidated the counterrevolution” This was the blatantly falsified history lesson that all Hungarian students had to learn for thirty years. Treatment of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in American Libraries. Julia Bock, Long Island U., NY (Julia.Bock@liu.edu) The purpose of this paper is to identify collections on the 56 Hungarian Revolution in American Academic libraries and as a secondary aim to provide a list of core publications presently available in the book market. By mapping collections related to Hungarian History, the paper intends to orient researchers where to turn for their special projects. While it is obvious to search in university libraries where the subject of Hungarian and Eastern European history is in the curriculum, there are special collections elsewhere, where scholars and persons lived and donated their collections to local libraries. The existence of electronic and digital technology allows us to build library collections virtually accessible. This is good for collections with special purposes. It changes the techniques and the media of acquiring material. It also means that ownership became less important. Although archival materials are still in the hand of the institutions, and it will never be totally accessible from a remote location, archives are working hard to provide finding aids to provide accessibility in a collection level. Our task is to see, time to time, where material is gathering, because with interlibrary loan they all can be asked for. AHEA 2006 FOLKLORE AND MUSIC SESSION ABSTRACTS Folklore Zsolt Rajber, Indiana University "What musical repertoire flourished in the Matra region in the time of the 1956 revolution based on the accounts of the elders of Nagyréde and Gyöngyössolymos in 1996?" “Bözsi neni” (Mrs. Bözsi, widowed Gyõri Józsefné, maiden Erzsébet Juhász), “Terka neni” (Mrs. Terka, widowed Kerek Lászlóne, maiden Teréz Rezes), “Flóri keresztapa” (Mr. Flórian Molnár, godfather), and the “Nagyrédei vénasszony kórus” (Women s Choir of the Old Crones of the Village of Nagyréde) were the central figures of my live subjects on my musical field-work in the Mátra region in 1996. They sang to me an exciting mixture of songs spiced with anecdotes and jokes from their own lives in between their singing evoking a true image of their old tradition. The real repertoire of their recollection included Magyar nótas (late

over-sugared favorites), even operetta hits, lots of songs from the so called “new style” of folk music, and many nice - more than usually expected - examples of the “old style”. They also sang however an extensive amount of “szentes énekek” (sacred songs) as they named them themselves. It finally also crystallized, which songs might have been the most well-known songs known by everybody, which I assume from the fact that all the four of my subjects had these songs in common, of course in their own forms of variation for example the song of “Brezovai kiserdõbe” (In the small forest of Brezova) or “Endre báró balladája” (the ballad of Baron Andrew). The decades around the 1956 revolution's event was the era from which time my singers recalled their songs from their memories and when these songs flourished as a live tradition. VCR, overhead projector and CD player Judith Olson, American Hungarian Folklore Centrum "New Dancers, New Ideas--Transformation of Hungarian Dance in New York by the post-56 Generation" The aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution brought to New York both the beginnings of a new outlook on dance and a new crop of young dancers. Hungarian dance in New York before this time had been largely a fantasy representation of Hungarian motives by famous interpreters. Refugees and ex-patriots to the New York area carried with them a concept of dance done in Hungarian villages and an idea of appropriate music fostered by a growing familiarity with the ideas of Bartók and Kodály, as well as some exposure to the pioneering dance research of György Martin and a background acquaintance with village dance performance groups. These independent adaptors of the folk tradition faced many issues brought about by their geographical distance from Hungarian traditional dance, including access to both proper dance material and music. They also sometimes struggled over issues of ownership and their right to present specific dances and choreographies. This presentation will discuss the experiences and innovations of some of these pioneers of a new approach to Hungarian dance, among them Kálmán and Judith Magyar and Andor Czompó. Context includes performance, choreographies, and the social aspects of their dance groups, as well as their relationship to other folk dance groups in the New York area. It will be illustrated with photographs and performance films of the Hungaria Dance Group and other groups in New York and New Jersey, as well as relevant documents. Overhead projector, VCR, DVD

