"Sic itur ad astra..."
Melinda Berlász, a musicologist renowned for her expertise in twentieth-century Hungarian composition and musical life, is a distinguished scholar whose work has initiated and shaped numerous music-historical volumes and series. Her professional trajectory had already been largely predetermined during her formative years, marked by youthful exploration and the search for a vocation. Her father, Jenő Berlász – historian, archivist, and librarian – served until 1957 as head of the Manuscripts Collection of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, located in the same building as the Folk Music Research Group led by Zoltán Kodály. Through his position, Berlász maintained direct contact with Kodály and his colleagues, to whom he introduced his daughter, already drawn to music. From childhood, Melinda Berlász felt herself to ‘belong to music’, and during this visit she was captivated by the knowledge and professional passion of figures such as Lajos Kiss and György Kerényi. She prepared for the entrance examination to the Bartók Béla Secondary School of Music under the guidance of the musicologist Kálmán Szekeres. She was admitted to the composition department, joining the class of Rezső Sugár, whom she later remembered as a demanding and erudite teacher. At the age of fourteen she entered the circle of already matriculated, future composers, completing her studies there in 1961. She applied to the Department of Musicology at the Liszt Academy of Music – which at that time accepted only a handful of students each year – with a paper analysing Carlo Gesualdo’s madrigals. Over the following five years she studied under eminent masters, including Bence Szabolcsi, Dénes Bartha, Zoltán Gárdonyi and Lajos Bárdos. Her thesis was devoted to Gluck’s music dramas. She completed her academic studies in 1966. Wishing to pursue a research career, she was given the opportunity – already in her final year – to take on an assignment at the Bartók Archive, founded in 1961 and directed at the time by Bence Szabolcsi, from which the Institute for Musicology later developed. Her work was supervised by József Ujfalussy, then head of department. In the first years she was entrusted mainly with data collection and source research, such as compiling a repertory of foreign performances of contemporary Hungarian composers (including Pál Kadosa and Ferenc Farkas). From 1966 she continued her work at the Institute for Musicology with a ministerial scholarship, acquiring fundamental knowledge in research methodology and scholarly publication.
Melinda Berlász comes to her work from the perspective of 18th-century universal music history, and in her work she focuses on contemporary and 20th-century Hungarian composition. She publishes concert reviews in periodicals and, alongside József Ujfalussy, masters the practice of source research: from 1969, her first tasks include mapping and preparing for publication musical documents relating to the musical life of the Tanácsköztársaság (Hungarian Soviet Republic) [it was a short-lived communist state that existed from 21 March 1919 to 1 August 1919].
In 1972 she was appointed Assistant Research Fellow. Her first major scholarly project was devoted to the oeuvre of László Lajtha, who had died in 1963, and entailed the first systematic survey and processing of the Lajtha legacy. The initiative for Lajtha research originated with József Ujfalussy, who in the 1950s had supported Lajtha’s ethnomusicological expeditions in western Hungary at ministerial level. Within the series A múlt magyar tudósai (lit. Hungarian Scholars of the Past), published by Akadémiai Kiadó under the general editorship of Gábor Tolnay, Berlász was commissioned to write a volume on László Lajtha. The assignment represented a programme of fundamental research into Lajtha’s ethnomusicological work, including the study of documentary sources in the Museum of Ethnography’s archives from 1910 to 1950, and the analysis of Lajtha’s manuscript and periodical writings on folk music. Drawing on museum reports and other archival materials, she reconstructed the locations and chronology of Lajtha’s collecting expeditions, tracing the history of his work at the National Museum and later at the Museum of Ethnography from the 1910s to 1950. She also documented the activities of the Lajtha Group, founded in the 1950s, which carried out extensive fieldwork among the ‘western Székelys’. As the second phase of the Lajtha foundational research, she began in the 1970s to locate Lajtha’s writings on folk music and other subjects. To mark the centenary of Lajtha’s birth, she published in 1992 the first volume of the Lajtha’s writings, containing fifty-five texts. “The