József Kossovits (born after 1750; died after 1819, possibly in

Košice Košice ( , ; german: Kaschau ; hu, Kassa ; pl, Коszyce) is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of app ...

) was a Hungarian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 ...

. Kossovits was employed by various members of the Hungarian nobility, including the

Andrássy The House of Andrássy is the name of a Hungarian noble family of very ancient lineage that was prominent in Hungarian history. The full family name is ''Andrássy de Csíkszentkirály et Krasznahorka''. ''Csíkszentkirály'' is a town in modern- ...

family. Many of his compositions are dances in the ''

verbunkos Verbunkos (), other spellings being ''Verbounko'', ''Verbunko'', ''Verbunkas'', ''Werbunkos'', ''Werbunkosch'', ''Verbunkoche''; sometimes known simply as the hongroise or ungarischer Tanz is an 18th-century Hungarian dance and music genre. The ...

'' style. Some of his melodies were used by

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

, who believed them to be of Hungarian Gypsy origin, in his '' Hungarian Rhapsodies''.Walker, Alan, ''Franz Liszt: Volume 1, The Virtuoso Years: 1811-1847'' (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1983). , 341.

References

Sources

*Grove's ''Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' *Alan Walker, ''Franz Liszt, the Virtuoso Years 1811-1847'' (1988) 18th-century births 19th-century deaths Hungarian composers Hungarian male composers Hungarian cellists Hungarian classical cellists {{Hungary-classical-musician-stub