Arle Lommel, Indiana University "Survival and Revival of the Hungarian Hurdy-Gurdy (Teker lant): The Making of National Musical Culture in the Twentieth Century" The hurdy-gurdy or wheel fiddle was introduced to Hungary from Austria in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century by itinerant construction workers (kubikos munkások) from Austria. It flourished briefly in two limited regions of Hungary—the farmsteads (tanyák) around Szentes/Csongrád, and on Csepel island—before almost dying out by the 1930s. The earliest researchers, including Bartók, who studied it considered it of little value because the repertoire consisted largely of new style songs rather than the more “authentic” old style songs. In the 1960s and 1970s ethnomusicologists and participants in the táncház (dance house) movement made contact with the last surviving players in the southern Lowlands, many of whom had not played in decades. Through their efforts the teker , which had never been played by more than perhaps a few dozen people at its peak of popularity, was successfully revived and became part of Hungarian “national” musical culture. Today there are more players than ever and the teker is firmly entrenched in the lineup of village music ensembles. This presentation will present an overview of the history and revival of the teker and its part in the opposition between Hungarian village music and State Socialist ideologies of Hungarian identity. Equipment: It would be nice to have access to a sound system to play sound samples of teker music. If an LCD projector is available, I might try to show footage of current Hungarian players, but this is not essential. I could adapt the presentation generally to any sort of room and would not need a projector in general.

Colin Quigley, University of California, Los Angeles "Performance and Social Commentary in the Torockó Carnival Funeral Custom" The prédikáció[sermon] is a distinctive aspect of thefarsangtemetés, or Carnival funeral, custom in Torockó, a Transylvanian Magyar village. Young men who organize the event re-write the text each year to update its satirical account of life in the village during the previous year. The texts since 1989 primarily address the processes of economic, poltical, and social adjustment taking place here in the post-socialist environment. The advent of tourism, largely from Hungary, is arguably the biggest change to village economic and social life in recent years. While predominantly a summer time phenomenon it is also emerging as the change most directly affecting the farsangcustom itself. It both provides new impetus for its observance and poses new challenges to its performance. At the same time it is the subject of much commentary both in the text and the performance. Because of its place in the unconstrained world of the carnavlesque, the Torockó farsangtemetés prédikációprovides a refreshingly honest and unvarnished account of grass-roots experience during a period of major change and chronicles its progress and consequences in this community. The presentation is illustrated with excerpts from a forthcoming DVD and is presented using powerpoint on a MAC G4 15" PowerBook. Music Danielle Fosler-Lussier, Ohio State University “Bartók s Music and the 1956 Revolution: The Evolution of a Symbol” From 1948 to 1956, the Hungarian musical situation changed dramatically. The music of Béla Bartók survived these changes, but was not left unmarked by them. This paper summarizes the reception history of Bartók s music during this period with a particular focus on the new meanings this music acquired between 1954 and the revolution of 1956. Some of Bartók s modernist works were suppressed by Party officials throughout the early 1950s, including The Miraculous Mandarin, the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Quartets, the First and Second Piano Concertos, and “Music of the Night” from Out of Doors. These works re-emerged during the Party s turmoil after Stalin s death; and between 1954 and 1956, several prominent musical figures published new interpretations of the previously suppressed works that specifically claimed them as symbols of the nation s liberation, thereby adding new layers of significance to already-rich music. Some of these interpretations have stayed

with the works until the present day (as witness the 1996 “Festival of Mandarins,” conceived in the 1980s, which compensated for the work s prior suppression by presenting sixteen performances of it within a few weeks). The paper documents the development of these new meanings and reveals their relevance for today s audiences. A-V equipment: CD player if possible Peter Laki, Cleveland Orchestra "Sandor Weores and His Composers: Musical Settings of a Super-musical Poet" No Hungarian poet has inspired more musicians than Sándor Weöres (1913-1989), who is widely regarded as the supreme magician of the Hungarian language. His poetry has been described as inherently “musical” – a claim that will be examined and substantiated from a musicological point of view. The musical settings based on Weöres s work cover an unusually wide stylistic range from Zoltán Kodály s modern classicism to the folk revivalism of the Kaláka ensemble and the avant-garde compositions of György Ligeti and Peter Eötvös. How can such divergent artistic responses originate from the same poetic source? My paper will seek an answer through the poetic and musical analysis of selected examples, and define different types of text/music relationships based on meter, sound and philosophical content. Elliott Antokoletz, The University of Texas at Austin "The New Hungarian Art Music: Bartók as pioneer" Reaction against the ultrachromaticism of the Wagner-Strauss period at the turn of the 20th century led Hungarian composers—especially Bartók, Kodály, Lajtha, and Mólnar—in two new directions. With increased nationalist demands, they began, as Bartók asserted, to create a “New” Hungarian art music “first, by a thorough knowledge of the devices of old and contemporary Western art music: for the technique of composition; and, second, by the newly-discovered rural music ... : for the spirit of our works to be created.” The intention in this lecture is to explore the means by which Bartók, as pioneer, assimilated diverse folk- and art-music sources to create the new Hungarian art-music idiom. One of the musical forces that challenged German musical hegemony was the impressionism of Debussy, the French culture being more congenial to the Hungarian character. Bartók found turns of pentatonic phrase in Debussy s music similar to those in his own Hungarian folk music. The French influence, together with Bartók s synthesis of Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, and other folk sources

