György Ránki (; 30 November 1907 – 22 May 1992) 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 def ...

Life

Born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, he studied composition with

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (, ; , ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, music pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music education. ...

at the Budapest Academy of Music from 1926-1930. He became interested in

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

and

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context. The discipline investigates social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investiga ...

, working with László Lajtha at the Museum of Ethnography in

and later further studies in Asian folk music in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(at the

Musée de l'Homme The Musée de l'Homme (; literally "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moder ...

). He directed the music section of Hungarian radio in 1947–8, after which he gave his attention to composition. Ránki not only employed authentic folk melodies and musical idioms in his music but also pulled on jazz elements. He possessed a gift for the grotesque and unusual, the colourful and humorous, which may be traced in part perhaps to his studies of non-Western music.

Works

His greatest successes have been stage works, above all the

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

''Pomádé király uj ruhája'' (‘King Pomádé’s New Clothes’, based on the Andersen story), which draws most of its material from Hungarian folk music. He also wrote a two-act mystery opera, ''Az ember tragédiája'' (''The Tragedy of Man''), based on the eponymous play by

Imre Madách Imre Madách de Sztregova et Kelecsény (20 January 1823 – 5 October 1864) was a Hungarian people, Hungarian aristocrat, writer, poet, lawyer and politician. His major work is ''The Tragedy of Man'' (''Az ember tragédiája'', 1861). It is a dr ...

. South Asian influences are particularly evident in ''Pentaerophonia for wind quintet'', which imitates

gamelan Gamelan (; ; , ; ) is the traditional musical ensemble, ensemble music of the Javanese people, Javanese, Sundanese people, Sundanese, and Balinese people, Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussion instrument, per ...

effects. In some works he makes use of the

Fibonacci Leonardo Bonacci ( – ), commonly known as Fibonacci, was an Italians, Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa, considered to be "the most talented Western mathematician of the Middle Ages". The name he is commonly called, ''Fibonacci ...

series, following (presumably) Bartók; an example is the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

''1514'' for

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

, which was based on wood carvings by Derkovits. He also composed incidental music for the theatre and music for films.

Selected filmography

* '' The New Landlord'' (1935) * ''

The Golden Man "The Golden Man" is an 11,600-word science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on June 24, 1953, and first published in the April 1954 issue of ''If (magazine), If'' magaz ...

'' (1936) * '' Battle in Peace'' (1952) * '' Fourteen Lives'' (1954) * ''

Fever Fever or pyrexia in humans is a symptom of an anti-infection defense mechanism that appears with Human body temperature, body temperature exceeding the normal range caused by an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, s ...

'' (1957) * ''

Summer Clouds , also titled ''Herringbone Clouds'', is a 1958 Japanese drama (film and television), drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It was Naruse's first film in colour and in widescreen, widescreen format. Plot Journalist Okawa interviews farming woman ...

'' (1957) * ''

Danse Macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory from the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of death, summoning represen ...

'' (1958) * '' And Then The Guy...'' (1966) * '' Three Nights of Love'' (1967) * '' The Pendragon Legend'' (1974)

Sources

*F. András Wilheim: "György Ránki", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 20, 2008)
(subscription access)

External links

Story of The Emperor's New Clothes

October 9, 1986 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ranki, Gyorgy 1907 births 1992 deaths 20th-century Hungarian classical composers Composers from Budapest Hungarian opera composers Hungarian male opera composers 20th-century Hungarian male musicians Hungarian film score composers Hungarian male film score composers