The author begins by complimenting his addressee, dancing fashion whom he describes as an expert on Carnival matters. He says he is writing because he wishes to clarify his own opinion on some features of the, as he feels confused by conficting impressions. On the one hand, he was touched by the statement in an article published previously in *Prager Zeitung*, 3 which claimed that current dancing practices would have to become a subject for the 'health police'. The young ladies would need special lung capacity to tackle the popular 'Extra-Touren',4 or else the turns might lead them directly to the cemetrey. The author referred to by his initials A. M. draws contrasting pictures of a seventeen-yearold girl dancing in February in the arms of her partner with red cheeks, out of breath, with her dress fying around her, and then in May, dying in her room from the efects of this activity. His anxiety was deepened by the poet Harro Harring (see below) who had expressed a hostile attitude towards *Reydowak*. Harring described the dance as the main ofender in a general decline of good manners, and on this basis he

1 *Bohemia*, *Unterhaltungsblätter für gebildete Stände* [n.a.], 3 (1830), http://kramerius. nkp.cz/kramerius/PShowVolume.do?it=0&id=14191

2 Anton Müller, 'Sendschreiben. Theater und geselliges Leben*'*, *Bohemia*, *Unterhaltungsblätter für gebildete Stände*, 17 (7 February 1830), pp. 3–4, section 'Prager Novitäten'.

3 *K. K. privat*, *Prager Zeitung* [n.a.], 15.18 (31 January 1830), http://anno.onb.ac.at/ cgi-content/anno?aid=pag&datum=18300131&zoom=33

4 It is not clear exactly what the 'Extra-Touren' was.

denounced the whole nation of Bohemia for its sensuality. The author of the Letter does not want to accept such a harsh opinion, but, at the same time, he believes that the quick dancing lacks grace, while the behaviour of the dancing couples mixes unusual intimacy in public with a degree of indiference once the dance has fnished.

On the other hand, he sees dancing as the only opportunity for girls to move more freely in public. He names three felds in which dance provides a counterbalance to their everyday life: girls spend all their time sitting or standing by the fre, while sewing, playing the piano, in the theatre, or in a coach. They are always watched by the eyes of their mothers and aunts so that girls can not be closer than three metres to their beloved; wearing a ball-dress, each girl feels better and prettier than in her everyday clothes.

In summary, the author of the Letter wants to fnd a balance between permissiveness and extreme severity in his attitude to dance manners. He identifes the topics of discussion: the danger to health including the threat of death, the loss of grace caused by the quickness of the dancing; and the level of intimacy versus polite public behaviour. At the centre of all these considerations he places the girls who dance.5

The Answer, entitled 'Antwort auf das Sendschreiben des Herrn Rezensenten in Nr. 17 dieses Blattes' [Response to the Letter of Mr Reviewer in No. 17 of this Paper] (hereafter, referred to as the Answer), appeared in *Bohemia* fve days later, on 12 February in No. 19 in the same section of the newspaper ('*Theater und geselliges Leben*'). After transcription, the length is three A4 pages, and it is signed by Julius Max Schottky (with the polite ending formulated 'Mit Liebe und Hochachtung Ihr Julius Max Schottky', i.e. 'With Love and Respect Your J. M. Sch.').6

The author begins by saying that the question addressed to him in the Letter is one of the 'great questions of the century'. In his opinion, dance is a very infuential phenomenon of the time in which they are living, and it afects not only the ballroom but also family relations and the whole of public life. Firstly, he reacts to the rebuke of the quickness

5 Müller, 'Sendschreiben', pp. 3–4.

6 Julius M. Schottky, 'Antwort auf das Sendschreiben des Herrn Rezensenten in Nro. 17 dieses Blattes', *Bohemia*, *Unterhaltungsblätter für gebildete Stände*, 19 (12 February 1830), pp. 3–4.

of dancing and reminds readers that in everyday life people travel at similar speed in many felds. If steam engines, quick carriages, express messengers exist, there is no reason to fear the quick Waltz and quick dancers, he writes. And moreover, he sees a tendency to accelerate the speed of dancing even more.

To balance this conciliatory attitude, Schottky continues with a sad tale he had heard about a young lady who made a bet with her partner at a ball that she could dance longer than he. Eight times she few through the hall dancing the Galop, then she drank a glass of cold water; the next day she fell ill, and several days later she died. For Schottky, this represented the dark side of contemporary modes of dancing.

The author also refected on the criticism of *Reydowak* (the Redowa) by Harro Harring, mentioned in the Letter. He describes his own experiences of this dance. When he saw it for the frst time, he was alarmed by the lack of grace and charm. The girl drew so closely and passionately towards the man that one could see the imprints of his buttons on her face. Schottky even published a critical reaction to this indecent dancing fashion. However, thanks to a friend, a 'real' gentlewoman, he later changed his mind. While dancing *Reydowak* with her, he realised that the problem lies not in the dance but in the manner of dancing; one can dance *Reydowak* either nicely and tastefully, or dirtily and cheaply. It depends on the personality of the dancer. This statement concludes the article.

#### The Context of the Articles

In the year 1830, Prague and the whole of Bohemia belonged to the Austrian Empire. Prague had approximately 100,000 inhabitants. The Czech national movement was already underway, but it touched only a small part of society — the educated Czech middle-class circles. The majority of inhabitants felt German by nationality: that is why the newspaper *Bohemia* was printed in German, although some Czech magazines already existed. Public life was cultivated mainly in German, but the Czech language was slowly fnding its place in the theatre, the sciences and so on. During the course of 1830, the national movement accelerated in a number of ways: the *Sbor Muzejní pro řeč a literaturu českou* [The Committee of the Museum for Czech Speech and Literature] was established, and student Karl Schneider organised a leafet campaign for the national freedom of the Czech people.7 Some of the frst public manifestations of the Czech nation in Prague were Czech balls, which started in the late 1830s. At frst, they were private balls organised by Josef Kajetán Tyl; the frst real public Czech ball was held in the Convict Hall in 1840. The idea that national aims could be successfully supported by dancing events such as public balls relates to the issues explored in the Letter and the Answer — the social signifcance of dancing.

The arts and culture of both Germans and Czechs living in the Czech lands at that time were especially infuenced by the Biedermeier style, as was the case in the other countries that belonged to the Holy Alliance — Prussia, Austria and Russia. This movement was connected with the political era of the so-called Restoration, the consolidation of the political situation within the Austrian Empire and across Europe after the Napoleonic wars and the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The era is characterised by political conservatism on one side, and the slow establishment of bourgeois culture on the other. In the Austrian Monarchy, and especially the Czech lands, the period from the Vienna Congress to the Revolutions of 1848 is often seen as a time of growing confict between the conservatism of the government and its attempts to resist the new tendencies — a constitution, civil liberties, freedom of speech etc. — inspired by the French Revolution, and the public desire for social and political change. Biedermeier style can be explained as a reaction to this social tension and it focused on matters of everyday life, encouraging moderation in behaviour and feelings.8

The Austrian Empire stood at the centre of these conservative political powers. On 25 October 1820, the Congress of the Holy Alliance, which took place in the Moravian town of Opava (Troppau), discussed a plan of action against revolutionary movements in Europe. Opposition to this political centralisation can be seen in the interest of Bohemian intellectuals in events in Greece, such as the uprising against the Turks in 1821, the independence of Greece in 1830, and especially the revolution in Poland in 1830, which was a topic of great signifcance for Czechs.

7 Jitka Lněničková, České země *v dob*ě *p*ř*edb*ř*eznové*: *1792–1848* (Prague: Libri, 1999).

8 Jiří Štaif, *Obez*ř*etná elita*: Č*eská spole*č*nost mezi tradicí a revolucí 1830–18*51 (Prague: Dokořán, 2005).

## Characteristics of the Authors and Authorities

The initials A. M. under the Letter belong to *Bohemia*'s reviewer, Anton Müller. 9 He studied classical languages and aesthetics at Prague University and taught at the Gymnasium in Jičín and Písek. In 1819, he was invited to the University in Innsbruck as a lecturer of classical languages and aesthetics. In 1823, thanks to the intercession of Count Karel Chotek, the Tyrolean governor, he started to teach history of philosophy, aesthetics, pedagogy, ethics, and, later, also Greek and Latin philology at Prague University. He did not write any books; he was especially active as a journalist for *Prager Zeitung* and between 1828 and 1843 for *Bohemia*. He wrote long reviews of performances in the Estates Theatre, critiques of exhibitions, concerts, and books and referred to public events.

Müller was German but had many relationships with Czech intellectuals who circulated around František Palacký, a historian and politician, who was the leading fgure of the Czech national movement. He paid attention, for instance, to Czech folk songs in an article in the magazine of the Museum (now the National Museum), as well as in his lectures. As a writer, he used themes from Czech mythology, for example, in the story *Horymir and his Steed Šemík*. He based his aesthetic opinions on Classicism: the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Christoph Willibald Gluck demonstrated for him the pinnacle of perfection. He believed in some basic rules of artistic creativity, and in his reviews compared the specifc artistic event with these ideal norms. After 1830, his aesthetic thinking changed slightly under the infuence of the circle around Josef Proksch, a musician with progressive artistic opinions, and later the private teacher of the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana. In this circle, Müller acquainted himself with the thoughts of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, which infuenced his aesthetic thinking, while earlier he was probably more familiar with Johann Georg Sulzer and his encyclopaedic work *Allgemeine Theorie der Schönen Künste* [General Theory of Fine Arts] (1771–1774).10 The Letter discussed in this chapter

9 Born on the 6 or 8 July 1792. Osečná u Mimoně died on the 5 or 6 January 1843 in Prague.

10 Sulzer, Johann G., 'Tanz', in *Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste in Einzeln*, *Nach alph. Ordnung der kunstwörter… Abgehandelt* (Leipzig: M. G. Weidmann, 1773–1775), pp. 747–51*.*

perhaps mirrors the start of the shift in Müller´s opinions, and his budding doubts about formerly held truths. In the 1830s, a growing openness to new phenomena can be discerned in his reviews.11

In the Letter, Anton Müller names as his 'authority' the North Frisian/German poet, painter and 'professional' revolutionary Harro Harring. 12 From 1821, Harring supported the Greek fght for freedom, and in 1828 he visited Prague in an attempt to intervene on behalf of the Greek revolutionary Alexander Ypsilanti, who was imprisoned in the fortress Theresienstadt.13 After the failure of this efort, he escaped to Munich, and later stayed in Poland, Rio de Janeiro, and New York. He participated in the revolutionary events in Leipzig and Braunschweig in 1830 and in North Frisia in 1848. The last years of his life were spent on the island of Jersey where he committed suicide. He knew George Gordon Byron, Heinrich Heine and Giuseppe Garibaldi. According to Müller, Harring wrote and published in Prague a poem dealing with *Reydowak*. 14 In this poem, mentioned earlier, he expressed a deep distaste for the dance, which he saw as an afront to decency and even as a refection of the sensuality and luxuriance of the whole nation. 15 This opinion seemed too strict to Müller and he convinced Harring to strike out the ofensive words before printing. Müller asked Schottky, to whom he addressed his Letter, if his defence of *Reydowak* against Harring was justifed. Harring's dismissal of the dance fashion symbolised by *Reydowak* is reminiscent of the opinion of that other 'revolutionary' poet, Byron, in his poem 'The Waltz'. 16

A person of local importance is also mentioned in the Letter: Sebastian Willibald Schiessler, 17 active as a writer (who wrote novels as well as books on economics, topography, and amusement), an amateur piano player, and a composer. In 1830, Schiessler published a book in Prague

11 Jitka Ludvova, et al., *Hudební divadlo v* č*eských zemích*: *Osobnosti 19. stoleti*́ (Prague: Divadelní ústav: Academia, 2006).

12 Harro Paul Harring was born on 28 August 1798 in Ibenshof by Wobbenbüll, North Frisia. He died on the 15 May 1870 in Saint Helier, Jersey.

