János Bihari (21 October 1764 – 26 April 1827) was an influential Hungarian

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist. He is one of the founders of Romani academic music and the musical genre

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 ...

. By the middle of the nineteenth century, "Gypsy music" was elevated to high fashion, the first great was that of János Bihari, the pianist Franz Liszt described: "The tones sung by his magic violin flow on our enchanted ears like the tears...".

Biography

Bihari was born into a Romani family in Nagyabony,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

(today Veľké Blahovo,

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

); his father was a violinist. In 1801, living in Pest, Bihari created an orchestra of 1

cimbalomist The cimbalom (; ) or concert cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath. It was designed and created by V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in ...

and 4 violinists. This orchestra became popular soon and visited with Bihari many towns in Hungary and abroad. In every country Bihari learnt local folk and academic music and arranged it to play during his performances. Bihari was so popular that he could live like a noble man: he had expensive clothes and a servant who held Bihari's violin, he stayed in luxurious hotels, etc. He was also invited to play for the

Emperor of Austria The Emperor of Austria (german: Kaiser von Österreich) was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A hereditary imperial title and office proclaimed in 1804 by Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, a member of the Hou ...

. Bihari's melodies were used by such composers as Franz Liszt,

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

, Pablo de Sarasate and others. In 1824 Bihari injured his left hand, thus impairing his ability to perform. Subsequently, his popularity declined, and he died in poverty in Pest. Bihari left 84 musical compositions that are considered to be classic.

Cultural Heritage

In Hungary, the Bihari János Táncegyüttes is a Hungarian folklore dancers group named after the famous composer János Bihari.

External links

Janos Bihari

* 1764 births 1827 deaths Hungarian Romani people Hungarian violinists Male violinists Romani violinists {{violinist-stub