collection… proceeds from content-defining groups of writings,” presenting “the smaller, self-contained” thematic areas of “Lajtha’s scholarly interests: following the group representing Hungarian folk-music research, the volume includes writings on Hungarian folk-dance research, on the history of musical instruments, and – within a broader thematic unit – on musical public life, composers, and contemporaries. (…) The collection concludes with the author’s statements concerning himself and his career.” [1] Work on the second volume of the Lajtha’s writings continues today, with the complete two-volume set expected to appear with Rózsavölgyi in 2020. “The proposed second volume will publish the full corpus of works not included in the first volume, applying supplementary criteria that consider the selection principles of the earlier volume. Once again, the group of folk-music writings will form the largest section. (…) The thematic and numerical centre of gravity… will be represented by the material produced in the post-Second World War period, including the introductions to the five-volume series Népzenei monográfiák (lit. Folk-Music Monographs), the study entitled Egy “hamis” zenekar (lit. An ‘out-of-tune’ orchestra), and the folk-music reviews written at that time.” [2]
Melinda Berlász, who for decades conducted extensive research into the archival and other primary sources of twentieth-century Hungarian musical life, was inevitably confronted – through these very documents – with the significance of Sándor Veress’s oeuvre. Even though Veress, who emigrated to Switzerland in 1949, had been one of the leading figures of Hungarian composition and musicology from the 1930s until the political turning point [the Communist takeover in Hungary, 1948. Classical Stalinism in Hungary 1948-1956], his work remained virtually unacknowledged for decades within Hungarian musical life and musicological education. Numerous decisions taken by Bartók and Kodály attest to their conviction that Veress’s artistic activity embodied the intellectual continuity of the programme they represented. (Veress succeeded Kodály as professor of composition at the Liszt Academy, and served as Bartók’s, later Kodály’s, collaborator in folk-music research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.)
Recognising this situation through her own scholarly insight, Berlász resolved to initiate without delay research into Veress’s oeuvre, which had been consigned to complete oblivion in Hungary, and she established personal contact with the elderly composer residing in Bern. In pursuit of this aim, she travelled to Switzerland in 1980 with an official scholarship. As the outcome of three weeks of consultations with the composer, she compiled the first catalogue of Veress’s musical works, writings, and lectures delivered at the University of Bern. This catalogue was included in the volume of studies she edited to mark the first initiative towards Veress’s rehabilitation, published on the composer’s seventy-fifth birthday (1982). “The volume brings together studies conceived over several years. It presents three essays of differing origins and approaches, representing the first scholarly attempts to gain an informed understanding of Veress’s oeuvre. János Demény was engaged in preparing a projected Veress monograph, while the stylistic examination of Veress’s works inspired the Kolozsvár-based (Cluj Napoca, Romania) composer Ede Terényi.” [3]
For decades, Veress regarded the representation of the achievements of Hungarian art music and ethnomusicology in Western Europe – particularly the dissemination of Bartók’s and Kodály’s compositional and scholarly legacy – as his vocation, a mission for which his ten-year teaching programme at the University of Bern provided an ideal framework. (Among this group of works, his lectures and writings marking the Kodály anniversaries may be cited as characteristic examples. Veress’s tributes to Kodály will soon be published once again, serially, in Folk Magazin.) Over the years, Melinda Berlász published some forty studies, articles, reviews, and CD booklet essays dealing with the life and work of Sándor Veress. Following the publication of the 1982 volume of studies on Veress, Berlász undertook another research trip to Bern in 1989, during which she helped to realise one of the composer’s long-cherished plans: she prepared for publication the complete manuscript materials of his historically significant Moldavian folk-music collecting expedition of 1930 – conducted sixty years earlier – including some 140 manuscript notations of folk songs, the fieldwork diary, and the uniquely valuable photographic collection, all under the composer’s guidance.