13 Terezín in Czech.

14 This poem has not yet been identifed.

15 Müller, 'Sendschreiben', pp. 3–4.

16 George G. Byron, 'Waltz, an Apostrophic Hymn' [1812], *Wikisource*, 7 February 2013, http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The\_Works\_of\_Lord\_Byron\_(ed.\_Coleridge,\_ Prothero)/Poetry/Volume\_1/The\_Waltz

17 Born on 17 July 1791 in Prague, died on 15 March 1867 in Graz.

under the title *Carnevals-Almanach*, a compilation of information dealing with Carnival in history and the present. There are also short poems that provide characteristics of fashionable dances, music scores for dancing, and the frst descriptions of these social dances printed in Bohemia. No similar book appeared in in Bohemia over the following decades, and it was connected with the excited interest in dancing that was also evident in newspapers during 1830. The book includes *Reydowak*, but only in the form of several musical scores; there is no description of movement.18

The author of the Answer, as previously mentioned, was Julius Maximilian Schottky. 19 He was active as a writer, publishing books on historical topics from Bohemia, the life story of Nicolo Paganini or past and present Prague. In January 1830 in his column 'Prager Novitäten' [Prague Novelties] in *Bohemia*, he published articles dedicated to the theme of Carnival, hence Müller addressed him as a Carnival expert. In his Answer to Müller's Letter, Schottky did not cite authorities, relying only on information known by hearsay from his acquaintances.

Fig. 6.1 Excerpt from music for *Reydowak* by Ch. W. Schiessler, published in his *Carnevals-Almanach für das Jahr 1830* (Prague: C. W. Enders, 1830), http:// kramerius.nkp.cz/kramerius/MShowMonograph.do?id=24112. Josef Vycpálek, *České tance* (Prague: B. Kočí, 1921), p. 47.

Anton Müller and Julius Max Schottky almost certainly knew each other; the exchange of the Letter and the Answer in the pages of *Bohemia* seems

18 Sebastian W. Schiessler, *Carnevals-Almanach für das Jahr 1830* (Prague: C. W. Enders, 1830), http://kramerius.nkp.cz/kramerius/MShowMonograph.do?id=24112

19 Born in 1794, died in 1849.

scripted, manufacturing an opportunity to have a public discussion about an attractive topic.

### Dance Forms Mentioned in the Discussion

In the two texts, four dances are explicitly named: the Galop, *Reydowak* (in the more Czech form known also as *Reydowák*), *Reydowačka*, and the quick Waltz. *Reydowak* receives the bulk of the attention, but all the dances are used as examples of dances at a fast tempo, and as illustrations of the debate on ballroom fashion of the time. We have some evidence of the contemporary popularity of these dances in Prague. They were included in the social dance events repertoire as seen on dance programmes. For instance, a programme from the ball in the Convict Hall held on 26 January 1829 included the following dances: the Polonaise, the Deutscher, the Galop, the Ländler, *Reydowak*, the Waltz, the Cotillion, and *Schlußdeutsch*. At the ball held in the hall of the Spa at the Kleine Seite (in Czech Malá Strana) on 18 February in the same year, the programme of dances was exactly the same.20

Fig. 6.2 Invitation card to balls held in the Convict Hall in Prague between 1810–1820, still a popular place for dancing in 1830 (the building is in the background). Zdeněk Míka, *Zábava a slavnosti staré Prahy* (Prague: Nakladatelství Ostrov 2008), p. 128.

20 Dance programme of the ball in the Convict Hall 26.1.1829 and in the hall of the Spa at the Kleine Seite 18.2.1829. Archive of the National Museum, the Collection of J. Dušek, Inv. Nro. 1710/11, 1715/8.

The popularity of the Waltz and the Galop lasted throughout the nineteenth century, as in other European countries. *Reydowak* was also popular for some time across Europe and the USA, usually under the name of the Redowa. In the Czech lands, it slowly disappeared in the years following 1830, a phenomenon that was particularly notable among Germans; unfortunately, there are insufcient dance programmes in the archive to understand this process more accurately. Certainly, however, the order of dances from the frst Czech ball21 in 1840 does not include *Reydowak*, indicating that this dance was not popular even among Czechs. Both dance programmes from 1829 show the composition of the repertoire. The exact movement diferences between the Ländler, the Deutscher and the Waltz are not clear, as no detailed descriptions of these three dances as practised in the Czech lands exist from this period. The Deutscher is most likely the older, slower form of the Waltz. The reference to the Waltz almost certainly means the Viennese Waltz, the quicker version of the dance, which came into fashion after the Viennese Congress. The Ländler most probably included the arm movements that were typical of this form.

With respect to *Reydowak*, Bohemian descriptions from the period are also not available. In *Carnevals-Almanach* by Schiessler, musical scores for *Reydowak* are included: one as the closing part of the Kegelquadrille (the Skittle-Quadrille), named *Reydowak* (in 3/4) by the composer Joseph Triebensee, the orchestra leader of the opera in the Prague theatre. As an independent number, there is *Reydowak* (in 3/8) with Reydowacžka (in 2/4) by S. W. Schiessler, the editor of the *Almanach* himself.22 This music was later reprinted in various sources, as well as in the most important collection of Czech folk dances by Josef Vycpálek (published in 1921 under the title České *tance*). Among the several dances described in words, *Reydowak* is not included in the *Almanach* (in the case of the Kegelquadrille, which is described, *Reydowak* is left without explanation). *Reydowak* can be found in the part of the *Almanach* entitled 'Tanz-Vignetten', including two-line stanzas dedicated to the particular dances

21 This was the frst public ball organised by Czech patriotic circles to support the Czech national movement.  Here also are the Minuet, the Waltz, the Quadrille, the Mazurka, the Galop, *Reydowak* and *Reydowaczka*, the Cotillion, *Schnellwalzer*, the Ecossaise, and *Kehraus*. For *Reydowak* and *Reydowaczka* the text is as follows: 'Wenn mein Name nicht schon verriethe, welch Land mich geboren/ Wahrlich, ich würde mich scheu'n, ihn zu verkünden der Welt'.23 This does not in any case deal with the movement patterns of the dance or with the dance style.

Fig. 6.3 Video: the Stanford Vintage Dance Ensemble and Academy of Danse Libre performs their winning the Redowa at the Spoleto Festival, Italy 2011. Reconstruction/choreography by Richard Powers. 'Stanford at Spoleto Festival: Winner's Redowa', 2:08, posted online by Jason Anderson, *Youtube*, 17 July 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzSRDv3f0-8

References to the dance in the Czech lands appeared from the beginning of the nineteenth century. One musical score for *Reydowak* is included in the manuscript collection of folk songs *Böhmische Nationalgesänge und Tänze* by Thomas Anton Kunz, created before 1830, but there is no description of the movement.24 Jan Jeník z Bratřic provides interesting details in his memoirs.25 He mentions the connection between two contrasting dances: *Reydowak* and *Reydowaczka*. Contrary to the later evolution of the two dances, he states that the *Reydowaczka* (in even metre) was played more slowly than *Reydowak* (in odd metre). This corresponds to the characteristics of *Reydowak* as the quick dance in Müller's Letter. But another notice from 1833 speaks of the slow *Reydowak* and quick, 'crackpot' *Reydowaczka*, 26 which again casts doubts on the preceding information. The evidence by Kunz and Bratřic also supports the note by Müller, that *Reydowak* came to the dance hall from the rural environment (employing the metaphor of a feld fower being replanted in the greenhouse of the dancing hall).27

23 'If my name did not already betray the country that gave birth to me/ Truly, I would be afraid to announce it to the world'. Translation from German by Dorota Gremlicová. Ibid., p.

Fig. 6.4 'The Redowa Waltz: A new Bohemian waltz as danced in the Parisian saloons and taught by Monsieur Jules Martin', c.1846. The Redowa waltz seemed to have become popular even in America. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections, Public Domain, https:// digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/9fae00f0-3386-0131-f0f9-58d385a7bbd0

*Böhmische Nationaltänze* [Bohemian National Dances] by Alfred Waldau (1859)28 includes some commentary on the dance and its character. He included *Reydowak* among the round dances with changes and fgures (*Rundtänze mit Abwechslungen und Figuren*), and mentioned its popularity not only among ordinary people but also in higher society

28 Alfred Waldau, *B*ö*hmische Nationalt*ä*nze. Culturstudie* (Prague: Hermann Dominikus, 1859), http://www.libraryofdance.org/manuals/1859-Waldau-Bohmische\_(Goog). pdf

during the 1840s; he also described its later decline and return to the villages.29

The dance was used as one component of the Quadrille *Česká Beseda*, created in 1863, in the third Tour of the third Figure. The description of the *Reydowak* step, given by the creator of this national Quadrille, Karel Link, stressed the specifc rhythm of the movement created by a prolonged frst step (one-and-a-half beats in the 3/4 metre) and the sliding movement of the tip of the toe in the frst and third step of each bar.30 The connection between *Reydowak* and *Česká Beseda* prolonged its life considerably in the Czech ballroom context, and could have infuenced its acceptance in German circles, too. But in books such as the German manual of 1881 by the Moravian dancing master Adam Reichert, *Reydowak* is not included.31

Fig. 6.5 The ballroom dance *Česká Beseda*, Sokolské šibřinky in Beroun. '"Česká Beseda" — Vystoupení skupiny "Beseda" Jitky Bonušové — Beroun 23/03/13', 14:51, uploaded by Ludmila Sluníčková, *Youtube*, 27 March 2013, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Pmrh\_0uhLX8

Descriptions of *Reydowak* appeared later in the nineteenth century in technical dance manuals from various countries, refecting its fashionable nature (the dance went by the name of the Redowa abroad). It was popular not only in the ballroom but also in the theatre — the dance appeared in some operas. It is included in the books by Henri Cellarius, 32 by Coulon33 and in the *Guide Complet de La Danse* by Philippe

29 Alfred Waldau, *Böhmische Nationaltänze*: *Eine Kulturstudie* (Prague: Vitalis, 2003), p. 27.

30 Karel Link, *Beseda*: Č*eský salonní tanec* (Prague: Nakladatel A. Storch syn, 1882).

31 Adam Reichert, *Die moderne Tanzkunst von* ä*stetischen und theoretischen Standpunkte* (Olmütz: Selbstverlag, 1881).

32 Henri Cellarius, *The Drawing Room Dances* (E. Churton: London, 1847), pp. xi., 140 (pl. VII), http://www.libraryofdance.org/manuals/1847-Cellarius-Drawing\_ Room\_(LOC).pdf

33 Eugène Coulon, *Coulon's Hand-Book*; *Containing all the Last New and Fashionable Dances* (London: Jullien & Co., 1860), http://www.libraryofdance.org/manuals/1860- Coulon-Hand-Book\_(LOC).pdf

Gawlikowski, printed in Paris in 1858.34 Both *Reydowak* and *Reydowaczka* (as 'Die Redowa/La Redowa' and 'Die Redowaczka/La Redowaczka') are included in the dance manual by Bernhard Klemm, *Katechismus der Tanzkunst*, published for the frst time in 1855 (and then in many further editions), which was very infuential in the German-speaking countries. Klemm describes the characteristic movement in both dances as jumping, and he compares the step of *Reydowak* with the pas de Basque in ballet. 35 Klemm states the speed of *Reydowak* to be M. M. 88 for one quarter, which is valuable information. In the case of *Reydowaczk*, such details are missing.

Link´s *Česká Beseda*36 and Klemm´s *Katechismus der Tanzkunst*37 nevertheless only partly reveal the vivid character of these dances in the Prague ballrooms of 1830. Between 1830 and 1855 (Klemm´s description), or 1863 (*Česká Beseda*), dancing style changed. This had less efect on the dances in 3/4 metre based on the Waltz than on those in 2/4 metre, including probably *Reydowaczka*. In 1830, the Polka was still not practised as a social dance in Prague, although in some form it already existed outside the city, especially in East Bohemia. 38 The fashion for the Polka started in Europe in the 1840s. It is therefore difcult to ascertain what *Reydowaczka* looked like in the year 1830. Probably it was based on the Galop, the most popular 2/4 dance of that time, and it did not include the double turning of the couple, typical for the Polka (and linked later with *Reydowacka*, as it is found in some Czech sources from the second half of the nineteenth century). Klemm mentions the connection between *Reydowaczka* and the Galop, and according to him, its basic step is *pas chassé*.

