Love Song for Hungary

Budapest – City of Music.

By Nicolas Clapton, Haus Publishing, 2009

According to many, music will always be a lingua franca: melodies convey the same message and inspire the same emotions everywhere, overcoming any linguistic barriers. Meanwhile, it protects tens of thousands of unique local characteristics, and the heritage behind them that guarantees the delivery of culture. It was this special power that attracted Nick Clapton to Budapest, Hungary, the melting pot of the most varied of cultural communities.

Clapton, a singer and educator from the UK, guides us around the Hungarian national character by looking at its diversity through rich and musical traditions. He takes on the dual role of traveler and music expert: the former offering a plethora of practical tips, the latter intellectual analyses of the music that readers can encounter in churches, concert halls, museums and restaurants. Contemplation runs from the architecture of Budapest’s grandiose Szent István Cathedral, and the new concert hall, in the Palace of Arts to the small details of Ferenc Liszt’s workroom, in the vicinity of the Academy of Music. Each chapter is dedicated to an individual local genre of Hungarian music: folk songs, gypsy music, opera and operetta, chamber and choral works. The book also takes on a mission to find the hidden gems alongside the mainstream. It is a must to dedicate pages to such towering composers as Béla Bartók, Ferenc Liszt or Zoltán Kodály. However, due care is taken to mention scores of contemporary masters: Sándor Veress, András Szőlőssy and Zoltán Jeney among them.

Once Clapton has positioned music in its broader cultural context, he introduces culture through music. But because it also comprises the national spirit of culinary arts, local expressions excluded from language books, and witty anecdotes, the author has compiled a 14-page appendix of recommended restaurants and cafés in the capital. Further sections list Clapton’s favorite hotels and music shops, as well as selected literature available in English.

This is not a weekend away, it is a journey.

(Published in HINT Magazine’s Summer Issue 2010)

http://www.amazon.com/Budapest-Armchair-Traveller-Nicholas-Clapton/dp/1904950965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283413180&sr=1-1-spell