magyar contributions
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear (or read) the word ‘Hungary’? For me, it was goulash and a vague image of grey, decaying Baroque buildings neglected during decades of communist rule. If I thought really hard and remembered that this Pact of Non has something to do with music, I may have been able to dig the name Béla Viktor János Bartók from the recesses of my cranial cavities. At least, we in the Occident (a term not to be confused with the fascist French party) have access to his music and ideas of ethnomusicology via recordings, performances, scores, the radio etc. Music sometimes travels in a way that other parts of a culture do not.
What should have come to mind because they are so amazing, the likes of which I have not seen in the US, are all of the public bathhouses built over hot springs. Inside one of these complexes, there are usually a few elaborate spaces with pools of varying temperatures, saunas, steam rooms, cold baths, reclining chairs and benches for resting, outdoor areas to get sun, showering facilities, and separate changing areas with private cabinas. (When I finally have access to my own computer, I’ll upload some pictures. For now, you can click on any of the bathhouses listed here to see photos.) The Rudas Gyógyfürdö (on the Buda side of Budapest) have mosaics in them dating back to Roman rule while the remaining architecture dates back at least 450 years to the Turks/the Ottoman Empire. I visited the Széchenyi Gyógyfürdö (on the Pest side of Budapest) with my friends Enzo and Elena. These baths are housed in a sprawling Neo-Baroque edifice (Hapsbourg rule) and are roughly equivalent to the public space of the Piazza Navona in Rome; people from all walks of life go to these things, especially older people suffering from rheumatism or arthritis. I’m not sure how either the Huns (as in Attila the) or the communists (as in Russian, Soviet) demonstrably contributed to bathing culture.
If I ever get the chance, I would also like to go see Peter Zumthor’s baths in Vals, Switzerland, though I’m guessing they were a bit more expensive than the $11.50 (220 Forint) I paid for access to the ones in Budapest.
Just for fun, I looked for a map of the locations of geothermal hot springs in the United States to see if maybe we could all get rich by opening our own thermal baths for the masses. Rather inconveniently, I think the dots mostly overlap with areas of religious conservatism and deserts without large, concentrated populations.
At the Sziget festival which was expected to draw 385,000 people, by far the most interesting band that I managed to see was the Kerekes Band. A mandolin, a violin, a bass guitar, drums, and a recorder mesmerized a few hundred people into a dancing frenzy- a non 4/4, non head-bobbing, feet moving in every direction frenzy. The guy playing the recorder wore a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, if that gives you any indication as their take on traditional gypsy folk music. As far as I know, they are all Hungarian (or Magyar), with a Hungarian recording, on a Hungarian label, and without distribution outside of Hungary- except for via the internet.
Am now in the hometown of Bach and Leibnitz suffering from a severe cold.
What should have come to mind because they are so amazing, the likes of which I have not seen in the US, are all of the public bathhouses built over hot springs. Inside one of these complexes, there are usually a few elaborate spaces with pools of varying temperatures, saunas, steam rooms, cold baths, reclining chairs and benches for resting, outdoor areas to get sun, showering facilities, and separate changing areas with private cabinas. (When I finally have access to my own computer, I’ll upload some pictures. For now, you can click on any of the bathhouses listed here to see photos.) The Rudas Gyógyfürdö (on the Buda side of Budapest) have mosaics in them dating back to Roman rule while the remaining architecture dates back at least 450 years to the Turks/the Ottoman Empire. I visited the Széchenyi Gyógyfürdö (on the Pest side of Budapest) with my friends Enzo and Elena. These baths are housed in a sprawling Neo-Baroque edifice (Hapsbourg rule) and are roughly equivalent to the public space of the Piazza Navona in Rome; people from all walks of life go to these things, especially older people suffering from rheumatism or arthritis. I’m not sure how either the Huns (as in Attila the) or the communists (as in Russian, Soviet) demonstrably contributed to bathing culture.
If I ever get the chance, I would also like to go see Peter Zumthor’s baths in Vals, Switzerland, though I’m guessing they were a bit more expensive than the $11.50 (220 Forint) I paid for access to the ones in Budapest.
Just for fun, I looked for a map of the locations of geothermal hot springs in the United States to see if maybe we could all get rich by opening our own thermal baths for the masses. Rather inconveniently, I think the dots mostly overlap with areas of religious conservatism and deserts without large, concentrated populations.
At the Sziget festival which was expected to draw 385,000 people, by far the most interesting band that I managed to see was the Kerekes Band. A mandolin, a violin, a bass guitar, drums, and a recorder mesmerized a few hundred people into a dancing frenzy- a non 4/4, non head-bobbing, feet moving in every direction frenzy. The guy playing the recorder wore a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, if that gives you any indication as their take on traditional gypsy folk music. As far as I know, they are all Hungarian (or Magyar), with a Hungarian recording, on a Hungarian label, and without distribution outside of Hungary- except for via the internet.
Am now in the hometown of Bach and Leibnitz suffering from a severe cold.
Labels: Gyógyfürdö, Kerekes