Klemm also provides information on some typical additional movements and motifs; namely, in *Reydowak*, he describes the alternation of the turning and progressing around the circle using the pas de Basque steps, and halting and moving forwards and backwards using the same

34 Philippe Gawlikowski, *Guide Complet De La Danse* (Paris: Taride, Libraire-éditeur, 1858), pp. 59–61, http://www.libraryofdance.org/manuals/1858-Gawlikowski-Guide\_Complet\_(LOC).pdf

35 Bernhard Klemm, *Katechismus der Tanzkunst*: *Ein Leitfaden für Lehrer und Lernende nebst einem Anhang* ü*ber Choreographie 7 Auf* (Leipzig: J. J. Weber, 1901) pp. 148–9, http://books.google.com/books?id=XkpKAAAAYAAJ

36 Link, *Beseda*.

37 Klemm, *Katechismus der Tanzkunst*, pp. 149–57.

38 Daniela Stavĕlová, 'Polka jako český národní symbol', *Český lid*, 93 (2006), 3–26.

step without turning; this halting was done at the man's instigation. The same principle is also used in *Reydowaczka*. 39 As *Reydowak* is included in *Česká Beseda* as a part of the Quadrille, it is limited only to the basic step motif, without any additional movements.

Another Czech description can be found in the book by František Dlouhý, *O historickém vývoji tance a jeho kulturním významě. Český tanec* národní [On the Historical Evolution of Dance and its Cultural Signifcance: The Czech National Dance], published in 1880. He mentions some features of *Reydowak* that Klemm also notes: the returning in the movement around the circle (three times turning and progressing by Waltz steps forward, then one backward) and balancing on the spot (which can happen at any time according to the decision of the dancing couple). In the case of *Reydowaczka* (*Rejdovačka*), he states only that it is danced in Polka rhythm.40

The description of *Reydowak* in a social dance manual by Josef Pohl from the end of the nineteenth century is not very clear: he states that the dancers do not embrace each other, they hold each other with crossed hands, the lady walks backward, the gentleman faces in her direction, and they move in the characteristic '*rejdování*' manner (*lenken*, *umwenden* or *herumtreiben* in German), alternating this movement by balancing on the spot.41

*Reydowak* was included in many social dance manuals printed in Bohemia from the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, and in the folk songs and dance collections from the twentieth century. But the dance programmes from the public balls of the second half of the nineteenth century do not include the dance. It could have been part of the curriculum in the dance schools, but it was not a living element of the repertoire of the balls as an independent dance, only as a part of the *Česká Beseda*.

The movement structure of the dance probably changed in the course of time and in diferent contexts. Often, as we have seen, the characteristic movement pattern of *rejdování* (*herumtreiben*) is mentioned. The concept

39 Klemm, *Katechismus der Tanzkunst*, pp. 149–57.

40 František Dlouhý, *O historickém vývoji tance a jeho kulturním význam*ě; Č*eský tanec národní* (Prague: F. A. Urbánek, 1880), pp. 47–8.

41 Josef Pohl, *Úplný tanec*̌*ník*: *soubor v*š*ech tanců s návodem nau*č*iti se jim* (V Praze: Frant. Bačkovský, 1899), pp. 43–4.

is not etymologically clear; the German word can be translated as 'to drive to and fro' or 'to drive around'. The Czech verb *rejdovat* had a special meaning connected to the movement of a boat during anchoring, approaching its berth; it is connected to the German term for the anchorage: 'die Reede'. It indicates movement with (small) changes of direction (as the boat tries to hit the mooring). In his dictionary, Josef Jungmann connects the Czech term *rejdovat* with the notion of driving with the back of a car slightly at an angle.42 In dance, *rejdování* could be performed by several diferent movements: by alternative turning (directing) of the couple slightly to the right and left, by the alternation of moving forward and backward, by balancing inside and outside the circle, either while moving in space or staying (almost) on the spot. It was typical for the specifc movement motifs to be executed by each dancing couple at will, so that couples were independent and the course of the dance was not uniform and strictly fxed. This feature could give the dance the symbolic aspect of being free from rules and conventions.

#### The Play of Opinions

In the Letter and the Answer, we fnd several categories of thoughts and evaluation dealing with dances, dance fashion and social behaviour. The majority are not new. Some of them repeatedly appeared from the Renaissance onwards, either in the dance manuals or other texts, for instance, medical or moralising treatises. Some of them were connected specifcally with the dance forms of the Waltz type and the dancing etiquette of bourgeois culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The manner in which the Letter and the Answer refect these things is afected by the local atmosphere, mentality, and the historical background of the Czech lands; the discussion is not only nuanced by these things, but also by personalities and the opinions of individuals who conducted the debate.

The Bohemian society of the 1830s represented specifc circumstances, infuenced by the growing Czech national movement, the political dependence of the country on the Austrian Monarchy, the strong

42 Josef Jungmann, *Slownjk* č*esko-n*ě*mecký* (Prague: Knjžecj arcibiskupská tiskárna, Josefa wdowa Fetterlowá, 1837), p. 822, http://kramerius.nkp.cz/kramerius/ handle/ABA001/183651

impact of the Napoleonic Wars not only in the material sphere (military engagements on the territory of Moravia and Bohemia, namely the battle of Austerlitz/Slavkov in 1805 and the battle of Chlumec in 1813) but also mentally and spiritually by strengthening censorship, limiting public behaviour (especially political activity) and the propagation of liberal, 'Republican' ideas. During 1830, a process of recovery and the relaxation of restrictions on public life began, in which dance events played an important role as public social activities. The whole period from the Napoleonic Wars until the Viennese revolution in March 1848, followed by a similar afair in Prague, is labelled 'Pre-March Time' by historians and understood as a relatively stable period but with some noticeable events, among them mainly the revolutionary year of 1830. Czech society was deeply afected by the revolution in Poland, since it experienced a sense of connection and solidarity with another Slavonic nation, but this happened in November 1830, long after the debate analysed in this chapter. Nevertheless, from the beginning, the year 1830 marks an obvious turning point: prior to this, the atmosphere seemed to be moderate, muted, and sleepy, while preference for the private sphere of life and conservative feelings held sway; afterwards, life started to become more vivid, optimistic, and active, more public, more progressive in opinions and attitudes, and more individualistic.43

The change that happened around the year 1830 was also visible in the artistic, aesthetic feld. The beginning of the nineteenth century is connected in Bohemia mainly with the Biedermeier style, which was embraced by people belonging to the bourgeoisie (but also accepted by the aristocracy). Biedermeier is usually understood as the art of home interior design, applying the arts to create an intimate, private mood. More recent interpretation of the Biedermeier movement has tended to rethink its meaning, widening its application into more cultural and artistic spheres, rather than seeing it as some passive, private, closed, spiritual, and artistic phenomenon. Instead, emphasis is placed upon the achievement of balance between real life and ideals, upon searching for an equilibrium in mind, and harmony between the notion of liberty and the responsibility of the individual. The main tool for achieving this was the concept of moral sense (as formulated, for instance, by the German

43 Lněničková, *České země v době předbřeznové*.

philosopher Johann Friedrich Herbart).44 This approach corresponds with the importance of questions of morality that are also expressed in the Letter and the Answer. The discussion about dance fashion held in *Bohemia* in 1830 stands on the edge of two types of cultural life and ways of thinking in the Czech lands.

Fig. 6.6 V. R. Grüner, 'Carneval in Prague', ca.1829. Zdeněk Míka, *Zábava a slavnosti staré Prahy* (Prague: Nakladatelství Ostrov, 2008), p. 123.

44 Miloš Havelka, 'Byl Herbart flosofem biedermeieru? Herbartův pokus o realistickou akceptaci zodvojenosti člověka a světa', in *Biedermeier v českých zemích. Sborník příspěvků z 23. ročníku symposia k problematice 19. století*, *Plzeň*, *6.–8. března 2003*, ed. by Helena Lorenzová and Taťána Petrasová (Prague: Koniasch Latin Press, 2004), pp. 25–37.

One topic discussed in the debate between Anton Müller and Julius Max Schottky is the impact of the contemporary way of dancing on health, especially that of young women. Commentaries dealing with this topic had appeared already in Renaissance dance manuals and medical literature. According to Alessandro Arcangeli's interpretation, the Renaissance physicians shared, in general, the notion of the prophylactic beneft of dancing when performed in a 'controlled' way. Dance balances body and mind, it gives people the ability to move harmoniously, it strengthens the body, especially the legs, and it can even serve as a cure, for instance for melancholy. The desirable way of dancing formulated by these sources is to dance in a very calm manner, without any wild movements, after dining, performed in harmony and measure following the music. They also articulated the more problematic attributes of dance, which could have the contrary infuence not only on one's health and physical state but principally on one's moral being: violent movements and excessively quick whirling might cause loss of balance or dizziness, which meant also a loss of the balance of one's mind, a loss of dignity, and other undesirable outcomes. They also diferentiated between dance situations: they believed it was most appropriate to dance in the open air, not to hold a ball in a closed dusty room that was noisy and crowded, as was customary. But, instead of dancing for their health, they noticed that people danced more for their pleasure. 45

Many of these opinions crop up repeatedly in various types of texts dealing with dance until the nineteenth century. In the frst third of the nineteenth century in Bohemia, as in other German-speaking countries, there were popular instructions on how to achieve a long, healthy and happy life, formulated for instance by Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland in his book *Die Kunst das menschliche Leben zu verlängern*, known later as *Makrobiotics*, frst published in 1796.46 He did not write specifcally about dance, but he named among misdemeanours that could shorten life the diseases caused by unreasonable actions. Violent and uncontrolled dancing could easily be such a dangerous activity. His successor Wilhelm

45 Alessandro Arcangeli, 'Dance and Health: The Renaissance Physician's View', *Dance Research*, 18.1 (2000), 3–30, https://doi.org/10.3366/1291009

46 Helena Lorenzová, 'Dietetika duše. K praktické flosofi (estetice) osvícentsví a biedermeieru', in *Biedermeier v českých zemích. Sborník příspěvků z 23. ročníku symposia k problematice 19. století*, *Plzeň*, *6.–8. března 2003*, ed. by Helena Lorenzová and Taťána Petrasová (Prague: Koniasch Latin Press, 2004), pp. 38–48.

Bronn in his *Kalobiotik* (1835) formulated a more joyous picture of a suitable way of life and recommended a rich social life including dance events and physical activities. A truly happy life has to be, nevertheless, moral, too.47 The authors of the Letter and the Answer likewise vacillated between these two points: dance as a danger, and dance as a joyful phenomenon. Both Müller and Schottky remind the reader about the sad accident of a young girl, who apparently died after of her behaviour during a ball. Such stories are nothing new or rare at this point in time. From the end of the eighteenth century, warnings that dancers (mainly girls) could die as a result of quick, violent dancing, because they became sweaty, caught a chill, drank too much cold water, and thus fell ill with pneumonia or tuberculosis, frequently appeared in newspapers and dance treatises. This danger was, according to the opinions of authors of these texts, connected especially to specifc dances: the Waltz (the Deutscher), the Galop, and, in our newspaper debate, *Reydowak*. In the Czech lands, as early as 1789 Bernard Specht had written in his treatise *Ueber Anstand*, *Schönheit und Grazie im Tanz* about the profts of dancing (strengthening of the body, becoming lighter, more pliable, developing a more natural movement when walking) and its dangers (exhaustion, tuberculosis and death).48 And still in 1838, Christian Länger (and many other European authors before and after), in his dance manual *Terpsichore*, repeated similar warnings about the danger of death from tuberculosis because of overly enthusiastic dancing (or rounds of dance that were too quick and too long).49 Several reports of such accidents appeared in the Prague newspapers in the 1830s, not only involving young girls but also gentlemen.50 Later, during the nineteenth century, this theme of illness and death slowly disappeared, replaced by more emphasis on the positive impact of dance on health, as in the book by Prague dancing master Karel Link in 1872.51 In the debate in *Bohemia*, Müller also tried

47 Lorenzová, 'Dietetika duše'.

48 Bernard Specht, *Ueber Anstand*, *Scho*̈*nheit und Grazie im Tanz. Nebst einem Vorschlage zur allgemeinen Balltracht* (Prag: J. J. Diesbach, 1789).

49 Christian Länger, *Terpsichore*: *Ein Taschenbuch der neuesten gesellschaftlichen T*ä*nze* (Würzburg: Etlinger'schen Buchhandlung, 1838), http://www.libraryofdance.org/ manuals/1838-Langer-Terpsichore\_(BSB).pdf

50 Tereza Babická, 'Německá taneční kritika v Praze ve 30. letech 19. Století' (unpublished thesis, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, 2011), p. 52.

