Palatka Gypsy Band in London

Event information

As one of the very few remaining expressions of Palatka Music, the Palatka Gypsy Band can be considered the last avatar of a centuries-old tradition.

The music and dances of the Mezség area are rich and highly developed, being the combined result of many diverse influences. The dance and music of the Transylvanian Baroque and Renaissance periods were preserved and gradually developed into a unique style in this area of Transylvania. The "New Style" from Hungary and other foreign, aristocratic influences did not arrive until much later (and then were only selectively integrated). The interweaving and intermingling of Hungarian, Romanian, Romani and Transylvania-German cultures here has resulted in raising the dance and music to the highest levels. The outcome of the constant interchange of the dance and dance melodies is that, in the Mezség, the Hungarian and Romanian characteristics have become intertwined; the borderlines between the two have melted away, producing a truly bilingual effect.

The complete band consists of 2 primás-es; (the primes, is the lead fiddle in these village bands), 2 violas (locally called kontra) and a double bass, played on only one gut string, tuned to a C, allowing for a 'boomier' sound.
The two primás-es often play in parallel octaves. The violas account for the density of the accompaniment. The curve on the bridge of the viola is flattened so that the strings can be sounded simultaneously. Mostly major triads are played. Factory made bows are only used by the primás-es, the viola and bass players use more massive home-made bows. It is common here, as generally in more traditional areas of the Carpathian Basin, for instrumental and vocal melody line not to conform to the system of equal temperament, as the musicians themselves generally do not read music (nor think within this system).

The following are quite typical of Palatka:

* They tune their instruments higher than the usual, to achieve a more penetrating sound.
* While performing, the musicians generally stand very close to one another, as (when playing without amplification) this is the best way of keeping the playing unified in spite of its loudness.
These features, joined to the dominance of major chords in central Mezség music, are some of the elements which give the very peculiar "Palatka Sound" a kind of "rock-n-roll" appeal not very common in folk music.



Here is the complete text by Raoul Weiss from the website
http://palatka.ruralportal.info/

Palatka (Romanian: Pălatca German: Pallotken) is a Transylvanian village 20 miles northeast of Cluj. Today most of its inhabitants speak Romanian as their main language; once predominant, the Hungarian speaking community is still present, as well as a large Gypsy minority, once trilingual (Romani-Hungarian-Romanian), nowadays speaking predominantly Romanian.

In ethno-musical studies, and for the Hungarian folk revival movement called "Táncház-Mozgalom", mostly due to the activity and talent of the musicians of this local Gypsycommunity, Palatka is seen as the epicentre, the main source, and very symbol of traditional music and dance of this ethnographic region, called Mezség (in Hungarian; Câmpie in Romanian). "Mezség" is the name for the mostly rural hilly area of central Transylvania which lies between the cities of Cluj, Turda, Târgu-Mure, Bistria, Beclean, and Gherla.1

Until the 2nd half of the 20th century, most of the (approximately) 300 Hungarian, Romanian, German and mixed communities of the Mezég region had their own distinct bands; during the 2ndhalf of the 20th century, the introduction of mass-culture habits in that rural area stripped the traditional audiences away from those musicians, and with it the revenue derived from providing music for social festivities (weddings, traditional holidays, etc.). As a consequence, the PalatkaGypsy musicians were compelled to find work in a circle of communities beyond their own, extending from Palatka and its direct surroundings into a larger part of central and northern Mezég. In the process, these musicians learned the distinguishing songs and dance music found in that broader area, becoming for instance the "official" music providers of villages as far as Visa (6 miles west of Palatka).
The dances of the Mezség area are rich and highly developed, with the accompanying music being the combined result of many diverse influences. The dance and music of the Transylvanian Baroque and Renaissance periods were preserved and gradually developed into a unique style in this area of Transylvania. The "New Style" from Hungary and other foreign, aristocratic influences did not arrive until much later (and then were only selectively integrated). The interweaving and intermingling of Hungarian, Romanian, Romani and Transylvania-German cultures here has resulted in raising the dance and music to the highest levels. The outcome of the constant interchange of the dance and dance melodies is that, in the Mezség, the Hungarian and Romanian characteristics have become intertwined; the borderlines between the two have melted away, producing a truly bilingual effect.