(all at first as part of Greater Hungary until the 1920 Treaty of Trianon), was to become the basis of the new Hungarian art-music. In even their earliest studies of Hungarian folk music, Bartók and Kodály had found a prevalence of the Greek or medieval church modes as well as some that were entirely unknown in modal art music. The latter, unlike the church modes, are nondiatonic. Segments of these modes are often extended by Bartók in his own compositions to derive larger, more abstract pitch constructions that include the symmetrical octatonic and whole-tone scales, as well as more hybrid types. Also essential to the new Hungarian art music was Bartók s use of modal combinations on a common tonic, a principle he referred to as “bimodality,” or “polymodal chromaticism.” By means of selected musical excerpts, I will show how the synthesis of divergent art-music techniques with folkloristic modalities, rhythmic schemata, and structural patterns came to define the new Hungarian art-music. overhead transparency projector and a cassette player ------------------------------------------------------------ In addition, Lisa Overholser (Indiana University), who joined the organization last year and presented a paper, is interested in submitting an abstract. I told her that she should have it to us by Thursday if she wants to be considered. There is space for one more paper in one of these panels.

Here is a topic that Zsolt Rajber suggested for a lecture/demonstration, probably about an hour in length. I think it is very interesting; perhaps we could do it on the pre-conference day, or something like that. Abstract for topic “The Evolution of the Oldest Hungarian Musical Styles”: The origins of certain Hungarian musical styles have been proved to date back as far as three thousand years in the past. Modern scholarship has a lot broader material at its disposal to allow for a more advanced sight into the development of Hungarian musical styles than it had in the time of Bartók and Kodály, the great pioneers of the research. It is not possible in an oral tradition to see the origin of particular songs, but about musical styles, yes, it is possible to define the age and follow a thread of evolution. This thread of evolution is exactly, which I would like to enlighten for my audience, and which I believe has so beautifully and logically crystallized amongst the complexity of the musical culture of the Carpathian Basin that even people who are not very familiar with Hungarian music will gain insight, feel, and understanding to the essence of the oldest and genuine Hungarian music. Our thread will start with pagan epic song heritage with the help of comparative folklore, and linguistics; amongst them the field work of Katalin Lázár s team in the land of the Ostiaks, a relative of Hungarian people still practicing shamanistic rituals. Then we will follow the formation of some most archaic, recitative forms of music into rich folk-genres until their strophic and melodic manifestation which Bartók and Kodály once identified as the "Old Style". Further notes: Its best form would be probably as you thought in some kind of a lecture/demonstration, so the examples and videos can enhance understanding in it. I also wonder who the audience will be? Is it people interested in the subject or is that exclusively the Hungarian scholars and faculty? You would plan to talk about the same differently depending on the situation. "This talk will address the oldest Hungarian musical styles and their development from the pagan epic song heritage through the archaic folk-lament types, the strophic folk-styles blossoming from each until the style which Bartok and Kodaly once identified as the "Old Style". I used lots of media: VCR, projector and CD player and even live music, and the lecture is not as effective without the media used. I just ask you about this because I guess timing is less than an hour on the conference?

