Scores of a folksong: from collection to music textbooks

Abstract

In my study I specialize on several scores of the Hungarian folksong Ablakomba, ablakomba besütött a holdvilág, which was collected by Béla Bartók. While visiting music lessons I experienced that several versions of this folksong were being taught in the lessons. The most striking difference can be seen referring to the melody in the third row of the folksong. It has a few reasons. There are probable musical memory and intonation problems furthermore musical notation faults. This study tries to clear up these notation faults and their causes. The research results can be used in the general music education. Therefore I thought it was necessary to find out more about the circumstances of the collection of the folksong with the help of folkmusic recordings, scores and text published by Hungarian Academy of Sciences Research Centre for the Humanities Institute for Musicology. Starting from the collection, first the arrangement from Bartók is studied. Then the scores found in music textbooks are interpreted in chronological order, from the version published in the book entitled Iskolai énekgyűjtemény by Kodály and Kerényi dating back to 1944 to the textbook version found in Ének-zene 12. by Attila Tapodi from2020. I also try to explain the melodical and metrical differences in the textbooks, as well as the second and further verses.