In 2007 and 2010 she published further indispensable editions: the two-volume critical collection of Veress’s choral works (I. Gyermek-, női- és férfikarok [I. Children’s, Women’s and Men’s Choruses], 2007; II. Vegyeskarok [II. Mixed Choruses], 2010; Editio Musica, Budapest). These volumes offered comprehensive documentation of one of the significant genre groups within Veress’s creative output – predominantly works in the Hungarian language – and provided performers with the opportunity to revive these compositions.
In the autumn of 2017, the first exhibition devoted to the Veress oeuvre was realised at the Museum of Music History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the composer’s death. The bilingual, Hungarian–German exhibition presented the three principal spheres of Veress’s intellectual activity, as reflected in its title: Veress Sándor – zeneszerző, tanár és kutató (Sándor Veress – Composer, Teacher and Researcher). The curator of the exhibition was Melinda Berlász.
Another major branch of Melinda Berlász’s scholarly activity is the large-scale programme of source exploration and publication aimed at the ‘complete’ reconstruction of musical life in the decade following the Second World War (1945–1956), for which she pioneered the systematic examination of archival documents as a research method. Tibor Tallián joined the project, and, as the result of their multi-year research, they published several thousand music-historical documents in a three-volume series in the mid-1980s. (Melinda Berlász – Tibor Tallián [eds. and publ.]: Iratok a Magyar zeneoktatás történetéhez [lit. Documents for the History of Hungarian Music Education], in: Műhelytanulmányok a magyar zenetörténethez, MTA ZTI 1984; Iratok a magyar zeneélet történetéhez I-II. [Documents for the History of Hungarian Musical Life I–II], in: Műhelytanulmányok a magyar zenetörténethez, 1985.)
A further branch of Berlász’s work is connected to the history of musicology. Following the Lajtha and Veress source volumes and studies, she examined additional topics in the history of folk-music scholarship, focusing on oeuvres that at the time had received little scholarly attention (including studies on Oszkár Dincsér, Pál Péter Domokos, and Benjamin Rajeczky). This thematic field also embraced the publication of the collected writings of Pál Járdányi (Járdányi Pál összegyűjtött írásművei [Pál Járdányi: Collected Writings], MTA ZTI, 2000). The volume contains 133 texts written by Járdányi between 1942 and 1966: manuscript works preserved in his estate, writings published in foreign languages, and, for the first time, the full text of his eight-part lecture series on Hungarian folk music, broadcast on the radio during the final months of his life. The chapters of the volume are as follows (lit.): Hungarian Folk Music and Musicology; On Bartók and Kodály; Music Pedagogy and Music Theory; Hungarian Musical Life and Musical Culture. [4]
In the service of the historical knowledge of Hungarian musicological literature, Berlász compiled bibliographies of several 20th-century music historians: in addition to the aforementioned bibliographies related to the oeuvre research, she published as a separate publication the first comprehensive summary of the writings of Bence Szabolcsi (1969), Zoltán Gárdonyi (2016), and Dénes Bartha's journal editing activities.
From 1995 onwards, following the award of her Candidate of Sciences degree, Melinda Berlász continued her work as Head of Department at the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA ZTI). During these years she became the organiser and director of research into twentieth-century Hungarian music history. Her responsibilities in academic administration increased considerably, and the number of her colleagues expanded gradually, due largely to the OTKA [National Research Fund] research grants she led. She directed an ever-growing number of thematic research projects: she initiated the scholarly rehabilitation of the oeuvres of Ernő Dohnányi and Jenő Hubay within the framework of studies and dissertations and encouraged young researchers to undertake analytical evaluations of hitherto unexamined twentieth-century bodies of work. This activity is represented, among others, by two volumes she edited: Vass Lajos emlékezete (lit. In Memory of Lajos Vass) (1998, Püski) and Kósa György (lit. György Kósa) (2003, Akkord). She carried out her professional tasks with unwavering enthusiasm.