J o u r n e y H o m e

A Story from the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

A documentary film by Réka Pigniczky (rekarita@yahoo.com)

Synopsis

Journey Home is a documentary film about two sisters who try to find out exactly what their father did as a freedom fighter during the Hungarian revolution of 1956. The story unfolds as the two women take their father s ashes from the U.S. to Hungary to fulfill his dying request to be buried in his native land, a place to which he never returned after fleeing in 1956. The journey veers off course when the sisters realize that their father s role in Hungary s uprising was never really questioned – and never really documented. Taking place in Budapest a half-century after the fateful events that took nearly 3,000 lives and forced more than 200,000 Hungarians to emigrate, Journey Home documents László Pigniczky s daughters as they take a personal – and sometimes disturbing, sometimes humorous – trek into the history of 1956. Armed only with their deceased father s sketchy anecdotes and their own curiosity about the past, they try to piece together the puzzle of their father s role in his tiny country s seemingly futile battle against the Soviet Union. Over the course of more than a year, the sisters, who were raised and educated in the United States, research their father s story at the Hungarian secret service archives, interview surviving 56ers who might have known and fought with their father, consult with 56 experts, and physically try to retrace their father s footsteps from the first days of the revolution, through the streets fights of early November, until his escape through Yugoslavia to the United States. They find out far more than they hoped for, although their father s story takes a number of unexpected turns along the way. By the end of the film, his journey home has become their own journey to understand their father and the events that shaped both his life and their own upbringing. Shooting on Journey Home began in October, 2004, and will be completed by February 2006. A rough cut of the film is expected by early Spring 2006 and the premier in late Summer, in time for the 50th anniversary of the 1956 revolution. There will be two versions of Journey Home, one in English and one in Hungarian. The website of this film-in-progress may be found at www.56films.com. Treatment This film, as its title suggests, is a documentary account of various journeys that have their roots in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. There is the physical journey home in 2003 of the earthly remains of László Pigniczky – a freedom fighter who fled his native country in 1956. There is the emotional journey, taken by his two daughters, Réka and Eszter, to Hungary to lay him to rest among his ancestors, in a place they hardly know. The third journey is the longest and most compelling one: finding out what exactly their father did in 1956 that forced him to leave Hungary and why those few short weeks changed his life forever. That journey, to find out his story, opens the door to understanding issues connected to their own lives as children of 56ers growing up in the West, as hyphenated-Americans with roots from behind the former Iron Curtain. Throughout

the journey, the women keep asking themselves why they didn t document their father s story while he was still alive. At the time of the 1956 Revolution, Laszlo Pigniczky was 26, a master sergeant in the Hungarian army. Sometime after October 23rd, he broke out of prison, where he was being held pending trial for illegal organizing. According to his own, very general accounts, he took part in the armed struggle to force back the Soviets, fighting in Budapest at various hotspots. After the revolution was defeated, he always explained, he had to leave because he would have been hung or at least sent to prison for many years. After arriving to the United States in 1958, he settled in Pennslyvania and never left – never traveling more than a few states by car. He lived and worked with other 56 refugees, and eventually married one in 1965. Their two children, Reka and Eszti, grew up in a sort of “cultural incubator,” including Hungarian school, church and scout troop, designed to prepare them to move back to Hungary once the Soviets left. Since this didn t happen until 1989, they grew up bi-culturally, having mostly Hungarian-American friends and being sheltered from the general population by their parents. The story unfolds as the daughters plan the funeral of their father – a man whom they both loved deeply, yet who left them without too much to go on. In an emotionally-charged and suspenseful scene, the women search for the family grave in a small, overgrown cemetery in southern Hungary. They re not even sure they re in the right cemetery until their cameraman spots the name Pigniczky on one of the graves. Once they re on the right track, they begin to plan the funeral – meeting relatives and other locals who knew their father – and simultaneously they begin to want to learn more about who he was when he lived in Hungary, what his family was like, and how his past and the events of his era shaped him into who he became later in life. But as the sisters begin to look more closely at their father s history, through his military records, archival documents and family interviews, they become frustrated because they find no real sources linking him to the uprising at all. For months they hit dead-ends and they begin to doubt. In one of the dramatic moments of the film, Eszti tells the camera to cut, because she thinks the film is pointless. The sisters recall that their father tended to exaggerate his stories for effect. There is conflict between the sisters as Reka wants to press on no matter what their father did while Eszti is unsure a film about nothing is worth making. The film will be narrated in the first-person by the director, Réka Pigniczky, and her telling of the story will follow a somewhat informal and deeply personal diary of events. The audience will see the sisters on this physical and emotional trek; the camera follows them on nearly all legs of this journey. Reka, 35, the television journalist and main motor behind the story is nonetheless emotionally afraid to do the research by herself and relies on her sister as a crutch. Eszti, 37, a community organizer and homemaker from Cleveland, Ohio is the often unwilling accomplice who is against what she calls opening a can of worms about their father, and is more interested in making a film about a hero than of a potential historical question mark. The two of them, although different as two sisters can be, work closely together as a team and their emotional bond is, in the end, much stronger than their bickering about the point of the film. Their main motivating force, filming the story of their father so their children will know about him, and the inertia of their relationship keep them moving forward even when it seems they ll find out nothing – or worse, find out that the story just isn t there. Visual materials for the film include footage shot at Laszlo Pigniczky s funeral, the sisters on their year-long research process, and interviews (mostly in action) with eyewitnesses and historians. Over 70 hours of DV has already been shot. The film will also include 8mm film shot by Laszlo Pigniczky in the early 1960 s in the US, 8mm film shot by his daughter Reka on the same camera in 2005, archive footage and pictures of Laszlo and his family in Hungary and the US, and archive footage of 1956 (fotos/film).