51 Karel Link, *Tanec se stanoviska theoretického a aesthetického* (Prague: Knihkupectví J. Nowotný, 1872), pp. 4–6.

to ameliorate the sad story of the dead girl by contrasting it with the fact that dancing was almost the only opportunity for greater physical activity for girls from the middle-class families.52

The theme of the dangerous pace of some popular dances was closely connected in the debate with questions of endangering health; these two aspects were usually understood as being linked. According to the traditional view, quick dancing risked uncontrolled, passionate, and wild behaviour, and so it was an additional aspect of moral impropriety. Speed was accompanied by the close (indeed, too close) embrace of the couple, and with whirling, which was often mentioned in connection with the Waltz. For Anton Müller, 'in the bacchantic fast running', grace53 is lost. While a horse can be beautiful while galloping at its fastest pace, a girl cannot (A. M. 1830).54 Julius Schottky was less strict in his Answer and viewed the popularity of quick dances in a wider perspective. He saw the speed and tempestuous nature of the fight that was typical for the dances of his time as a parallel to the vigour of that era, when everything was as fast as a mountain stream: steam and machines, quick carriages, quick print machines, quick typewriters.55 In such a world, quick dancers could also exist, he said. His words imply that his evaluation was not negative; he understood this quickness as joined with happiness, the joy of life, a mood that would be positive for human living and society.56 He was not alone in holding this point of view at that time; similar opinions can be seen in Bronn's *Kalobiotik*. 57 But there were also opposing voices, like that of Czech writer Jaroslav Langer. In the mid-1830s, Langer wrote to condemn the quick (wild) dances that came from the villages to the towns and even abroad (*Reydowak*, among

52 Müller, 'Sendschreiben'.

53 Grace was one of the most important qualities for him also in the case of theatrical dancing, as seen in his theatre reviews published also in the newspaper *Bohemia*. Babická, *Německá taneční Kritika*.

54 Müller, 'Sendschreiben'.

55 In respect to carriages, Schottky either has in mind express mail stagecoaches, which started to go from Prague to Vienna in 1823 and shortened the travel from three days to thirty-seven hours, or the new horse-drawn trams, the frst lines of which were opened in 1827 (from České Budějovice to Linz) and in spring 1830 (so called Lány horse-drawn rail).

56 Schottky, 'Antwort auf das Sendschreiben'.

57 Wilhelm Bronn, *Für Kalobiotik*, *Kunst*, *das Leben zu verschönern*, *als neu ausgestecktes Feld menschlichen Strebens*: *Winke zur Erhöhung und Veredelung des Lebensgenusses* 1 (Vienna: Gerold, 1835).

others) and did not bring any credit to the nation. He also repeated the connection between quick dancing and the danger of death. 58 Schottky and Langer therefore represented a polarisation in the Bohemian society of that time. Schottky's standpoint was closer to the view of the young intellectual generation, especially students, who were also the typical participants in such rapid dancing.

Fig. 6.7 Entrance ticket to the charitable ball of the Institute of the Poor held in the hall of the Spa in Prague, 20 January 1830. Zdeněk Míka, *Zábava a slavnosti staré Prahy* (Prague: Nakladatelství Ostrov 2008), p. 128.

58 Jaroslav Langer, 'České prostonárodní obyčeje a písně, [1834]', in *Spisy Jaroslava Langera*, 2 vols (Prague: Vídeň, 1861), II, 75.

The third feld for discussion identifed by Müller and Schottky was that of morals and of the place of dance in social life. The manner in which they argued shows a mixture of 'universal' and 'local' aspects and standpoints; those shared universally among European middle-class intellectuals, as well as those distinctive to Bohemian circumstances. Among the relatively universal ideas was the opinion that the mode of dancing, including posture and movement, mirrors or expresses the moral character of an individual. This idea was precisely formulated, for example, by Johann Georg Sulzer in the entry on dance in his encyclopaedia.59 His thoughts were also very infuential in Bohemian-German circles, including upon Anton Müller, the aesthetician. From this point of view, we can understand the commentary by Müller about the overly intimate behaviour of couples dancing the Waltz. 60 And Schottky expressed the same way of thinking in his conclusion: it was not the dance itself, but the personality of the dancer and his or her morals that ultimately decided the moral message of the particular dance.61

Together with the idea of personality transposed into dance movement, Müller mentioned another aspect of contemporary dancing behaviour, which we can call 'published intimacy'.62 It is connected with the tendency of bourgeois society to difer between several spheres of life: the sphere of the state, the public space of the citizen's community, and the private (intimate) space of family. Each of these spheres had appropriate behaviour and rules, a specifc 'culture'.63 Dances like the Waltz, in which the couple came together inside a closed space with very intimate, personal feelings, made it possible to break the limits of the public sphere by embracing, touching a person of the opposite sex who was not a relative. These attributes of the Waltz provoked both enthusiasm and distaste from the beginning of the social life of this dance. Johann Wolfgang Goethe in his novel *Die Leiden des jungen Werthers* [The Sorrows of Young Werther] saw in it the sign of belonging to an unofcial circle of 'new' bourgeois people capable of deep feelings,

59 Sulzer, 'Tanz'.

60 Müller, 'Sendschreiben'.

61 Schottky, 'Antwort auf das Sendschreiben'

62 Dorota Gremlicová, 'Tělo, nebo sen? Romantický tanec 19. století', in *Tělo a tělesnost v české kultuře 19. století*, *Sborník příspěvků z 29. ročníku symposia k problematice 19. století*, *Plzeň*, *26.-28. února 2009*, ed. by Taťána Petrasová and Pavla Machalíková (Prague: Academia, 2010), pp. 168–75.

63 Štaif, *Obezřetná elita*, pp. 92–93.

represented by the leading fgures of Lotte and Werther.64 He also exactly expresses the intimate atmosphere of the dance, the enclosing of the couple and their isolation from the other 'world': 'we revolved around each other like the (cosmic) spheres'.65 The opposite opinion was voiced a little later by Byron, who, in his poem 'The Waltz', denounced the dance mainly from a moral point of view.66 Anton Müller did not add anything new to these polarised opinions. Rather, he refected weakened concern about the moral aspect of such dances. It seems that this 'published intimacy' was, in his time, experienced less and less by dancing people as something important and symbolic: while dancing, the couple showed provocative 'public tenderness', but when the dance was fnished, the dancer would indiferently throw his lady of. In fact, with understanding and sympathy, Müller commented on the fact that, for girls, dancing gave a rare opportunity to experience the nearness of a young man, to touch him without any rebuke, although he also expressed his doubts about the borderline of proper public behaviour and personal liberty, a theme of concern to both German and Czech intellectuals at the time.67 The fact that girls and women are placed at the centre of these ideas seems to correspond with the new tendency of the time to include women more in Bohemian public life. 68

The debate in the newspaper *Bohemia* on the topics of health, the rapidity of the dancing, and its moral aspects, was a stimulus for contemplation of cultural and social spheres. It is clear that for the authors of the Letter and the Answer, dance could serve as a basis for such considerations. Schottky wrote directly, that 'if dance belongs still among the most infuential phenomena of our days, its consequences are not limited only to the dance hall, but they also touch on family and public lives'. He opened his Answer with this statement, and it forms the basis for his subsequent thoughts. He tried to keep this overall perspective and to focus on this symbolic meaning of dance in contemporary Bohemian society. 69

64 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, *Die Leiden des jungen Werthers* (Leipzig: Weigand, 1774), p. 38.

 Translated from the German by Dorota Gremlicová.

66 Byron, 'Waltz'.

67 Müller, 'Sendschreiben'.

68 Štaif, *Obezřetná elita*, p. 93.

69 Schottky, 'Antwort auf das Sendschreiben'.

### Conclusion

As already stated, the basic mood of the exchange of opinions between Müller and Schottky is amicable; they searched for a balanced attitude to the phenomena with which they dealt. Nevertheless, in this attempt at harmony, a desire for joyful, liberal behaviour in dance that was currently missing in real life can also be detected. As noted above, in contemporary Czech historiography, the period of the 1830s is understood as a time of social and cultural change. This shift had political and mental aspects. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which concluded the period of the Napoleonic Wars, society in the Austrian Empire was under very strict state control; it was forbidden to express any progressive, liberal or republican thoughts, not only in public but also for example in private correspondence. People were vigilant; many of them accepted 'state' opinion that prohibited such revolutionary movements or thoughts. This atmosphere also created some mental barriers against accepting cultural phenomena, including dance. The notions of liberty and equality were re. fected difdently and cautiously, in a limited way. 70

At the end of the 1820s, however, intellectual circles in Bohemia, both Czech and German, were more and more infuenced by the liberal movement in other European countries, especially in the parts of Germany close to its territory, such as Saxony, for instance. Alongside this, some change in mentality began in bourgeois circles, which resulted in greater courage to think about human rights, liberty and self-expression, and about the value of novelties in material as well as spiritual aspects of life.71 In this light, the conclusions of Müller and Schottky efectively herald the development of public life in the 1830s. As members of local intellectual circles, they show that dance could be an appropriate element of public behaviour, capable of acting as a model example.

70 Miroslav Hroch, *Na prahu národní existence*: *touha a skute*č*nost* (Prague: Mladá fronta, 1999).

71 Štaif, *Obezřetná elita*, pp. 40–43.

## Bibliography

# 7. Reception of Nineteenth-Century Couple Dances in Hungary

*László Felföldi*

### Introduction

The aim of this chapter is to give an account of the appearance and reception of round dances1 — also known as nineteenth-century couple dances — in Hungary. 2 Since these dances did not stand out as a paradigm with a separate name in Hungary, we frst need to identify them within the broader Hungarian dance repertoire. The fact that research on social dances in Hungary has focused on the older forms makes this difcult. Round dances were mostly seen as too new and too foreign to be deemed worthy of documentation and research. The task therefore remains to identify them among the dance forms practised in Hungary and to contextualise them in the socio-cultural and political circumstances of the frst half of the nineteenth century.

Having briefy delimited and situated the dance material in question, we are faced with a great amount of material from a broad range of very diferent sources. Moreover, only a small amount of this material has been published in languages other than Hungarian. In order to achieve the task, we have set ourselves, a selected corpus of the most important

1 For a defnition of this group of dances: see the Introduction (Chapter 1) to this volume.

2 In the time-frame of this research, Hungary was a country of ca.300,000 square kilometres, with 14,000,000 inhabitants belonging to the Austrian Empire. See János Csaplovics, *Gemälde von Ungarn* (Pest: Hartleben, 1829).

sources is presented here in the form of an annotated catalogue. This catalogue aims to demonstrate the variability and richness of the relevant sources, but also serves as a reference for the last part of this chapter, which discusses issues of reception, the rivalry between Hungarian and foreign dances, and the cultural climate in that context. The rise of a Hungarian counterpart to the foreign round dances is one of the main conclusions. The catalogue material is mainly selected from existing literature about this topic in Hungary, supplemented with results produced by the present research.3

Following the catalogue, there is a discussion of the *Csárdás* as a Hungarian reaction and response to the round dances. On the one hand, we will see that the *Csárdás* does not fall entirely within the defnition of round dances. On the other hand, it was clearly inspired by them, making it a national replacement.

Finally, the chapter maps the changing political contexts and climate during the nineteenth century, which created the framework for the tension that existed among ordinary people between dancing the foreign and the national dances.

Our point of departure is the identifcation of the dance repertory in Hungary. At the outset of the nineteenth century, the repertory of dances practised in Hungary was extraordinarily diverse, refecting the multiplicity of ethnic groups and socio-cultural conditions of the country.4 This was a result of the political, socio-economic and cultural changes taking place in the region during the eighteenth century.5 Since changes continued at an accelerated rate in the nineteenth century, dance paradigms changed rapidly under their infuence as well.

#### Lower-Class Dances

It is frst worth addressing the traditional dance forms of the lower classes, mainly the peasantry. For instance, these include Hungarian *Verbunk*; *Csárdás*; *Kanásztánc* (swineherd dance); *Boricatánc*; Slovakian

3 Comparison with other countries was beyond the scope of this study.

4 András Gergely, ed., *Magyarország története a 19. században* (Budapest: Osiris Kiadó, 2005).

5 See in detail in a later section of this chapter headed 'Socio-Political and Cultural Contexts of Nineteenth-Century Couple Dances in Hungary'.

