1 The Years of Preparation
The works of Lajos Huszár composed during his years at the Liszt Academy are shaped by a variety of external and internal impulses. They include pieces written to commission, transcriptions, orchestrations, adaptations, compositional experiments, and pedagogical works. It is worth highlighting those works that foreshadow Huszár’s later compositional characteristics, albeit in a still immature and not fully developed form.
In 1967 and 1968, religiously inspired expressive choral music comes to the fore: following two motets for mixed choir, in the summer of 1968 Huszár began work on a Passion in Latin. Naturally, this endeavour could not be brought to full fruition at the time, since the nineteen-year-old composer had just completed his first year at the Liszt Academy. At the same time, this ‘proto-Passion’ already contains several elements, such as the ‘neo-Gregorian’ vocal lines accompanied by a bass organ point, the use of percussion, and the division of the Passion narrative into three large sections, that later find their way into his mature Passió (lit. Passion) (2003–2004).
During the 1960s, the song appears as another vocal genre in Huszár’s output. In 1964, during his conservatory studies, he composed a Romantic song cycle to German poems by Lenau (Waldlieder), followed in 1967–68 by four songs written in an atonal idiom. This subjective and expressive style also emerges in Huszár’s instrumental works of the same period. The three piano pieces entitled Cogitatio (1968, 1970, and 1971) and the Rapszódia szólóhegedűre (lit. Rhapsody for Solo Violin) (1969) reveal the influence of Bartók and of Hungarian rubato-based melodic idioms.
Huszár’s graduation recital in composition consisted of a string trio and an orchestral song cycle (Öt monológ Parancs János verseire [lit. Five Monologues on Poems by János Parancs]), both composed in 1972.
2 First Compositional Period (1974–80)
At a higher level of refinement, Huszár’s works written in the 1970s carry forward the lyrical-expressive and atonal idiom that has been present in his compositional practice since the late 1960s. He wrote two compositions for a larger chamber ensemble (winds, piano, harp, and percussion): Musica per dieci (1974) and Musica concertante (1975). The latter was composed during his period of study in Rome, under the supervision of Goffredo Petrassi. The experience gained during his period of study in Rome brought the style of this work somewhat closer to the avant-garde, through the use of aleatoric procedures and non-thematic construction.
A further contribution to Huszár’s sacred output appears in 1976 with 69. zsoltár [lit. Psalm 69]. Written for the duo of solo voice (tenor) and piano, this work addresses the problem of harmonic unity by grounding its melodic and harmonic material in a chord consisting of a perfect fourth and a minor sixth. The language of the psalm setting is Hungarian (using Gáspár Károli’s Bible translation), and it is characterised by the use of distinctive Hungarian rubato and broadly arched melodic lines. A certain influence of György Kurtág’s Bornemisza Péter mondásai (The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza) can also be discerned. In a similar stylistic vein, two songs for bass and piano were composed to poems by Endre Ady (Szeretném, ha szeretnének [I Want to Be Loved] and De ha mégis [lit. But What If?]).
In 1978, he presented a chamber-orchestral work entitled Scherzo és adagio – 11 vonósra és ütőkre [lit. Scherzo and Adagio, Scored for Eleven Strings and Percussion]. The juxtaposition of the two movement types finds its precedents in Bartók’s works, including the Suite, Op. 14, the string quartets, and other works.
At the end of the atonal period, Rézfúvós kvintett [lit. Brass Quintet] (1980) was composed. Its three movements articulate three characteristic movement types (once again evoking Bartókian models): a Toccata built on hammering ostinati, a Scherzo of unrestrained, headlong drive, and a slow Cantilena recalling the world of rubato-inflected folk song.