She extended her oeuvre research by undertaking a pedagogical-historical study of the work of Leó Weiner. She collected the memoirs of fifty of the master’s pupils with the intention of revealing and presenting the principles and artistic methods of Weiner’s renowned pedagogical approach, as evidenced in the testimonies of his most distinguished Hungarian and international students – from Sir Georg Solti to Antal Doráti. It is to Berlász’s credit that, in the years preceding the Weiner centenary, she succeeded in persuading the still-living former pupils, colleagues and friends of the master to record their recollections. Owing to the widespread popularity of the volume, the first edition soon went out of print, and several newly submitted recollections prompted the publisher to issue a second, expanded edition of the Weiner memorial material. The new collection was augmented with seven additional memoirs and valuable photographic material, as well as an appendix containing a directory of Weiner’s pupils, compiled in 1955 by István Varró – husband of the renowned piano teacher Margit Varró – on Weiner’s seventieth birthday, listing those pupils and friends residing abroad. The second edition, entitled Weiner Leó és tanítványai (lit. Leó Weiner and His Pupils), was published in 2003.
During her years as Head of Department and subsequently as leader of the Research Group for 20th Century Hungarian Music until 2007, Melinda Berlász organised a research team supported by the OTKA (National Research Fund) and later by the so-called Széchenyi grants. As project leader (2004–2007), she planned and directed the preparation of the study volume entitled Kodály Zoltán és tanítványai (lit. Zoltán Kodály and His Pupils). The volume carries the subtitle A hagyomány és a hagyományozódás vizsgálata két nemzedék életművében (lit. Examining Tradition and Its Transmission in the Works of Two Generations), signalling the research concept, which investigates how Kodály’s compositional, scholarly, and pedagogical legacy continued in the creative approaches of successive generations of his pupils. In the editorial preface Berlász notes: “The thematic design of the volume on the transmission of intellectual heritage – which emphasises the scholarly connections between Kodály’s oeuvre and the work of his pupils – can be most aptly likened to a bridge, between whose two pillars there is ongoing contact.” [6] The volume includes four studies related to the Kodály corpus, each pointing to new areas of Kodály scholarship. The first study examines archival sources documenting the history of the Kodály family. The second investigates Kodály’s relationship with the nineteenth century from both scholarly and compositional perspectives. A further study, drawing on archival and institutional records, explores Kodály’s social role and position in the post-Second World War period from the perspectives of cultural policy and social history. In selecting the Kodály pupils for inclusion, two criteria were applied: firstly, the representation of two significant individuals from two generations of pupils, Pál Járdányi and Sándor Veress; secondly, the opportunity to highlight the model function of generational and workshop-like collaboration, as illustrated by the creative, editorial, and distributional activity of the Magyar Kórus magazine. This study traces the publication history of Kodály’s and his pupils’ compositions between 1930 and 1950, coinciding with the emergence of the new Hungarian choral repertoire. The study volume, produced jointly with nine colleagues, also included two bibliographies addressing previously uncharted aspects of the pupils’ work. It quickly became an essential reference work: it was incorporated into the Márai Programme, and the Hungarian State purchased 250 copies, distributing them to major libraries throughout the country.
Berlász’s Candidate of Sciences dissertation, completed in 1992–1995, summarised the results of her most recent primary research in Hungarian folk-music history under the title A magyar népzenekutatás új forrásai és új megközelítései (lit. New Sources and Approaches in Hungarian Folk Music Research), based primarily on the manuscript sources of Lajtha and Veress.
In recognition of her joint research work with Sándor Veress, Sándor Veress decided to donate thousands of manuscripts of his pedagogical works and a group of his Hungarian-language textbooks to the Institute of Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA ZTI), the institution in whose former department he had worked as a folk music researcher alongside Bartók from 1934 and Kodály from 1940.