*Frisska*; *Odzemok*; Serbian *Kolo*; Croatian *Kumpania*; Romanian *Lunga*, *Minitelu*, and *Căluş*; German *Német*, Ländler, *Landaris*, and *Steirisch*; and fnally, Ruthenian *Kolomejka*. Soldier dances, as a multi-ethnic phenomenon inherited from the eighteenth century, were gradually fading from the repertoire. Women singing as an accompaniment to round dances among Hungarians were rarely mentioned by the sources, and researchers paid little attention to them.6 Until the middle of the nineteenth century, this traditional dance repertoire was shared by both the local nobility and, to an extent, the aristocracy.

In multi-ethnic regions, people learned dances from each other, which in turn became an integral part of their own dance repertory. This process was hastened by the fact that the practise of traditional dance types was not limited to particular ethnic groups or countries. The spread of dances and melodies was likely a result of factors like migration, common service in the imperial army, extensive family relations and seasonal work by rural people in distant provinces. For example, the melody of the 'Németes' (German) or 'Landaris' (Landler) dance was, according to the evidence, popular among Széklers in the 1840s and beyond due to Hungarian soldiers serving in the Tirol. 7 (See Musical Source No. 4).

#### National Dances for the Upper Classes

Numerous historical sources mention *Magyar Tánc* (Hungarian dance), *Nemzeti Tánc* (national dance), *Nemeses Tánc* (a nobleman's dance), *Néptánc* (folk dance), *Körmagyar* (round Hungarian), and *Magyar Csárdás* (Hungarian *Csárdás*), which were used as nationalistic social dance forms by the nobility to symbolise patriotic feelings. They were also favoured by the less populous, multi-ethnic middle classes who exhibited an anti-Habsburg sentiment, and who had a kind of 'Hungarus'

6 Ernő Pesovár, *A magyar tánctörténet évszázadai*: Írott és képi források (Budapest: Hagyományok Háza, 2003); Ernő Pesovár, *Tánchagyományunk történeti rétegei*: *A magyar néptánc története* (Szombathely: Berzsenyi Dániel Főiskola, 2003); György Martin, Népi tánchagyomány és nemzeti tánctípusok Kelet-Közép-Európában a XVI–XIX. században', *Ethnographia*, 95 (1984), 353–61.

7 Marián Réthei Prikkel, *A magyarság táncai* (Budapest: Studium, 1924), p. 233. See Musical Source No. 4.

identity in terms of country rather than ethnic allegiance.8 There are several references to these dances in the frst half of the nineteenth century. They were made by foreign and Hungarian authors alike, but the only detailed description, from which we can reconstruct the dance, was published by Kilányi in Hungarian and in German, in his reference book *Körtánc*. 9 Little by little, the popularity of these dances spread to every social circle in contemporary Hungary. 'Hungarian dance' as a kind of social or national dance form had an impact on traditional couple dances, leading mainly to changes in their structural and musical features. Moreover, the name 'Hungarian dance' or 'Hungarian *Csárdás*' was also adopted, replacing various previously-used local dance names like the following: *Kutyakopogós* (dog tapping, *Kuferces* ('horse-coper', a faster *Csárdás*), *Darudübögős* (crane stamping etc.10 *Körtánc* (*Körmagyar* and several other choreographies, such as *Társalgó* or *Vigadó* were composed by Hungarian dance masters and theatre dancers especially for the purposes of national and social expression. As such, they enjoyed only temporary fame. Most of them were soon forgotten, and, instead, the free improvisatory, 'non-regulated' forms prevailed under the name *Magyar Tánc* (Hungarian dance).11

8 György Martin, 'Az új magyar táncsatílus jegyei és kialakulása', *Ethnographia*, 88 (1977), 39; György Martin, 'Népi tánchagyomány és nemzeti tánctípusok', 361. Ambrus Miskolczy, '"Hungarus Consciousness" in the Age of Early Nationalism', in *Latin at the Crossroads of Identity*: *The Evolution of Linguistic Nationalism in the Kingdom of Hungary*, ed. by G. Almàsi and L. Šubarić (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2015), pp. 64–93.

9 Lajos Kilányi, *A Kör-tánc mellyet Szőllőssi Lajos a pesti nemzeti színház táncművészének tanítása után Minden táncrész könnyen felfogható rajzolatával és magyarázatával terjedelmesen előadta Kilányi Lajos nemzeti és balettánc oktató*, *a nemzeti színház tagja 6 rajzolattal és egy zenemű melléklettel. Der Kör-Tanz. Erste Ungarische National-Quadrille*, *Erfunden Von Ludwig Szőlősi… Beschrieben Von L. Kilányi… Mit Abbildungen… und Einer Beigabe Der National-Musik* (Bécs: Wagner, 1845).

10 Martin György, 'Tánc és társadalom: Történeti táncnévadás-típusok itthon és Európában', in *Történeti Antropológia*, ed. by Hofer Tamás (Budapest: MTA Néprajzi Kutatócsoport, 1984), pp. 152–64.

11 The terms 'regulated' and 'non-regulated' were used in the contemporary social discourse; e.g. in the description given by August Ellrich, a German traveller, in 1831. See Written Source No. 4.

### International Fashion Dances

The so called *Divattáncok* or *Módi Táncok* (fashion dances) disseminated by the dance masters and danced as social dances in urban, middleclass and aristocratic circles were clearly diferentiated from the abovelisted dance forms. They appear in Hungary in sources from the 1790s, and they include *Némettánc* (German dance), *Németes* (Germanic), *Voltzerisch*, *Walzer*, *Keringő* (Hungarian translation of *Walzer*, meaning 'whirling'), *Kalupáda* (the Galop), *Lengyel Tánc* (Polish dance), the Mazurka, the Polka, *Francia Tánc* (French dance), the Quadrille, and the Cotillion. To a lesser extent, *Csárdás* as a Hungarian national dance with a social dance function was also integrated into this group of nineteenthcentury couple dances. In everyday discourse, they were seen as a 'new' fashion, refecting the changing social taste and the political orientation of the diferent social classes.

#### Dancing Masters and Choreographies for the Stage

In the frst half of the nineteenth century in Europe, we witness the appearance of 'wandering' dance masters and dancers, who created choreographies for show and stage performances. Generally, the choreographies had a fantasy name (e.g. Devil Dance, Highwayman Dance, Turkish Group), but it was also popular to name them after their form, or profession, or nationality. For instance, in a dance-drama titled *Az elrabolt hölgy vagy a szerencsés összetalálkozás a fogadóban* ['The kidnapped lady, or a lucky meeting in the pub'] played in 1835 in Buda, the following choreographies were performed by the two pantomimic parts choreographed by Hungarian dance master Szőllősy Szabó Lajos: *Ugrós Tízes Tánc* ['Jumping dance with ten dancers'], *Kettős Csikós Tánc*  ['Horseherd duet by men'], *Magános Tánc* ['Solo male dance'], *Ideális Magános Tánc* ['Ideal solo dance'], and *Végső Körtánc* ['Final round dance'].12

In 1845, Hungarian dance master Veszter Sándor and his company gave guest performances in provincial towns and in the National

12 Klára B. Egey, 'Szinpadi táncművészetünk fejlődése a reform korban és a szabadságharc első szakaszában', in *A magyar balett történetéből*, ed. by Vályi Rózsi (Budapest: Művelt Nép, 1956), pp. 32–46 (p. 41).

Theatre in Pest with the following dances: *Krakovianka*, *Kozák Kettős* ['Kozak duet'], *Magyar Nemes Tánc* ['Hungarian noble dance'], *Sváb Tánc* ['Swabian dance'], *Komoly Kettős* ['Honourable duet'], and *Csárdás*. 13

At the National Theatre in 1846, in the ballet comedy *Markotányosnő és a postalegény* ['Madam canteen-keeper and the young postman'] by Arthur Saint Leon, the company performed dance pieces such as 'A Markotányosnő Tánca' ['Dance of the canteen-keeper'], 'Nagy Négyes Tánc' ['The great *pas-de-quatre*'], 'Német Nép-Körtánc' (German round folk dance), and 'Redowa-Polka' (original Czech folkdance). These were choreographed by Arthur Saint Leon, and the music composed by Caesar Puigni. 14

According to the theatrical posters and the reports in the periodicals, the contemporary audience of the theatres could watch dances like *Spanyol Tánc* (Spanish dance), *Tarantella*, *Jota*, *Kínai Tánc* (Chinese dance), the Mazurka, the Galop and Polka, danced both by foreign and Hungarian dance companies in Hungary. 15

## Round Dances in the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature

As presented above, we can determine a group of new, fashionable couple dances that appeared in Hungary from the 1790s onwards as social, recreational, representational, or stage dances. Among them, we can defne some dance types that are partly of German, partly of Slavic (Polish-Czech) and partly of French origin, and show the characteristic features of the nineteenth-century couple dances listed in the Introduction to this volume The following part of this chapter focuses on these dances in particular. We introduce the results of the research in Hungary so far, and provide a selection of the most relevant sources.

The frst signs of a scholarly way of thinking about dance and about the newly fashionable dances can be found in the writings published in the periodicals of the frst half of the nineteenth century, parallel with and shortly after the appearance of these dances in social life.

13 B. Egey, 'Szinpadi táncművészetünk fejlődése', pp. 67–68.

14 Ibid., p. 59.

15 Ibid.

The main topics of the contemporary discourse among the frst 'experts' (journalists, actors, writers, historians, etc.) were the national characteristics of the Hungarian dances, and the features diferentiating them from the so called 'foreign' dances. The laconic remarks and short descriptions regarding the 'foreign' dances were summarised by Réthei Prikkel Marián (1871–1925) in his book, *A magyarság táncai* [Dances of Hungarians] published in 1924. He dedicated to them two separate chapters: 'Hungarians and the foreign dances' and 'Fight against the foreign dances'. Réthei's ideas about the connection between social dances in the Hungarian dance culture are presented in the introduction of his book:

I imagine the dances of Hungarians as a tree, the trunk of which is constituted by the folk dances, that is the ancient, original way of their dancing. The branches of the tree represent those peculiar dances which grew out from the trunk, or foreign dances 'merged' into the trunk and transformed into Hungarian. Besides, we may fnd dances which grow beside the tree, neither coming from it, nor being merged into it. I cannot omit either of them from the book, because historical data prove that they became fashionable among Hungarians, although their character could not become Hungarian.16

In the aforementioned chapters, Réthei collects and evaluates all the historical evidence available to him in connection with the European fashion dances spreading in Hungary. The nineteenth-century couple dances are represented by twelve items of data. Four of them date back to the end of the eighteenth century and the others to the frst decades of the nineteenth. The short remarks, musical notes, iconographic materials, epic poems, and political writings listed by Réthei were part of a nationwide social discourse about the 'Hungarian dance' that lasted more than a century. Additionally, he supplemented the historical data with valuable ethnographic information about the spreading of these dances among the peasantry in Hungary during the second half of the nineteenth century. As a result, these parts of his book became more complex and scholarly than any other previous writing on this topic. However, we have to take into consideration that Réthei was himself

16 Réthei, *A magyarság táncai*, pp. 2–3. Translation from the Hungarian by László Felföldi.

biased by the ideas of nineteenth-century patriots — the authors of these sources — and his book was also dedicated to this issue.

