Blessed is the one who not only acquires their musical mother tongue with their mother’s milk but is bathed in the most beautiful melodies while still in the womb. Márta Sebestyén set out in life this way, as her mother, Ilona Farkas Sebestyén – herself a pupil of Zoltán Kodály – often recalled. Ilona became a music educator and choir conductor, a charismatic figure of Hungarian choral culture. Kodály’s complex educational model permeated the awakening of several fortunate generations, including Márta’s. The gifted little girl was praised by the Master himself for her flawless rendering of melodies. One of her earliest public solo roles was that of the little girl whose bright song warmed the heart of a shivering king. Through her mother she was introduced not only to the enchantment of folk song, but also to the shared values of classical music (solfège, piano, and recorder tuition based on the Béres method were standard), including the spirit of the Békés-Tarhos music education principles and practices. This high-quality, richly layered musical upbringing remains the golden foundation underlying every one of Márta Sebestyén’s artistic achievements.
Another equally defining component of her career came with her involvement in the world of the dance-house movement. By then Márta had already spent years exploring archival folk music recordings (including those of Anna Jánó from Western Moldavia), and the collections of Kodály, Bartók and Zoltán Kallós. When the sixteen-year-old girl introduced herself one evening at the Kassák Club, Ferenc Sebő and Béla Halmos immediately recognised her vocal talent and natural stage presence and invited her to perform at their next concert as a valued new member of their ensemble. Márta’s remarkable rise in the dance-house scene was greatly helped by the fact that she herself had danced for years in the Bartók Folk Dance Ensemble. Performing temperament comes hand in hand with dance-house singing, just as fidelity to the authentic source does. Her exceptional receptiveness, musicality, linguistic instinct and stylistic sensitivity placed her among the greatest; her character and chosen artistic world were a perfect match. We came to know the shades of the dance-house revival from her in every available tone of nations, languages and regions, in all their full beauty.
A distinctive feature at the heart of her career is the unfolding ornamental arc woven from authentic folk art and folklore, from sung poetry and early music melodies. They intertwine like the embracing, returning, mutually dependent tendrils of an imaginatively embroidered textile. The ensembles with which Márta worked for years – the Sebő Ensemble, where folk dance and sung poetry are equally foregrounded; Muzsikás, where the realisation of Bartók’s ‘pure source’ has become a model recognised internationally; or those ensembles where the dance-house reveals its integrating power in the shared beauty of the folk traditions – the South Slavic colours of Vujicsics, the Bulgarian, Greek, Macedonian and Turkish mix of Zsarátnok (i.e. Nikola Parov and his musicians), and Hungary’s nationality dance-houses – all these are natural artistic homes for Márta Sebestyén. It is hardly surprising that she found many followers early on, and that today, together with her equally influential colleagues shaped by the dance-house movement – singers, musicians, choreographers – she embodies a resurgent original culture, powerful examples of a borderless, authentic sense of identity. Knowledge of the source would remain incomplete without fieldwork. Thanks to Márta Sebestyén’s incomparable natural opennes, the hearts of ‘traditional informants’ open to her anywhere; and as the peasant world is not foreign to her, it is no surprise that from her father’s native village, Csempeszkopács in Vas County, to the most remote Transylvanian settlements, ‘Márti’ is remembered. With them, she too may say: “I sang – I, Márta Sebestyén.”
We can scarcely count the number of languages in which her singing has been heard: English, Basque, Bulgarian, Buryat, Romani, Greek, Croatian, Irish Gaelic, Japanese, Latin, Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian, Turkish… Through her performances, affinities between melodies are illuminated, but so too are kinships of spirit – the shared fates of peoples reaching into historical dimensions, as with the Irish. These form some of the unbreakable strands of her credibility, enduring appeal, and organic artistic flow. Her versatility is further shown by her frequent collaborations with the duo Mátyás Bolya – Balázs Szokolay Dongó and with the Söndörgő Ensemble And because, as a vocal artist, she sings together with one of the leading figures of Baroque music, Judit Andrejszki, chants psalms with the Gryllus brothers, performs with the Szent Efrém Férfikar (Saint Ephraim Male Choir) and with organist Ferenc Szamosi, her very presence raises the Moldavian ballad, and the folk songs of the Mezőség, Székely Land and Kalotaszeg – together with the tradition-bearers who preserve the originals – to the same rank as the world’s classical music productions. Who can say how many thousands of folk songs, Hungarian and in other languages, she knows? Lullabies, apocryphal prayers, bujdosó [songs of exile], teasing rhymes, bagpipe tunes, soldiers’ songs, laments, bridal farewells, drinking songs, dirges, love songs, the melodies of feasts and folk customs – all responses to the vibrations of life, shaped by the multifaceted world of folklore. In the light of the Bartók model, we see a melody culture welling up from a timeless depth, one that proves its validity even within the world of modern artistic creation.
A unique tone on Márta Sebestyén’s palette is added by works that use her singing voice in special ways. We hear her in Pál Zolnay’s films Fotográfia (lit. Photography) and Sámán (lit. Shaman); on Deep Forest’s Grammy-winning album; as the voice of Réka in the rock opera István a király (Stephen, the King) (it is noteworthy – and unfortunate – that she was allowed to appear solely in vocal form); and in the multiple Oscar-winning film The English Patient, in the song Szerelem, szerelem (lit. Love, love). Her art contains no trace of glibness, no hint of cloying kitsch. Whether performing with Levente Szörényi or János Bródy, or working with film director György Szomjas, she consistently upholds confident artistic values, radiating the powerful force of Hungarian folk song and of performance rooted in natural sources.
A considerable part of her work consists of international appearances, sometimes with fellow musicians, sometimes as a solo performer, from clubs and churches to the most prestigious concert halls. She has travelled to every inhabited continent, and her reputation has led to invitations to royal courts; the wonders of the Hungarian folk song have been heard from her by, for instance, the British and Spanish royal families and the Emperor of Japan. It is reasonable to assert that Márta Sebestyén has become an ambassador of Hungarian culture.
Even today she uses her talents with a deep sense of responsibility, for we are worth as much as the good we do for others. Having devoted her life to her calling, she delights and initiates us into the living organism of folk song through the most marvellous instrument: her voice. The most authentic thoughts about her and the path she has chosen for her life can be read in the foreword written by Ferenc Sebő and the singer herself to the audio book Magyar népköltészet (lit. Hungarian Folk Poetry) by Márta Sebestyén.
[2017]