3 Second Compositional Period
1981 marks a turning point in Huszár’s compositional career. His last chromatic-atonal work was completed at this time: Három dal Else Lasker-Schüler verseire szopránra és brácsára, német nyelven (lit. Three Songs on Poems by Else Lasker-Schüler, for Soprano and Viola, in German). However, at the same time, his focus shifted towards tonality. He encountered several neo-tonal works, including Górecki’s Third Symphony, which led to a shift in his stylistic orientation. During this period, he received a commission from the Baja Chamber Orchestra to compose a work that would be easy to perform and accessible to amateur musicians. Serenata concertante was completed in August and September of that year. Két madrigál vegyes karra, Weöres Sándor verseire (lit. Two Madrigals for mixed choir, to poems by Sándor Weöres) were also composed in a similarly ‘simple’ style.
However, this emerging ‘tonal’ phase does not give rise to works based exclusively on tonality. Rather, these compositions incorporate various achievements of the first half of the twentieth century, or more precisely, represent a kind of synthesis that entails neither a return to the tonal idioms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, nor concessions to easy comprehensibility.
In 1983, he composed two works for women’s choir, Dies sanctificatus and Ave Maria, along with the song cycle A magány dalai szopránra és ütőkre (lit. Songs of Solitude for Soprano and Percussion), based on Quechua folk texts translated by József Tornai. The work conveys the raw, archaic character of the poems’ folk-derived imagery, while making room for lyrical expression in a more restrained manner.
His next piano piece, Notturno, was composed in 1984 and was written in honour of Goffredo Petrassi’s eightieth birthday. Each of Petrassi’s former Hungarian students contributed a piano piece in honour of the professor of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), making use of the twelve-tone row from his Sixth Concerto. As the work is rooted in dodecaphonic technique, it belongs more naturally to Huszár’s earlier atonal period, even though it also makes use of triadic sonorities. The piano piece was substantially revised in 2011, as a result of which it acquired a more dramatic character and a more pianistic texture.
In 1985, Concerto rustico was composed on commission for the Veszprémi Kamarazenekari Fesztivál (Veszprém Chamber Orchestra Festival). As its title suggests, the work alludes to communal musical idioms: on the one hand, the rigid ostinati of folk dances, and on the other, the static world of church chorales. In this composition, subjective expression recedes into the background.
In 1987, on commission from Szeged, Huszár wrote Ének virradatkor fuvolára és vibrafonra (Song at Daybreak for Flute and Vibraphone). The work first journeys from tonality to twelve-tone writing, and then, after a dramatic central section, retraces this process. In the same year, Huszár wrote his single-movement Kamarakoncert gordonkára és vonósokra (lit. Chamber Concerto for Cello and String Orchestra). In this work, his inclination towards subjective expressiveness is given free rein, subtly underscored by a few concealed quotations from Puccini.
In 1990, A csönd virága, vegyeskar Juhász Ferenc verseire (lit. The Flower of Silence for Mixed Choir, to Poems by Ferenc Juhász), one of the composer’s most significant and personally favoured choral works was completed. Rich in dramatic, lyrical, and mystical elements, this ballad-like choral work presents considerable intonational challenges and only received its first performance in 2012.
In 1993, Huszár composed an organ work based on a Catholic funeral chant Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day (in Hungarian: Ments meg engem, Uram, az örök haláltól), which is the translation of the Latin Libera me. The piece incorporates a wide range of musical idioms; however, its practical viability is somewhat limited by the composer’s relative lack of experience in idiomatic organ writing.
The year 1994 marks a particularly significant turning point in Huszár’s career. In that year, he received a commission from the Szegedi Nemzeti Színház (Szeged National Theatre) to compose an opera. The libretto, written by László Darvasi, was based on Béla Balázs’s tale A csend (lit. Silence). Huszár threw himself into the work of composition, alternating between struggle and enthusiasm. The opera was completed in 1998. Its plot and text offered the composer ample opportunity to develop a broad spectrum of musical materials, presenting a rich variety of musical idioms, from the raw, folk-inflected roughness of the tavern scene, through the intensity of the love duet, to the mystical proximity to death in the final scene. The treatment of pitch is equally varied, and alongside triadic writing, a wide range of compositional procedures appears, including twelve-tone technique, always in the service of portraying the dramatic situations and the psychological disposition of the characters. The opera’s closing scene was first performed in concert form in 1999, while the work’s first fully staged performance took place on 11 February 2005 at the Szeged National Theatre.