From the beginning of the twentieth century, dance historians Emil Haraszti (1887–1958), Olga Szentpál (1895–1968), Rózsi Vályi (1907– 1997), Edit Kaposi (1923–2006), László Maácz (1929–1998), Klára B. Egey (1910-?70), and Iván Vitányi (1925-?), paid some attention to nineteenth-century couple dances. As for the music of these dances, historian Bence Szabolcsi has contributed substantially to the research on this topic.17 Among dance historians, Olga Szentpál and Edit Kaposi did most to promote more comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the source material, notably with Olga Szentpál's book *A Csárdás*: *a magyar nemzeti társastánc a 19. század első felében* [*Csárdás*: The Hungarian national social dance in the frst half of the nineteenth century]. Published in 1954, it provides more than one hundred historical sources (texts, pictures, musical notes) about *Csárdás*, which has a similar history to the nineteenth-century couple dances and in some sense belongs to the same class as these. Due to the nature of the historical sources, the book constitutes a treasure trove of evidence about nineteenth-century couple dances as well. That is to say, in many of the written documents, *Csárdás* is characterised by comparison with the Waltz, the Polka, the Galop, and so on; 'foreign' dances that competed with the Hungarian national dance in the ballrooms. Although the evaluation of these dances is negative, with careful interpretation, researchers can gain good information about these so-called 'foreign' dances: their popularity, socio-cultural features, and the particular ways they were danced. Olga Szentpál focused on *Csárdás*. She did not place special emphasis on the study of the Waltz, the Polka, and the others, but she did collect material that proved to be useful for further research. In the 1950s, members of the research group on Historical Social Dances of the State Ballet Institute in Budapest, headed by Olga Szentpál, made several reconstructions based on dance masters' books. From the nineteenth century they chose 'Valse à trois temps' and the Polka from Henry Cellarius' manual *La Danse des Salons* (published in Paris in 1847). The scientifc reconstruction based on these two dances was published in *Táncművészeti Értesítő* [Bulletin

17 Bence Szabolcsi, *Népzene és történelem* (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1954).

of the Dance Arts] in 1956.18 It served both educational and scientifc purposes. Reconstructions contributed to the precision of the formalstructural features of these dances. Foreign dance historians enriched the literature, such as Tobias Norlind with his article, published in Hungary, on the history of the Waltz and the Polka, dedicated in honour of Zoltán Kodály's sixtieth birthday in 1943.19

From the 1970s to the 1990s, Edit Kaposi's research focused on the history of social dances; the activities of dancing masters; dance masters' books; the life and career of nineteenth-century Hungarian dancers and dance masters; and scenes of dancing in theatres and ballrooms. Her comprehensive articles address the history of European and Hungarian dance teaching as a craft from the ffteenth to the twentieth century. They give a wide panorama of the topic, with numerous interesting details contextualised in the political, social and cultural situation of the period.20 With the critical analysis and publication of the social dance literature — mainly dance masters' books (not only by Hungarians) — she created a frm basis for the further investigation of this feld of research.21 Being based in ethnography in Budapest University, she was sensitive to the socio-cultural relatedness and crosscultural features of the social dances, and in her feld research she paid special attention to them.

In the 1950s, György Martin and Ernő Pesovár studied social dances and their derivatives among the lower classes in a wider historical and geographical framework. Among others, Ernő Pesovár dealt with social dances (also from the nineteenth century) and their afnity

18 Olga Szentpál, 'Keringő és polka a a 19. században. Táncrekonstrukció Cellarius táncmester leírása alapján', in *Táncművészeti Értesítő*, ed. by Morvay Péter (Budapest: Magyar Táncművészek Szövetsége, 1956), pp. 73–89.

19 Tobias Norlind, 'Adatok a keringő és a polka történetéhez', in *Emlékkönyv Kodály Zoltán 60*. *születésnapjára* ed. by Gunda Béla (Budapest: Magyar Néprajzi Társaság, 1943), pp. 189–94.

20 Edit Kaposi, 'Egy híres táncos önéletírása: Szőllősy Szabó Lajos', *Táncművészet*, 4 (1955), 154–56; Edit Kaposi, 'Adalékok az európai és a magyar táncmesterség történetéhez', *Tánctudományi Tanulmányok*, 1969–1970 (1970), 16–194; Edit Kaposi, 'Kiegészítő adatok az európai táncmesterség történetéhez', *Táncművészeti Értesítő*, 9 (1973), 34–37, 87–91; Edit Kaposi, 'Szőllősy Szabó Lajos élete és munkássága (1803–1882)', *Tánctudományi Tanulmányok*, 1978–1979 (1979), 145–88.

21 Edit Kaposi, 'A magyar társastánc szakirodalom forráskritikai vizsgálata I.', *Tánctudományi Tanulmányok*, 1984–1985 (1985), 177–94; Edit Kaposi, 'A magyar társastánc szakirodalom forráskritikai vizsgálata II.', *Tánctudományi Tanulmányok*, 1986–1987 (1987), 50–75.

to (or isolation from) the couple dances practised in Hungary. 22 He revised the previous understanding of the genesis of the Csárdás by a reinterpretation of the historical couple-dance sources from the end of the eighteenth and the frst half of the nineteenth century.23 He paid special attention to the impact of Polish dance on life in the frst half of the nineteenth century.24 I myself contributed to this research with the discovery of some new historical documents and the reinterpretation of some lesser known ones related to the nineteenth-century social dances.25 Martin put more emphasis on determining the place of the dances (deriving from the nineteenth-century couple dances and practised in local communities in the twentieth century) in the system of Hungarian folk dances. In his classifcation, Martin created a special category for them, beyond the old and new stylistic layers. He claims:

We rank the dances of foreign origin (mostly of Western European, noble, bourgeois or dance-master's-school origin, which were practised in some strata of the peasantry, in one generation or more, temporarily and regionally) into a mixed layer of the Hungarian dance culture. The criterion belonging to this stylistic layer is not simply their obvious foreign provenance, but the limited degrees of their assimilation, folklorisation and spreading. These dances preserved their original form, and music of their own. Their style is totally diferent from that of our old- and new-style dances.26

Ferenc Pesovár (Ernő's Pesovár younger brother) also contributed to the topic by the presentation of historical forms of dance mastery and

22 Ernő Pesovár, *A magyar páros táncok* (Budapest: Planétás, 1997).

23 Ernő Pesovár 'A *csárdás* kialakulásának szakaszai és típusai', *Ethnographia*, 48 (1985), 17–29; Pesovár, *A magyar páros táncok*; Pesovár, *A magyar tánctörténet évszázadai*; Pesovár, *Tánchagyományunk történeti rétegei*.

24 Ernő Pesovár, 'A lengyel táncok hatása a reformkorban', *Néprajzi Értesítő*, 47 (1965), 159–77.

25 László Felföldi, 'Táncábrázolások az abszolutizmus és kiegyezés korabeli kottás kiadványok címlapjain', in *Magyarországi kottacímlapok* (1848–1867), ed. by Szabó Júlia (Budapest: Argumentum, 2000), pp. 13–23; László Felföldi, 'Tánctörténet', in *Magyar kódex*, 6 vols, ed. by Szentpéteri József (Budapest: Kossuth, 1999–2001), I, 269–71; László Felföldi, 'Picturing Hungarian Patriotism: Bikkessy Album Imaging Dance', in *Imaging Dance*: *Visual Representation of Dancers and Dancing*, ed. by Barbara Sparti and Judy Van Zile (New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2011), pp. 181–94.

26 György Martin, *Magyar tánctípusok és táncdialektusok* (Budapest: Népművelési Propaganda Iroda, 1970), p. 40. Translated from the Hungarian by László Felföldi.

dance events. 27 Historical anthropologist Tamás Hofer assisted dance researchers to contextualise these phenomena in the socio-cultural changes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.28

Among lexicons related to dance, the *Színészeti Lexikon I–II* [Theatrical Lexicon] published in 193029 deserves most attention. Pálfy György, dance historian and writer of ten to ffteen entries on the Waltz, the Polka, the Mazurka, the Galop, the Ecossaise, and the Cotillion, used the available international and Hungarian literature, though unfortunately without detailed references. He dedicated a separate entry to the social dances, which he named 'Modern Szóló Táncok' [Modern solo dances] and in which he gives an overview of the socio-cultural background and changing mentality behind the social dances in comparison with stage dance, modern dance and sport. Other professional lexicons (*Balett lexikon*, *Magyar táncművészeti lexikon*)30 published in the twentieth century paid less attention to these dance forms, except for the Ethnographic Lexicon. Ernő Pesovár and Ferenc Pesovár, writers of the entries on nineteenth-century couple dances in the *Hungarian Ethnographic Lexicon*, volumes 1–5 (1978–1982),31 group them under the name 'Bourgeois social dances' or 'Bourgeois fashion dances'. They give relatively detailed information about their history and ethnographic features (spreading, social function in the local communities, activity of dance masters etc) in Hungary.

In the twentieth and twenty-frst centuries, young dance researchers became more interested in the investigation of nineteenth-century couple dances. 32 Hopefully, this will lead to the formation of a separate

27 Ferenc Pesovár, 'Táncmesterek a szatmári falvakban', *Tánctudományi Tanulányok*, 1959–1960 (1960), 309–22; and Ferenc Pesovár, *A magyar nép táncélete* (Budapest: Népművelési Propaganda Iroda, 1978).

28 Tamás Hofer, 'A magyar népi kultúra történeti rétegei és európai helyzete', in *Martin György emlékezete* ed. by Felföldi László (Budapest: Magyar Művelődési Intézet, 1993), pp. 341–51.

29 *Színészeti lexikon*, 2 vols, ed. by Németh Antal (Budapest: Győző Andor kiadása, 1930).

30 Horst Köegler, *Balett lexikon* (Budapest: Zeneműkiadó, 1977); *Magyar táncművészeti lexikon*, ed. by Dienes Gedeon (Budapest: Planétás, 2008).

31 *Magyar Néprajzi Lexikon*, 5 vols, ed. by Ortutay Gyula (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1978–1982).

32 Dóka, Krisztina, '19. századi társastáncok a magyar paraszti tánckultúrában', *Tánctudományi Közlemények*, 2 (2014), 49–66; Kavecsánszki, Máté, 'Társastáncok a magyar paraszti közösségben a 19–20. században', in *Notitiae Iuvenum*: *Tanulmányok Ujváry Zoltán 75. születésnapjának tiszteletére*, ed. by Kiri Edit, Kovács László Erik, and

research feld on this topic. The hundred or so documents discovered and published so far (one third from between 1790–1850) and the scientifc knowledge accumulated in these books and articles may be a good basis for this.

## Selected and Annotated Source Catalogue

The next passage contains documents representing the most characteristic types, and thematic groups, of sources about nineteenth-century couple dances. Written texts, such as public or scientifc papers, reports on balls, personal letters, dance masters' books, or literature, are the most common. Iconographic material, like engravings of dance events or portrayals of the Waltz, the Polka, the Mazurka, or the Quadrille on, for example, the front page of the printed musical scores, is not so widespread, but this makes it all the more interesting to researchers. There is also a collection of musical scores, both with and without text. The written sources and the titles of other kinds of documents were translated by the author.

#### Written Sources

#### *No. 1: Description of a Ball in Pest (Fragment) from 1790*

(*Gvadányi*, *József*) *Egy falusi nótáriusnak budai utazása*, *melyet önnön maga abban esett viszontagságaival együtt az elaludt vérű magyar szivek felserkentésére és mulatságára e versekbe foglalt* [A Village Clerk's Journey to Buda, Put into Verse in Order to Refresh and Entertain 'Sleepy' Hungarian Hearts, Including his Adventures on the Way] [n.a.] (Pozsony és Komárom: Wéber Simon Péter, 1790), p. 29.

> *A táncok többnyire álla keringésből* The dances consisted mostly of whirling, *forgószél port mint hajt*, *olyan tekergésből*, like a whirlwind driving dust, *gondoltam*: *virradtig sok meghal ezekből*,

Szilágyi Judit (Debrecen: DE-BTK HÖK, 2007), pp. 199–242; Máté Kavecsánszki, *Tánc és közösség*, Studia Folkloristica et Ethnographica 59 (Debrecen: Debreceni Egyetemi Kiadó, 2015).

I thought: they would die at dawn, *Guta következik a fej-szédülésből.* from a stroke caused by dizzyness.

*Az én i t fúm is közöttök fetrengett* , My son was whirling among them, *Egy csínos lyánkával*, *mint többi*, *keringett*, with a nice girl like the others. *Izzadt vólt*; *mondotta*, *mindjárt vesz más inget.*

*Kérdém*: *— 'Uram! ugyan mi neve e táncnak*? I ask: — 'Sir, what is the name of this dance? *Mert egyszer*, *keringős hogy lett ökröm*, *annak* Once my ox was ill, it was whirling *szint ilyen tánca vólt*, *mint itten forganak*, like the people are whirling here. *Az is csak keringett*, *itten sem ugranak'.* It was similarly whirling without jumping'.