From 2005 to 2007, Melinda Berlász was appointed to lead the Dohnányi Archive, established in 2001 within the Institute for Musicology (ZTI), while simultaneously continuing to direct the Research Group for 20th Century Hungarian Music. The Archive was created with the aim of rehabilitating, preserving, and researching the oeuvre of Ernő Dohnányi, as well as collecting and publishing various sources related to his work. The extensive research activities initiated by the Archive are reflected in the publication of five study volumes issued by the Institute under the title Dohnányi Évkönyv (lit. Dohnányi Yearbook) between 2002 and 2007. However, due to severe financial constraints, it was not possible to maintain the Archive as an independent scholarly unit after 2009. Since July 2012, the Dohnányi collection has been managed by the Archives and Research Group for 20th-21st Century Hungarian Music, established within the Momentum Program of The Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This transition opened a new chapter in the history of the Dohnányi Archive both in terms of research organisation and financial support. The collection currently comprises several thousand original documents related to Dohnányi – musical manuscripts, letters, photographs, diaries, personal and official documents, and memorabilia – together with printed materials (books, scores, newspaper clippings), audio recordings, and manuscript and document copies from various locations worldwide. [7]
Melinda Berlász initiated the primary research of previously unstudied, multi-generational compositional oeuvres within the framework of twentieth-century musicological studies and published the results in a bilingual series of compact monographs. She designed the two-part concept of these monographs so that each comprehensive catalogue of works, the ‘scientific scaffolding’, was accompanied by an accessible summary intended to introduce the composer’s oeuvre. The volumes are further enhanced by the inclusion of the composer’s photograph, signature, and manuscript excerpts. Supported by the National Cultural Fund, this bilingual (Hungarian and English) series, unprecedented in scope, currently comprises forty authorial monographs edited by Berlász and written by thirty different composers (Magyar zeneszerzők / Hungarian Composers, published by Mágus Kiadó and later by the Budapest Music Center, 1998–present). The series is an indispensable resource for orienting oneself within Hungarian music history.
Berlász’s editorial work also includes the annual volumes of the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Zenetudományi dolgozatok (lit. Musicological Papers), and, from 2005, the final two volumes of the Dohnányi Yearbooks.
In 2013, she undertook a major editorial project commemorating her former Head of Department and Institute Director, József Ujfalussy (Tanulmányok Ujfalussy József Emlékére [lit. Studies in Memory of József Ujfalussy], ed. Melinda Berlász and Márta Grabócz, L’Harmattan, 2013).
Her wide-ranging and prolific professional activity continues to the present day. She maintains a close connection with the composers and figures she has studied, and her interests remain focused on as-yet unexamined questions in music history. She considers the building of foundational research – the construction of the fundamental scholarly framework – as her principal task. Through her investigations and deeply rooted dedication, she continues to serve both musicology and Hungarian musical life.
[1] Melinda Berlász: Mit ígér Lajtha László Összegyűjtött írásainak második kötete? A megjelent és az előkészületben álló Lajtha-írásgyűjtemények összefüggéseiről. (lit. What Does the Second Volume of László Lajtha’s Collected Writings Promise? On the Connections Between the Published and the Forthcoming Volumes of the Lajtha Writings.) In.: Edited version of the lecture delivered at the conference in honour of the 50th anniversary of the death of László Lajtha, 16 February 2013.
[2] ibid.
[3] Berlász-Demény-Terényi: Sándor Veress., Zeneműkiadó, Bp., 1982.
[4] Tivadar Körber: Járdányi Pál összegyűjtött írásai (lit. Collected writings of Pál Járdányi), Parlando, 2001, no. 6, p. 49-50.
[5] András Batta: Volt egyszer egy Zeneakadémia (lit. Once Upon a Time There Was an Academy of Music) In. Muzsika, June 2003
[6] Kodály Zoltán és tanítványai. A hagyomány és a hagyományozódás vizsgálata két nemzedék életművében. (lit. Zoltán Kodály and His Students. Examining Tradition and Its Transmission in the Works of Two Generations). Ed. by Melinda Berlász. Rózsavölgyi & Társa, Bp., 2007.
[7] http://www.zti.hu/mza-dohnanyi