Visiting Hungarian Romungro Romany

Today, lets start the day with some Verbunk music, which will gently wake us up with a slow dreamy rubato introduction, then get us moving with  a slower dance, and finally getting the day into full swing with a faster dance. Here performed by Tcha Limberger and his Budapest Gypsy Orchestra:

We read already extensively about the various Romany tribes, which have settled in Hungary, one of them being Romungro Roma, who were the earliest arrivals in the 15th century. Together with white local musicians, they developed a style called Verbunk. Back then, and to date it still is mostly performed by Romungro Romani musicians. It is the predecessor of Hungarian Czardas and the type of music which now is performed in Hungarian and Austrian restaurants:

https://www.romarchive.eu/en/music/classical-music/verbunkos/

One of the most famous Vebunk composers and musicians in the 18th century was Janos Bihari, 

This article will tell you more about this amazing man:

 http://rombase.uni-graz.at/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/pers/bihari.en.xml

Here a listening sample of his music: Colonel Hadik's Favourite Song and Fast Dance:

In this extremely patriarchal world of Romany culture, I was very positively surprised to ffff, in other words, to find a female fronting the first Hungarian Gypsy music ensemble in a new line-up, a line-up which held out until today. Panna Czinka. This article tells her story very nicely:

https://www.romarchive.eu/en/collection/p/panna-czinka/ 

The leader and front person of Hungarian Verbunk-style Gypsy ensemble is called Primas – in Romany culture until today, the musical profession is a purely male domain, Female family members may be singers, but in traditional families this is only possible if a male member such as her husband or brother are also playing in the band to chaperone her. So it is amazing that in the 18th Century, when the Verbunk style of music and the typical Hungarian Romungro Gypsy ensemble developed, it was a woman leading, pushing forward the style and leading a band. Wiki gives the following tribute: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panna_Cinka

Some Images here:

Via the second image, I discovered another website, with more images, and a much more colourful picture of Panna Cinka's life. The really interesting discovery mentioned on there is a bibliographical movie, which has been produced by Dušan Rapoš. Will try to watch it and update here accordingly:

https://alchetron.com/Panna-Cinka#panna-cinka-82a0447a-41de-4ef3-8050-0d5969d6cbd-resize-750.jpg

Lets finish today's journey with a little live serenade in Verbunk style by myself, together with my group Tatcho Drom, a medley of Halljatok Ciganyok and Ando Drom: