Mihály Erdélyi (28 May 1895 – 27 January 1979) was a Hungarian composer, lyricist, actor, and producer, particularly prolific in the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

. Erdélyi was born in

Szeged Szeged ( , ; see also #Etymology, other alternative names) is List of cities and towns of Hungary#Largest cities in Hungary, the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county seat ...

in 1895 and began a career as an actor then a stage producer, but became most famous for his

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...

s, including ''Csókos regiment'' (1932), ''Fehérvári huszárok'' (1933), ''A csavargólány'' (1936), ''Sárgapitykés közlegény'' (1937), ''A zimberi-zombori szépasszony'' (1939), ''Sárgarigófészek'' (1940), ''Vedd le a kalapod a honvéd előtt'' (1942), and ''A két kapitány'' (1943). Many of his songs have entered the Hungarian musical canon as

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 ...

, often without an awareness of the original composer. ''A dorozsmai szélmalom'' brought Erdélyi the most lasting fame, and the title piece of the operetta was the subject of many covers and arrangements by popular musicians of the time, including

Georges Boulanger Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ("General Revenge"), was a French general and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Repub ...

Barnabás von Géczy Barnabás is a Hungarian language, Hungarian masculine given name. It is a New Testament name which means "son of consolation" and was the name of Barnabas, St. Barnabas, an early Christian, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem.

Zarah Leander Zarah Leander (; 15 March 1907 – 23 June 1981) was a Sweden, Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned UFA GmbH, Universum Film AG (UFA). Althou ...

Will Glahé Will Glahé (February 12, 1902 – November 21, 1989) was a German accordionist, composer, and bandleader. Glahé was born at Elberfeld, Germany. In the 1930s, he was, along with Heinz Munsonius and Albert Vossen, one of the most successful a ...

, Ilja Livschakoff and

Karsten Troyke Karsten Troyke (born ''Karsten Bertolt Sellhorn'' on 14 August 1960 in Berlin) is a German singer of Jewish songs, as well as an actor and speaker. Early life Troyke was born to a family with some Jewish ancestry, but is not matrilineally Je ...

. The piece was usually arranged as a slow

foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a time ...

under the titles of ''Puszta fox'' or ''Le Moulin de Dorozsmà''. It gained popularity in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

under the title of ''Amor en Budapest'' and in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

as just ''Budapesht''. Many of Erdélyi's works were patriotic or focused on members of the military. As the

communist government A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

took power after the war, Erdélyi was blacklisted. He briefly returned to the stage as an actor from 1955 to 1958, but this represented his only theatre-related work after the war. He died 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 ...

in 1979 at the age of 83.

External links

Magyar Elektronikus Könyvtár biography
*

References

1895 births 1979 deaths 20th-century Hungarian classical composers Hungarian classical composers Hungarian opera composers Hungarian male opera composers 20th-century Hungarian male musicians {{Hungary-composer-stub