About the Director Réka Pigniczky is a television journalist and news producer who has worked for Associated Press Television News (the television arm of the global news agency AP) for eight years, mostly in New York and Budapest. Working for APTN, she also shot her own material (on BetaCam as well as DVCam) and has shot some of her own footage for Journey Home on both video and 8mm film. Before moving to New York, she lived in Budapest from 1992-1996, working as a political consultant for a Hungarian political party, and she also helped organize and manage new women s NGO s that sprang to life after the political transition to democracy in the early 1990 s. She s currently based in Budapest, Hungary, where she freelances for the AP and other broadcasters, although Journey Home is slowly taking up most of her time. She has a Master s degree in journalism and international relations from Columbia University in New York and another MA in political science from the Central European University in Budapest. She also has a BA in Political Science from the University of California at San Diego, and she is fluent in English, Hungarian and Spanish. She is a citizen of both the U.S. and Hungary, and was born, raised and educated in the U.S. Her parents left Hungary after the 1956 Revolution.

About the Production Company and Producers

Pige Ltd. is a Hungarian production company based in Budapest. The company s profile has been mainly the production of television news programs for foreign broadcasters such as AP television, Sat 1, and the BBC. Journey Home is its first full-length documentary film project, and it has secured over two thirds of the film s budget, roughly 25,000 Euro in financial backing, from private donations and two Hungarian film foundations: The Hungarian Historical Film Foundation (www.mtfa.hu) and the Hungarian Motion Picture Public Foundation (www.mmka.hu). Pige Ltd is also looking for a European and Hungarian television broadcaster to co-produce the film. The film is being co-produced by the director, Réka Pigniczky, and Pige Ltd. s founder and chief executive, Barnabás Ger . A dual US-Hungarian citizen and graduate of Columbia University s (New York) Business Management PhD program, Barnabás Ger is currently based in Budapest and works full-time as a corporate financial advisor for the global financial advisory Deloitte & Touche. He manages Pige Ltd on a part-time basis and is responsible for the film s budget, financial management, and legal status. Impact of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Argentina Judith Kesser Némethy (New York University, NY) jn2@nyu.edu The outbreak of the Hungarian revolution in 1956 brought forth solidarity movements from Hungarian émigrés all over the world. In Argentina, the response was overwhelming. Differences between left and right disappeared, as churches, associations, and youth groups worked together to help the freedom fighters and later the refugees, as well as those who couldn't escape. Through marches, protests, masses, donations, petitions, publications, and exhibitions, all of émigré society was mobilized. Hungarian émigré organizations formed a "Comité de Ayuda pro Hungría Libre" (Aid Committee for a Free Hungary), coordinating the strategies and actions