*Felelt*: *— 'Uram! hívják eztet voltzerisnek*, Answer: — 'Sir, its name is: voltzerish. *Voltzen kallót tészen*, *s természete ennek*  Valzen means wool mill, which *szűntelen forgani*, *mint malomkeréknek*, turns endlessly like a mill-wheel. *kalló-tánc ez tehát*, *melybe keringenek.*  Namely, it is Kalló-tánc, where they turn.

*'Higgye az úr nékem*, *hogy lészen az nagy kár*, 'Believe me, Sir, it is unfortunate *hogyha el nem megyen*, *egy voltzerist nem jár*, if you do not dance a voltzerish. *Ama dáma olyan könnyű*, *mint a madár*, that lady is so light, like a bird, *vigye el*: *mert látom*, *hogy csak az úrra vár'*. take her; she is waiting only for you'.

*'Uram! bolondgombát még sohase ettem*, 'Sir, I am not crazy. I have never danced, *mint a bódúlt marha*, *nem is keringettem*; like a dazed cattle; I have not been whirling. *Ha táncoltam*, *tehát igaz táncot tettem*,

If I ever danced, I did a real dance, *melyből a fejembe szédűlést nem vettem.* which did not make my head dizzy'.

*Comments*: The writer of this epic poem, József Gvadányi, a Hungarian poet (1725–1801), is a representative of the radical nationalist lower nobility. His work (frst published in 1790) is a good example of the initial reception the new fashionable dance — Voltseris (Hungarian pronunciation: Valtserish) — received when it came from Vienna. The main hero of the poem is attending a ball held in Pest, in Hét Kurfürst *fogadó* (a restaurant with hotel and a ballroom, named 'dance palace') where the multi-ethnic dancers came from the middle classes and the aristocratic circles. He evaluates the Valceris from the perspective of a village man having his frst experience of it in the town. He characterises it with vulgar words and describes it in an ironic way. The dancers, among them his son, are portrayed in similar tone. In addition, he gives a detailed, realistic description of the ballroom, the dancers and their dresses. He emphasises the intensive whirling and jumping as the main features of the dance, and also mentions the '*Kontradanz*' [contradance] elsewhere in the poem.

#### *No. 2: Comparison of German, French, and Hungarian 'National' Dances in a Poem of Classical, Metrical Style from 1811*

Dániel Berzsenyi, 'A táncok' ['Dances'], in *Berzsenyi Dániel összes versei*, ed. by Merényi Oszkár (Budapest: Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1982), p. 134.

> *Nézd a tánc nemeit*, *mint festik játszi ecsettel* Perceive the various dances, how they mirror, with playful brush, *A népek lelkét s nemezetek ízleteit.*  The folks' soul and the nations' taste. *A német hármas lépéssel lejtve kering le*, The German is whirling with triple steps *S párját karja közé zárja s lebegve viszi.* He embraces his partner and carries her as if foating. *Egyszerű a német mindenben*, *s csendesen örvend*, The German is simple in everything, having fun silently, *Egyet ölel mindig*, *s állhatatos szerető.* He always embraces the same women and is a faithful lover.

*A gallus fellengve szökik*, *s enyelegve kacsingat*, The Gallic jumps high-fown with firting winks, *Párt vált*, *csalfa kezet majd ide*, *majd oda nyújt*: He changes partner, with deceitful hands here and there: *Ez heves és virgonc*, *örömében gyermeki nyájas* He is passionate and agile, delighted at everything, like a child. *Kényeiben repdez*, *s a szerelmbe' kalóz.* He fatters in high spirits, and he is a pirate in love. *A magyar egy Pindár*: *valamerre ragadja negéde*, The Hungarian is a Pindar: when his enthusiasm takes him *Lelkesedett tűzzel nyomja ki indulatit.* His feelings burn like fre. *Majd lebegő szellő*, *szerelemre olvad epedve*, Then he melts into longing for love, like a soft breeze *S buja hevét kényes mozdulatokba szövi*; And he weaves his enthusiasm into delicate movements.  Jumping among the dead bodies together with his heroes. *Titkos törvényit mesterség nem szedi rendbe*, Its secret rules are not tamed by dance masters, *Csak maga szab törvényt*, *s lelkesedése határt.*  Only the dancer creates rules, and his enthusiasm inscribes limits. *Ember az ki magyar tánchoz jól terme*, *örüljön!* He, who has talent for Hungarian dance, let him be glad! *Férferő s lelkes szikra hevíti erét.* His blood is flled with manliness and sparks of zeal.

*Comments*: Dániel Berzsenyi (1775–1836), a Hungarian poet, represents the educated and creative landowners who participated actively in cultural and political life. His aim in this poem is to depict and emphasise diferences in the characteristic features of German, French and Hungarian ways of dancing. He intended to show how dances harmonise with the national character of diferent peoples. The German way, with its triple basic step, whirling character and 'simple' structure might describe the Waltz — the German national dance — which was already well known in Hungary in 1811, at the time of the genesis of the poem. French people were famous for their Quadrille, contra dance, Galop, and Cotillion, executed in a passionate, agile and delightful way as regulated, collective couple dances. The Hungarian way of dancing is represented as a free, unregulated solo male and couple dance with high emotions in a rapturous mood. It was known as the national dance of Hungarians inside and outside Hungary. By mentioning Pindaros (Pindar in the poem), the Greek poet (c. 522/518–422/438 BC), famous for his passion for dance and dance songs, Berzsenyi refers to the similar zeal for dance on the part of the Hungarians. Recalling Kinizsi Pál's dance on the battle feld in 1478 against the Turkish army, he confrms the heroic character of the Hungarian national dance. 33

### *No. 3: Journalistic Feuilleton Concerning the Characteristic Features, Social Position, and Necessity for Regulation of the 'Magyar Nemzeti Tánc' [Hungarian National Dance]*

Balla Károly, 'A' Magyar nemzeti Tánczról' [On Hungarian National Dance], *Tudományos Gyűjtemény*, 7 (1823), 85–106.

…A' honnan a mái pallérozott nemzetek, kiknek tánczok eleinte szinte darabos és rendetlen vala, annyira igyekeztek tánczaikat kipallérozni 's határok közé szorítani, hogy többnyirő a' maga tökéletessége grádusát már már mindenik elérte; 's bár az emberiségbe oltott tarkaságon való kapás, az idegen tánczokat is járatja velek; de mindeniknek önnön táncza azelső, ' s egy sincs ki benne ne büszélkedne. Annyival inkább minél bizonyosabb az, hogy az idegen nemzetek szokásainak követéséből, minden csalatás nélkül sokat veszt 'a Nemzetiség; és csak az látszik legtisztább nemzetnek, kinek nyelve, öltözete, törvénye és szokása a' többi Nemzetekétől leginkább különböznek.

Az idegen Quadril't, Cotilliont, Ecossoisét, Mazúrt 's t. e' f. gúnyolni nem célom: mivel azok a Nemzeti muzsikákhoz lévén alkalmazva, a' hangoknak megfelelnek, de dicsérnem is bajos, ha csak előbb meg nem mutatnám, hogy a' szeles test-fntorgatások a' lélek' nemes tüzének külső jelei. Hogy azonban ezeknek táncolása, némi-nemű hozzájok hasonló nyomot hágy a lélekben is, azt némely mazúrkás ifjaink tapasztaltatják, kikben a' nemzeti fő bélyeg már már lengeség. Annyival inkább, hogy ezen tánczokhoz Medvenadrág vagyis Bolondon (pantallon), Csizma

33 Pesovár *A magyar tánctörténet évszázadai* p. 95. Pál Kinizsi (1413?-94) was a famous general in the service of the Hungarian army in the ffteenth century.

helyett holnap czipő: nyakravaló helyett vörös Schal; és kalap helyett főkötő kívántatván, még akkor sem fogja az eltanúlt gyermek felhúzni a sarkantyús csizmát és mentét, ha a' magyar nemes név' elvesztésével ijesztgetik.34

[…] megilletődve tapasztalám egy magyar faluba, midőn egy kegyetlen bőgős a' kemencze torkán egy német nótát, a'gatyás és rásaszoknyás köztársaság pedig a' német tánczot nyaggatták. Mit csinálsz Zsiga! mondám, miért nyomorgatjátok a levegőt? A sötét képű prímás, ki már verejtékezett a' nehéz munkába: Kegyelmes Uram! úgymond, a' Nagyságos földes Uraktól tanulták paraszt Uramék őkelmék. Szemébe inték ekkor a Falu urának; ki elkomolyúlt; s' 20 forintot adott az igazság szembe való mondásáért.—A Lagzi számára pedig 50 ftot ajándékozván: kifordúltunk; hogy már a magyar paraszt is mit csinál — s ki ennek az oka? — azon töprenkedve.35

[For the civilised nations of today, their own dance is best and they are all proud of it; they tried to regulate their dance and keep it within limits, so that it could reach perfection, and they dance the foreign dances as well, following the natural human instinct to be fond of diversity. It is becoming more and more evident that practising the customs of the foreign nations, without a doubt, harms a nation; and only that nation seems to be immaculate, whose language, costume, law and customs are most diferent from the others.

I do not want to make fun of the foreign Quadrille, Cotillion, Ecossoise, Mazur, since they are well applied to their national music, but I can hardly praise them, unless I frst prove that their windy 'bodygrimacings' are expressions of the fre of their soul. We may experience it in the case of our youngsters who subscribe to mazur-mania, whose national mark has almost already disappeared. What is more, for these dances, people have to wear *medvenadrág* [Bear-trousers] or *bolondon*  [pants]; put on shoes instead of boots; instead of a necktie they wear a red *schal* [scarf] and instead of the hat, they have the bonnet; and these spoiled young men cannot be forced to put on boots with spurs and *mente* [a short fur-lined coat], even if they are threatened with the loss of their noble 'Hungarian' name.

[…] I was surprised in a Hungarian village, that on the top of the oven an ugly bass player is playing German music, and that the 're-public' 36 in *gatya* [white linen culottes] and in *rasha* [half-linen type of textile] skirts are aping the German dance. 'What are you doing, Zsiga?' — I ask — 'Why do you afict the air?' The dark-faced primate

34 Pp. 86–87.

35 P. 95.

36 That is, the dancers.

sweating because of the hard work, says: 'Your Excellency! The peasant "excellencies" learn it from the honourable landlords'. I looked at the landlord of the village inquiringly. He frowned, and gave twenty *forints* to the primate for telling the truth. Moreover, he presented ffty *forints* to the participants of the wedding, and at last we left the place meditating on what the peasants were doing, and who can be blamed for it.]

*Comments*: Balla Károly (*mándi*) (1792–1873) is a poet, writer and publicist, correspondent of numerous journals and newspapers in Hungary and in Vienna, who dealt with very diverse topics, from sociocultural matters to economic and political issues. His article, published in the *Tudományos Gyüjtemény* (Scientifc Collection, a monthly periodical published between 1817 and 1941), is a kind of polemic essay about the problems with the Hungarian national dance. As we can see from the above quotation, he was of the opinion that Hungarians ought to regulate their national dance after the model of the other nations in Europe. He raises the question of the responsibility of the national elite for the increasing decline of their traditional dances among the peasant communities, in favour of the foreign, fashionable dances.

#### *No. 4: Characterisation of the Hungarian Dance Compared to the Contemporary Fashion Dances Coming from Abroad (Fragment) from 1831*

August Ellrich, *Die Ungarn wie sie sind. Charakter-Schilderung dieses Volkes in seinen Verhältnissen und Gesinnungen* (Berlin: In der Fereins Buchhandlung, 1831), pp. 142–3.

Schritte, Toure, Bewegungen, Attitüden sind willkürlich, dem Genie, dem Geschmacke der Tanzenden überlassen. Man schreitet nicht in regelmässigen, abgezirkelten Schritten, eins, zwei, drei und vier, auf und nieder wie im Menuett, es ist nich das monotone Drehdichum des Walzers, es ist ein freier, durch irgend eine Idee belebter Tanz. Die Leute macht nie bummere Gesichter als da sie Menuet Tanzen oder walzen, und das ist natürlich: Mann siecht nie belebtere, geistvollere Menschenäntliche, als im ungarischen Tanze, und das it wieder ganz natürlich, denn der ungarische Tanz ist Poesie, der Walzer, Das Menuett sind mechanische Gewerbe. Der Mechaniker kann ein Automat machen, welches vortrefich Menuet tanzt und übertrefich walzt, aber er kann keines machen, welches ungarisch tanzt, oder eine Arie komponirt […] Das Minenspiel solcher ungarisher Tänzer is eben so admirable als das Spiel ihrer Füsse.

