Pista Dankó was a Hungarian-born

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...

and

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 ...

belonging to the

Romani people {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...

. He primarily worked in the folk music styles popular in Hungary in the 19th century. He was frequently known by the nickname "Nótafa", a Hungarian word meaning "ballad-singer of folk music".

Biography

Born on 14 June 1858. Dankó was born in the Hungarian city of

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 ...

, where he began composing music at the age of 28. He belonged to a musical ensemble called "Hangászsor", or "row of musicians". He then moved to the city of Szatmar, where he would meet and begin courting Ilonka Joó, the daughter of Szatmar's mayor. Since Dankó was a gypsy, the mayor disapproved of the relationship, prompting Dankó and Joó to elope. The two were together until Pista's death from lung disease on 29 March 1903.

Musical style

Due to Dankó's heritage, he was steeped in

Hungarian folk music Hungarian may refer to: * Hungary, a country in Central Europe * Kingdom of Hungary, state of Hungary, existing between 1000 and 1946 * Hungarians/Magyars, ethnic groups in Hungary * Hungarian algorithm, a polynomial time algorithm for solving the ...

, and most of his works were written in the popular

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. Th ...

and

nóta Nóta is a form of 19th-century Hungarian popular song. It is one of a number of styles collectively referred to as '' cigányzene'', which literally means ''Gipsy music'' but is used to refer to a number of styles of Hungarian folk music that a ...

folk dance music styles. He also composed works in other styles such as

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a state's "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diffe ...

Musical works

While living in Szeged, Dankó composed music for over 400 poems, including the work of Lajos Pósa. One of his most popular songs of the time was ''Az a szép, az a szép'' (''Handsome is, handsome is''), which is still among popular folk dance songs in Hungary. At the request of his associate

Géza Gárdonyi Géza Gárdonyi, born Géza Ziegler (3 August 1863 – 30 October 1922) was a Hungarian writer and journalist. Although he wrote a range of works, he had his greatest success as a historical novelist, particularly with '' Eclipse of the Cres ...

, a prominent Hungarian author, Dankó composed a march named ''A magyarok bejövetele'' (''March of the Hungarians'') for the thousandth anniversary of the Hungarian state in 1885. This work represented the pinnacle of Dankó's popularity in life, earning him a status rarely achieved by a Rom among the elite in Hungary.

Legacy

Dankó is a rare example of a Rom who was born into poverty and then rose to relative fame and fortune. He primarily did this by working to satisfy the musical taste of the public, and thus achieving popularity. As is often the case, Dankó received a considerable amount of recognition after his death, when following generations of Hungarians were even more enthusiastic about and accepting of his music. A public statue of Dankó was erected in Szeged, on the bank of the

Tisza The Tisza, Tysa or Tisa (see below) is one of the major rivers of Central and Eastern Europe. It was once called "the most Hungarian river" because it used to flow entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary. Today, it crosses several national bo ...

river. A Hungarian-language film named ''Dankó Pista'' was also made based on his life, released in January 1941. The folk music programme of Hungarian

Radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

is named Dankó Radio.

References

* ''Gsemer Geza'' (2001) Szögeny Dankó Pista. Alomregeny, Budapest. {{DEFAULTSORT:Danko, Pista Hungarian composers Hungarian male composers Hungarian Romani people 1858 births 1903 deaths 19th-century male musicians Composers from Austria-Hungary