aimed at providing moral and material support for the revolution. Supplementing and aiding these actions were those of the Argentine government and population at large. The government named a special commission for refugees; and there was a tremendous outpour of sympathy and material support for Hungarians among Argentines, with major press coverage for months to come. Of special importance is the literary and press output following the revolution. A vast number of books, journals and periodicals documenting the events were published in Spanish and distributed among Argentine officials, government organs of all Spanish speaking countries, embassies, and UN delegations. These actions provoked fear and rejection from the Embassy of the People's Republic of Hungary, and it accused the Argentine government of openly siding with the émigrés. Upon the Hungarian Foreign Ministry's instructions, the Embassy strongly intensified the espionage on the émigré institutions and its prominent members for years. Relations between émigré organizations and the Hungarian Government remained nonexistent or strained until the lifting of the Iron Curtain in 1990. "The New Hungarian Art Music: Bartók as pioneer" Elliott Antokoletz, The University of Texas at Austin (antokoletz@mail.utexas.edu) Reaction against the ultrachromaticism of the Wagner-Strauss period at the turn of the 20th century led Hungarian composers—especially Bartók, Kodály, Lajtha, and Molnar—in two new directions. With increased nationalist demands, they began, as Bartók asserted, to create a “New” Hungarian art music “first, by a thorough knowledge of the devices of old and contemporary Western art music: for the technique of composition; and, second, by the newly-discovered rural music ... : for the spirit of our works to be created.” The intention in this lecture is to explore the means by which Bartók, as pioneer, assimilated diverse folk- and art-music sources to create the new Hungarian art-music idiom. One of the musical forces that challenged German musical hegemony was the impressionism of Debussy, the French culture being more congenial to the Hungarian character. Bartók found turns of pentatonic phrase in Debussy s music similar to those in his own Hungarian folk music. The French influence, together with Bartók s synthesis of Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, and other folk sources (all at first as part of Greater Hungary until the 1920 Treaty of Trianon), was to become the basis of the new Hungarian art-music. In even their earliest studies of Hungarian folk music, Bartók and Kodály had found a prevalence of the Greek or medieval church modes as well as some that were entirely unknown in modal art music. The latter, unlike the church

modes, are nondiatonic. Segments of these modes are often extended by Bartók in his own compositions to derive larger, more abstract pitch constructions that include the symmetrical octatonic and whole-tone scales, as well as more hybrid types. Also essential to the new Hungarian art music was Bartók s use of modal combinations on a common tonic, a principle he referred to as “bimodality,” or “polymodal chromaticism.” By means of selected musical excerpts, I will show how the synthesis of divergent art-music techniques with folkloristic modalities, rhythmic schemata, and structural patterns came to define the new Hungarian art-music. Echoes of 1956 in Transylvania, and in Particular in Brasso László Nedeczky, Remus Radulet Technical School, Brasso, Romania (nedeczky@brasovia.ro)

This will be a historical presentation on the response of Hungarian and German youth to the events in Budapest and Hungary, and the repression that overtook them. Some of the survivors are still alive, and so there would be a chance to interview some of the survivors as well as relate the events from memoirs and other sources. Unlocking the Silenced Self: Perceptions of Students Living in Minority Status in East-Central Europe Susan Papp-Aykler (postmod@total.net); MA, Klara K. Papp, PhD (klara.papp@case.edu) Multicultural History Society of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio Background Since 1994, a program titled Students Without Boundaries has brought together students living in minority status from four different countries in Eastern Europe for a 2-week tour of Hungary. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess student perceptions of this experience. Methods: Sample 135 students participated in this past year and were invited to participate in the survey during the final days of the program. Instrument a 20-item questionnaire that included 11-Likert type questions asking student to rate their opinion on a 6-point scale where 1-strongly disagree to 6=strongly agree; 3 demographic items were included age, gender, and geographic location; and 6 open-ended questions. Results: A total of 67 (50%) completed the questionnaire. They were approximately equally distributed in response among geographic regions. They agreed most strongly with I would like to maintain my ethnic identity in hometown. [mean=5.9; stddev=0.4]. Students claimed that the experience of being with minority students from other geographic regions was the most rewarding part of the program.