THE MUSICIANS

The first documentation of Gypsy peoples inhabiting Transylvania dates to the year 1568. During the period spanning between the 16th and 18th centuries, they merged into the musical tradition of their environment. Gypsy bands became common in Hungary in the second half of the 18th century.
The Gypsy musicians from Palatka are so-called Transylvanian-Hungarian Gypsies. Most of them no longer speak Hungarian, but have remained Calvinist (the religion of the Hungarians in that area of Transylvania), and often bear Hungarian names.
Since the 1950s, when the traditional dance-life of the area's villages began to decline, they have been unable to support themselves financially through music. Hence, they have been forced to seek other jobs or to perform migrant labour. (By the end of the 1970s, many members of the PalatkaGypsy musical families were working as garbage collectors in Cluj.)
They were rediscovered in the 1970s by ethno-musicology and the new-born Táncházmovement, which provided them a new, mostly urban, public in cities of the former Hungarian Kingdom (such as Budapest, Debrecen, and Cluj). This folk-revival environment helped the more educated members of the community to obtain an awareness of the value of musical tradition and authenticity, and therefore to resist the growing trend of fashionable "Gypsy Music" (a music based on the commercial myth of an essentially unique "Gypsy Music" spanning from India to Spain).

THE MUSIC

The complete band consists of 2 primás-es; (the primás, pronounced "preemash", is the lead fiddle in these village bands), 2 violas (locally called kontra) and a double bass (known as nagyb in Hungarian). Bands using newer instruments such as the clarinet or accordion (which are common in other areas of Transylvania) remain unfashionable in the environs of Palatka.

Characteristic of the playing style of the primás is the technique of holding the violin by resting it against their left wrist; they rarely play on open strings, with the fourth finger used only formelismas, and change position frequently.
The two primás-es often play in parallel octaves. The violas account for the density of the accompaniment. The curve on the bridge of the viola is flattened so that the strings can be sounded simultaneously. Mostly major triads are played. The double bass is altered for expediency by leaving off the G string, having just three home-made gut strings, with the A string in the middle. Factory made bows are only used by the primás-es, the viola and bass players use more massive home-made bows. It is common here, as generally in more traditional areas of the Carpathian Basin, for instrumental and vocal melody line not to conform to the system of equal temperament, as the musicians themselves generally do not read music (nor think within this system). This is why the signs↑ or↓ often appear above the notes in transcription of such folk music.

Whereas the above characteristics are common to most Mezség musical traditions, the following are quite typical of Palatka:
* They tune their instruments higher than the usual, to achieve a more penetrating sound.
* While performing, the musicians generally stand very close to one another, as (when playing without amplification) this is the best way of keeping the playing unified in spite of its loudness.
These features, joined to the dominance of major chords in central Mezség music, are some of the elements which give the very peculiar "Palatka Sound" a kind of "rock-n-roll" appeal not very common in folk music, and making it able to win over, year after year, new generations of listeners outside the traditional circle of folk amateurs.

MELODIES AND DANCES

The melodies used - all of Transylvanian type - can be divided into two groups: those which are exclusively instrumental, and those which have a sung form.
*1. group:
-fast and slow boy dance
-"leaping" couple dance (generally played between slow and fast czardas)
-tîrnoveana (a boy dance)
*2. group:
-foursome dance
-slow, so-called "Gypsy", couple dance
- slow and fast czardas (couple) dance
- table (listening) songs

While Hungarians and Romanians generally know the lyrics of the melodies, the Romani musicians generally do not; as they were not expected to sing at the parties they were engaged to perform at (vocal music being considered the "noble part" of music in most traditional societies).

By tradition, a single dance is not performed in isolation from its repertoire, as the customary dance set is, rather, a suite of dances with a fixed order in which they are danced. The dance suite lasts for half an hour to an hour, consists of 3 to 5 dances between which there are short breaks, and is danced with the same partner from start to finish. This is the largest functional unit of dance and music within traditional dance events of the area. During the course of such an event, this cycle is repeated time and again with little variation. There is a gradual building up within the cycle. The local Hungarian expression for the dance cycle is "egy pár tánc", a subtle play on words which could be translated either as "a couple's dance", "a couple (of) dances" or "a few dances". In Palatka, as in most places in the Carpathian Basin, the order of dances in the cycle is fairly uniform: a fast men's dance, followed by slow couple dance, and finally fast couple's dances.

THE BAND

As one of the very few remaining expressions of Palatka Music2, the Palatka Gypsy Bandcan be considered the last avatar of a centuries-old tradition. But this is precisely where the distinction lies: within the táncház-revival, little or no emphasis has been laid on artistic personalities among vernacular musicians: in spite of growing integration into an international and commercial performing pattern (nowadays, vernacular folk musicians from Transylvania tend to earn more from non-traditional performances, held in cities, or in summer camps organized in rural locations of the area, but generally not for locals), their (mostly improvised) management tended to treat them as ethnological "hold-outs", which is partly in keeping with the idea some of those musicians have of themselves, but ultimately risks freezing their reputation and activity within the diminutive frame of a relatively small group of folk aficionados, which is unable to sustain a number of events and/or a level of remuneration sufficient to guarantee the future of those bands and, therefore, the survival of their musical traditions. In other words: under-marketing the artists for the sake of authenticity might prove to bring the opposite result: seeing even more folk musicians migrate towards mass-market genres, or abandoning music altogether for more gainful occupations.