Hungarian Musical Guide VIII. [antikvár]

anniversaries The great Hungarian poet was born 150 years ago. PETŐFI AND MUSIC There is no doubt that Petőfi had on immense impact on music. Almost two hundred composers — the majority of them, of course, Hungarians — set his poems to music or composed pieces of music inspired by his poetry. If one were to classify the repertory of Hungarion vocal music according to poets from the forties of the last century, it would appear that the greatest part of songs and chorus works were based on poems by Petőfi. The first Petőfi-songs were composed by Gusztáv Szénfy in 1846 and subsequently by Béni Egressy in 1847. At the time of the 1848 War of Independence-not less than seven composers set Petőfi's revolutionary poem Nemzeti da! (Notional Ode) to music. After the War of Independence c number of popular art-songs were composed drawing on Petőfi's lyrical poetry, mainly on his verses in a folk poetry-like tone. Of the significant Hungarian composers of the past century Ferenc Erkel, the creator of the Hungarian national opera and founder of a number of Hungarian musical institutions, came three times into contact with Petőfi's poetry. In 1863 Erkel set to music Petőfi's poem A magyarok istene (The God