Conclusions: This program strengthened students resolve to maintain their ethnic origins and increased their self-efficacy. They enjoyed their tour of Hungary and return to their own country with a stronger sense of identity. "What musical repertoire flourished in the Matra region in the time of the 1956 revolution based on the accounts of the elders of Nagyréde and Gyöngyössolymos in 1996?" Zsolt Srajber, Indiana University, IN (zsrajber@indiana.edu) “Bözsi neni” (Mrs. Bözsi, widowed Gyõri Józsefné, maiden Erzsébet Juhász), “Terka neni” (Mrs. Terka, widowed Kerek Lászlóne, maiden Teréz Rezes), “Flóri keresztapa” (Mr. Flórian Molnár, godfather), and the “Nagyrédei vénasszony kórus” (Women s Choir of the Old Crones of the Village of Nagyréde) were the central figures of my live subjects on my musical field-work in the Mátra region in 1996. They sang to me an exciting mixture of songs spiced with anecdotes and jokes from their own lives in between their singing evoking a true image of their old tradition. The real repertoire of their recollection included Magyar nótas (late over-sugared favorites), even operetta hits, lots of songs from the so called “new style” of folk music, and many nice - more than usually expected - examples of the “old style”. They also sang however an extensive amount of “szentes énekek” (sacred songs) as they named them themselves. It finally also crystallized, which songs might have been the most well-known songs known by everybody, which I assume from the fact that all the four of my subjects had these songs in common, of course in their own forms of variation for example the song of “Brezovai kiserdõbe” (In the small forest of Brezova) or “Endre báró balladája” (the ballad of Baron Andrew). The decades around the 1956 revolution's event was the era from which time my singers recalled their songs from their memories and when these songs flourished as a live tradition.

Ismertet a „Fellebbezésnek helye nincs” c. filmhez Rendez : Pap Ágnes Forgatókönyv: Pap Ágnes I. asszisztens: Fehér Márta Operat r: Karácsony Sándor Vágó: Hajdú György, Juhász Gyula, Farkas Éva Gyártásvezet : Római Róbert Gyártó stúdió: MTV Közm vel dési Szerkeszt ség Szerepl k: Földes Gáborné, Gyenes Judit, Halda Alíz, dr Újhelyiné dr Haraszti Mária A film m faja: dokumentumfilm A film hossza: 50 perc

Technika: színes, Beta Els bemutató: 2002. október 22. MTV Díjak: 2003. 34. Magyar Filmszemle – a Történelmi Dokumentumfilm kategória els díja 2003. MTV – rendez i nívódíj

szöveges ismertetés:

Fellebbezésnek helye nincs Az ötvenhatosokra kirótt legtöbb halálos ítélet ezzel a mondattal zárult. És nem volt apelláta az özvegyeknek és gyermekeiknek sem. Legtöbben nem csupán a férjüket illetve apjukat veszítették el végleg. A munkájukról, a barátaikról és sokszor a jöv jükr l is le kellett mondaniuk. Majdnem egészen a rendszerváltásig – amit a csaknem 300 kivégzett özvegye közül alig egy tucatnyian értek meg.

Az 1989-es magasztos, szép, a szinte az egész országot egy emberként

mozdító ünnepélyes újratemetés némi elégtételt szolgáltatott számukra is. De

mi jött azután? Mit hozott az életükbe a 12 esztendeje bekövetkezett várva

várt pillanat? Hogyan látják saját életüket és a miénket? Mit gondolnak 1956-

ról, 1956 utóéletér l ma, amikor a kortársak között részint akkora a tülekedés,

részint pedig a hallgatás és a durva hang.

Évente hivatalos koszorúzások, díj-átadások, néha egy-egy születésnap kapcsán megemlékezés, a 301-es parcellában a föld színével megegyez betonlapok, és a történelem-könyvekben néhány sor. Ezek a mindenki által ismerhet , látható tények. De az özvegyek ennél többet mondanak.

Az özvegyek szavai megfellebbezhetetlenek. De senkit nem köteleznek.

Nem úgy, mint annak idején a „bírák” szava. Budapest, 2003. július 28. Pap Ágnes

“Political Activist Leader Margit Slachta: Opponent of Communism and Nazi Tyranny “ Ruth G. Biro, (Duquesne University, PA) biro1@peoplepc.com Margit Slachta was born in Kassa (then Hungary) in 1884 and founded the order of the Sisters of Social Service (Szocialis Testverek Tarsasaga) in 1923. She became the first women elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 1920, where she supported the rights of women and children, spoke against the Trianon Treaty, and opposed Communist influences. During the Holocaust period in Hungary she vigorously acted against Nazism and sheltered many Jews in the convents of her order. Earlier she supported the rights of Jews in Slovakia and Transylvania and aided Polish refugees in Hungary. Following World War II Slachta was again elected to Parliament. Forced out of Parliament by Communist elements in the country, she left Hungary in June 1949 hidden in a hay cart under the pseudonym of Sr. Etelka (Ethel) Toth and emigrated to the United States, joining her order in Buffalo. She continued to fight for a free Hungary by writing to US Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. Slachta died in 1974 having spent twenty-five years of her life in the United States continuing to promote her religious convictions, political activism, and concerns for humanity. After the fall of Communism she received the “Batorsag” designation in Hungary in 1995. In 1997 Agnes Tolgyesi directed the film about her life entitled “Credo: Margit Slachta, 1884-1974.” Today her order operates in eight countries. (Research for this paper was conducted in the SzTT motherhouse and in the SzTT archives in Hungary, where I was accompanied by Dr. Ilona Kovacs and Dr. Julianna Puskas, respectively.)