In 2000, again on commission from Szeged, Huszár composed the cantata Ikonok Pilinszky János emlékére (lit. Icons in Memory of János Pilinszky) for soprano and chamber orchestra. This composition may be regarded as a loosely conceived Mass, in which several of the Ordinary sections (Kyrie, Crucifixus, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) are combined with an extra-liturgical chant (Confitebor) and a poem by János Pilinszky (Harmadnapon [On the Third Day]).
The concluding work of his tonal period is Passion, composed in 2003 and 2004. This more than seventy-minute oratorio revisits many ideas from his early Passion experiment of 1968, developing them further and correcting the shortcomings. While many of the solo sections derive from the earlier version, all of the choral movements are newly composed. The dominant musical character of Passion is ecclesiastical and monumental, at times counterbalanced by moments of strong dramatic intensity.
4 Third Compositoinal Period (1998–)
The end of Huszár’s tonal period and the beginning of a renewed atonal phase overlap to some extent and are difficult to separate clearly. The first new atonal work, Trittico estivo (originally for oboe and piano, and a later version arranged for flute and piano), was composed as early as 1998, situated among the works that bring the tonal period to a close (Icons…, Passion). It is difficult to determine what prompted the composer to undertake this stylistic shift; perhaps he felt that the expressive potential of his tonal language had been exhausted, and he had to look elsewhere for his artistic truth…
The most significant work of this period to date may be another song cycle, Alföldi varázsénekek (lit. Enchantment Songs From the Great Hungarian Plain) for mezzo-soprano and piano, composed between 2009 and 2011 to texts by Zoltán Polner derived from folk sources. In this work, the duality of the folk-archaic and the personal-expressive manifests itself echoing the earlier song cycle Songs of Solitude. Ballada cimbalomra (lit. Ballad for Cimbalom) also dates from 2011 [cimbalom is a type of chordophone composed of a large, trapezoidal box on legs with metal strings stretched across its top and a damping pedal underneath].
5 Summary and Characterisation
Huszár’s compositional career to date may be divided into three creative periods: (1) the atonal music of the 1970s; (2) the quasi-tonal works composed between 1981 and 2004; and (3) a (sort of) return to atonality from 1998 onwards. At first glance, the works of these periods are markedly different from one another. Yet when considered as a whole and listened to in sequence, it becomes clear that numerous underlying connections link the compositions of the various phases. This continuity may be explained by the fact that, beneath the diversity of compositional procedures, it is always the same artistic personality seeking expression, repeatedly reformulating the characteristic motifs of his own emotional world.
The characteristics of this personal world can be described as follows:
1 Huszár is a composer of fundamentally lyrical disposition, oriented towards expressivity. In his works, intellectual constructive procedures play a lesser role, while the realisation of poetic aims assumes far greater importance.
2 Although he composed vocal and instrumental works in roughly equal measure, it appears that the most significant and profound statements of his oeuvre belong to the former category (Psalm 69, Songs of Solitude, The Flower of Silence, Silence [opera], Icons…, Passion, Enchantment Songs From the Great Hungarian Plain).
3 He displays a strong affinity for religious themes and texts. His sources of inspiration lie less in the doctrinal foundations of Christianity than in the powerful and profound emotions resonating within sacred texts: lament, supplication, curse, humility, love, joy, and praise, and, naturally, the events of Christ’s birth, suffering, and death.
4 Interestingly, elements of folk idiom recur in many of his works. These do not take the form of direct quotations of folk songs, but rather appear as characteristic melodic turns, rhythmic patterns, ornaments, and similar features. In such passages, sometimes consciously, at other times intuitively, the composer returns to his Hungarian and, more broadly, East-Central European roots (Brass Quintet, Songs of Solitude, Concerto rustico, Silence, Enchantment Songs From the Great Hungarian Plain).
Huszár Lajos belongs to that group of composers who develop their musical ideas over long periods and produce relatively few works. Nevertheless, the artistic and technical quality of his work has earned him broad recognition among both professionals and audiences, irrespective of ideological allegiances.
[2015]