„Ha a rezesbanda ráreccsenti, az már valami…” Rézfúvós zenekarok a falvak zenei életében
‘When the Brass Band Begins to Play, Now That’s Something...’: Brass Bands in the Hungarian Villages of the Carpathian Basin

Summary/Abstract: The study examines the role of brass bands in the musical life of Hungarian vil­lages, based on field collection of band music. The sources comprise of records of living folk music traditions, as well as archival material, both written sources and sound recordings. The author first reviews the state of scholarship on brass bands, emphasising the scarcity of such recordings compared to other types of music in various collections. The study then moves on to contextualise the bands and explore their social situation within their village. This is followed by a discussion about the foundation of the bands, with special emphasis on the determinative role of their funders. As they made decisions about performance bookings, performing costumes, repertoire, and, to some extent, the remunera­tion of band members, the study addresses the importance of legal contracts between bands and their funders. Further questions touched upon by the study include training difficulties in the bands, their relationship with conductors, and the discrepancies between music played by ear and performing from sheet music. The author also examines the relationship of bands playing different styles of music within a community and the communities’ strategies to choose between them. The conclusion sug­gests that the public image of brass bands is far from homogeneous and the scholarship has thus far made but a few inroads into this field. Even though the discontinuation of many of these bands means that their performances are no longer possible to record, interviews, repertoire analyses and sociological studies continue to be valuable sources to study the history of past brass bands.

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