1956 as a Hidden Theme in Hungarian Literature. Enik M. Basa

References to the Revolution of 1956 are found in a variety of Hungarian works. I will examine the ways in which it is presented in the works of Gyula Illyés, Péter Nádas, Péter Esterházy, Gábor Görgey and the poetry of György Petri–where the theme becomes a not so hidden one. In some instances it is a historical fact, in others, it plays a more important role in the narrative. The hero/narrator s relationship to these events also differs, but each sheds light on the way in which this pivotal event if modern Hungarian history affected lives and changed persceptions. Collective Calculations, Communication and Escalation: The 1956 Hungarian Revolution Alexander Nyikos, Princeton University

Protest actions are more likely to degenerate into undisciplined irrational riots than to escalate into disciplined revolutions. The Hungarian Revolution has none of the hallmarks of irrational, disorganized, and undisciplined explosions of anger which are marked by looting, vandalism, and arson, without regard to target or consequences. In sharp contrast, the Hungarian Revolution is marked by its very lack of such actions and such a degree of rationality regarding targets and means, that Hungarian Security forces assumed it was the result of great planning from a well organized and centrally directed revolutionary group. Even Hungarian intelligence organizations did not have sufficient resources to determine the intensity, depth and breadth of antagonism against the totalitarian regime, and certainly no inkling that a revolution could be successful. Yet the collective calculations of the protesters, aided by communication, and forced along by often unexpected and unavoidable escalations, correctly judged that domestic power could be seized. In hindsight, it is clear that the international calculations of Western support and nonintervention by the Soviets were not unfounded. This paper will show that the Hungarian Revolution had a stunning degree of rationality and discipline for any revolution, let alone a spontaneous one. The Economic Platforms of the 1956 Political Parties (A Preliminary Study) Susan Glanz, St. John s University, NY (glanzs@stjohns.edu) On October 30, 1956 Imre Nagy, the prime minister announced the termination of the one-party system. The multiparty democracy was short lived; it lasted for six days, from Tuesday October 30, 1956 to Sunday, November 4th, when the second Soviet invasion of Hungary began. After the initial announcement several political parties immediately started to reorganize. Due to the short time that the parties were allowed to openly function, they did not have time to develop detailed platforms. The party goals were disseminated through street posters, newspapers and radio. This paper analyses the platforms of the 13 parties/groups that meet the definition of political party. “Bartók s Music and the 1956 Revolution: The Evolution of a Symbol” Danielle Fosler-Lussier, Ohio State University (dmfl@sbcglobal.net)

From 1948 to 1956, the Hungarian musical situation changed dramatically. The music of Béla Bartók survived these changes, but was not left unmarked by them. This paper summarizes the reception history of Bartók s music during this period with a particular focus on the new meanings this music acquired between 1954 and the revolution of 1956. Some of Bartók s modernist works were suppressed by Party officials throughout the early 1950s, including The Miraculous Mandarin, the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Quartets, the First and Second Piano Concertos, and “Music of the Night” from Out of Doors. These works re-emerged during the Party s turmoil after Stalin s death; and between 1954 and 1956, several prominent musical figures published new interpretations of the previously suppressed works that specifically claimed them as symbols of the nation s liberation, thereby adding new layers of significance to already-rich music. Some of these interpretations have stayed with the works until the present day (as witness the 1996 “Festival of Mandarins,” conceived in the 1980s, which compensated for the work s prior suppression by presenting sixteen performances of it within a few weeks). The paper documents the development of these new meanings and reveals their relevance for today s audiences.