[Dancers execute their steps, turnings, movements, attitudes according to their own talent and taste. This is not regulated, reserved stepping: one, two, three and four, up and down, as in the Minuet, and not incessant turning like the Waltz; this is a free dance in which an idea is living. People do not make such silly faces as they do when dancing the Minuet or the Waltz, and this is self-evident. Faces are never and nowhere so vivid and enthusiastic as in the Hungarian dance, and this also obvious, because the Hungarian dance is poetry; the Waltz and the Minuet are mechanical products. An engineer is able to make a robot that dances the Minuet and the Waltz in a splendid way, but he cannot make one for the Hungarian dance and cannot compose such music. […] The facial expressions of these Hungarian dancers are as magnifcent as the movements of their legs.]

*Comments*: August Ellrich (whose real name was Albin Johann Baptist von Meddlhammer, 1777–1838) was a German writer and traveller, who gave detailed accounts about the culture and way of life of the Austrian Monarchy, including Hungary. He paid special attention to dances, and to the theatrical life of Hungary. He appreciated the freedom and poetic quality of Hungarian dance, in contrast to the regulatedness and mechanic features of the Menuett and the Walzer. Some other foreign travellers who noticed the distinctiveness of Hungarian dances include George Johann Kohl (1808–1878), a German geographer;37 Arthur Patterson (1835–1899), an English writer and teacher of the English language;38 Victor Tissot (1845–1917), a French writer of Swiss origin;39 Margaret Fletcher (1862–1943), an English writer and religious activist;40 and, fnally, Albert Czerwinski, a dance historian who also witnessed dances when he happened to be in Hungary, and wrote about them in the same style as Ellrich and the others.41

37 Kohl, Georg Johann, *Hundert Tage auf Reisen in den östereichischen Staten* (Dresden und Leipzig: in der Arnoldische Buchhandlung, 1842).

38 Arthur Patterson, *The Magyars*: *Their Country and Institution* (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1869).

39 Victor Tissot, *La Hongrie*: *De l'Adriatique au Danube*: *Impressions de voyage* (Paris: Plon, 1883).

40 Margaret Fletcher, *Sketches of Life and Character in Hungary* (,New York: Macmillan and Co, 1892).

41 Albert Chervinszki, *Geschichte der Tanzkunst bei den cultivirten Volkern* (Leipzig: Velagbuchshandlung von J. J. Weber, 1862).

*No. 5: On the Differences between Hungarian and 'Modish' Dances. Fragment from a Letter Sent by Dániel Berzsenyi, Poet and Nobleman, to Count István Széchenyi, Politician and Patriot, written in Nikla, 1830*

Published in Berzsenyi Dániel, *Összes Művei* [The Complete Works of Daniel Berzsenyi] collected by Oszkár Merényi (Budapest: Szépirodalmi kiadó 1956), p. 688.

[…]  S tapasztaljuk, hogy azokkal fogy a barátság, mert saját táncainkat elfeledtük; az idegent pedig nem szeretjük, s megszűnt muzsikánk. Ez pedig a görögöknél nagy szó vala, s annyit tett, mint a legfőbb oskolának — a társalkodásnak romlása.

[[…] Our dances do not consist of two or three childish steps, as do the fashionable dances of today, which we learn in one or two days, and on the third day we get bored of them because of their shallow, childish character. Our dances are so purposive that we make ourselves master them throughout all of our youth; and because of the aesthetic nature of our dances, they are so good for us that they become our passion, and with that comes the motivation to make friendships and good relationships with others. Now we realise that good relations are coming to an end, because we have forgotten our dances; we do not like the foreign ones; our music has disappeared. And this was a signifcant word for the Greeks, and it meant the destruction of the supreme school — the social life.]

*Comments*: As this letter proves, national dance was a theme in the correspondence among the cultural and national elite (mainly noblemen). Count István Széchenyi (1791–1860), a landowner, politician, and outstanding fgure of the political and cultural life in Hungary, was an expert on the economy and fnance. However, as an educated aristocrat and patriot, his feld of interests also covered literature, philosophy, and several socio-cultural questions as well. Dániel Berzsenyi (1776–1836) was a poet and writer dealing with the Harmony thesis of the classical Greek philosophers, and he intended to apply this to the felds of the Hungarian language and literature, music, and dance. His ideas were explained in detail in his essay 'Poetai harmonistica' in 1833. In his opinion, in the world of arts, the only constant component is Harmony, regardless of whether the artistic piece is the product of Classicism, Romanticism or something else. His letter to Széchenyi refects this mentality.

*No. 6: Short Presentation of Some National Dances in Europe with Arguments for Their Correspondence with National Characters. Opinion about the Regulation of the National Social Dances from 1841*

Vahot Imre, 'Nemzeti társastánczunk, tánczzenénk és öltözetünk ügyében' ['About our Social Dance, our Dance Music and our National Costume'], *Athenaeum*, 2 (1841), 859–62.

[…] milly szépen mutatkozik a tánczok külön féle nemeiben minden egyes nép és nemzet sajátos jelleme; mennyire érdekes például a quadrilleben egyszerre megismerni a franczia heves, könnyű, fnom, udvarias jellemét, a walzerben a német bárány kedélyét, gyáriasan egyidomú, fáradságos, de czéltalan életét, a tarantelltáncban az olasz dühét, a mazurban a lengyel örökös éber lelkesedését, a bonekkatánczban a szép görög nők fölötte víg természetét, vagy az Európába is áthurczolt bayaderek eleven testmozgásaiban a hindu nép magasztos vallásosságát.42

[…] Nincs itt egyéb kérdés, mint az: valljon úgy amint meg volt kezdve, tovább is minden szabály nélkül s csak természetesen tánczolják azt, vagy kissé rendbe szedve? — Mindenesetre ez utóbbit kell választani, mert a puszta természetesség ugyan magában szép is lehet, a művészi természetesség még szebb. Azonban nemzeti társastáncunk szabályozása csak olly feltételek alatt engedhető meg, ha az által eredeti sajátosságából, egyszerű szépségéből legkissebet sem veszt, s holmi feszes, cifra torzfgurákkal el nem rontatik, sőt ellenkezőleg, ha könnyű hajlékony természeténél fogva, a szábályzó által oly széppé alakíttatik, hogy művészi becsben valamennyi társastánczot felülmúlja.43

[[…] It is so nice, how the individual character of each people and nation are represented in the diferent varieties of dance. How interesting, for

42 P. 859.

43 Pp. 860–61.

example, to discover the passionate, easy, gentle and polite nature of the French in the Quadrille; the lamb-like temperament and tedious, tiresome but aimless life of the Germans in the Walzer; the fury of Italians in the *Tarantella*; the constant burning enthusiasm of the Polish people in the Mazur; the cheerful nature of the nice Greek women; or the exalted piety of the Hindu people in the lively movements of the *bayadères*, who were forced to come to Europe.

[…] The only question here is whether it (Hungarian social dance) should be executed as before, without any rules, naturally, or in a slightly regulated form? At any rate, the latter should be chosen, because mere naturalness might be nice in itself, but artistic naturalness is even more beautiful. Regulation of our national social dance could be permitted only under conditions which do not deprive it of even the smallest part of its original features and simple beauty, and if it is not spoiled with strange, deformed fgures; on the contrary though, it might also be spoiled if the regulator, knowing its easy, fexible character, makes it so excessively beautiful that it surpasses all the other social dances in artistic qualities.]

*Comments*: Vahot Imre (1820–1879) was a public-spirited Hungarian lawyer, writer, dramatist, editor of periodicals and one of the main fgures of the cultural life of the middle of the nineteenth century. He published his polemic writing on the matter of national dances, music and costume in the *Athenaeum*, the most infuential periodical of political opposition that was active between 1837 and 1843. It was the mouthpiece of the urban middle-class people who had characteristic national anti-Habsburg feelings, and criticised the ideas of the aristocrats. His ideas became very popular for almost a decade, and inspired the Hungarian dance, musicians and other members of the cultural elite to create art in this spirit.

#### *No. 7: Description of the Csárdás (Chardash) Dance and Dance Music Compared with Other Fashion Dances, Written by Arthur J. Patterson*

Arthur J. Patterson, *The Magyars*: *Their Country and Institutions*, 2 vols (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1869), I, Chapter 9, pp. 195–96.

This dance is a peasant's dance, yet I do not know that I have ever seen it danced better or with more spirit than in middle-class circles in the country. Since the policy taken up by the Viennese Government after the revolutionary war drove the greater part of the Hungarian aristocracy into opposition to the court, this dance has been admitted into the balls of the *haute voleé* in Pest. But like other European aristocracies, the Hungarian is too denationalised and too self-conscious to surrender itself wholly to the enthusiasm which is the soul of this dance. Well as the countesses and baronesses dance, one misses, in their *csárdás*, the *abandon* of the wives and daughters of their stewards and attorneys. A lady who had been educated at Vienna said to me, «*Je n'aime pas le*  csárdá*s*; *pour le danser bien il faut être très-coquette*».

But it would be indeed inexcusable were I here to omit to notice the musicians, upon whom so much of the Hungarian's enjoyment depends. In Hungary 'no amusement without the gypsy' has passed into a proverb. In some of the principal balls of the Carnival at Pest, where the *csárdás* alternates with dances of more European celebrity, two bands are provided, one of Bohemians, the other of gypsies. As long as it was a question of quadrilles, waltzes, &c., the Tshekhs were the performers; but as often as the turn of the *csárdás* came round, they remained quiet, and the music was given by the swarthy children of India.

*Comments*: Arthur J. Patterson (1835–1899) was a writer, university professor and correspondent for several British journals and newspapers. Between 1862 and 1867 he stayed in Hungary and collected material for his book *The Magyars*, published in 1869 in London. This short passage from the detailed description of the *Csárdás* shows that he paid much attention to the socio-political and ethnic relations of the country. He emphasises that, although it is a peasant-dance, it became popular among middle-class people, and it temporarily became widely favoured by the aristocracy as well. He mentions only the 'unregulated' form of the *Csárdás*, which could be explained by the domination of the free, improvisatory form in the 1850s and 1860s. He depicts the situation in the big balls of Pest, where the organisers hired two kinds of music bands: Bohemian musicians for the Quadrille, the Waltz and other dances of 'European celebrity', and gypsy bands for the *Csárdás*.

Fig. 7.1 Pollencig József, *Grosser Ball bey Sv. Kőnigh Hoheit de Palatins Ofen den 11ten Februar 1795* [Great Ball held by His Royal Highness of Palatine], 11 February 1795. Paper and gouache, 282 x 408 mm. Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, Index number: 1930–2188. Image courtesy of Szépművészeti Múzeum.

*Comments*: This picture portrays a ball of aristocrats, with a great number of participants in a luxurious, spacious room, decorated with rococo ornaments and magnifcent chandeliers. The orchestra is located on a high pulpit in the left foreground (presumably ten fddlers and futists, noticeably not gypsies.) The space in front of the musicians is almost empty, so we can clearly see the closest dancers (three to four couples) and the onlookers (around twenty people, men and women who are standing, talking or sitting by the wall). The other participants are covered. We can distinguish only their heads in the picture, so we cannot positively say that they are dancing. The frst dancing couple on the right-hand side is embracing each other in a face-to-face position. The right arm of the man is above the woman's arm, and his hand touches her waist from the back. The left arm of the woman is under his, and her hand is placed on the same part of the man's body. They hold each other with their other hand in a so-called Walzer position. The other two couples are holding each other with their arms in a sideby-side position. The women's arms are above the men's, and they hold their skirts with their other hands, as if they could stop the skirts from fying too high while turning. The costume of the participants is the fashionable 'Hungarian' aristocratic one. Some of the men are carrying swords, which would have been a curious sight for the visitors coming from abroad. Two fgures in the front wear costumes like those of the lackeys in Vienna. One of them seems to be engaged with the musicians and the other with the dancers. The artist, Pollencig József (1763–1823), painter and engraver on copper, lived in Pest from 1787 to 1795. During his stay, he worked as an illustrator for periodicals and so he may have had direct experiences of the portrayed events. He was not a talented painter, but he was appreciated for commemorating the social life and architecture of Buda and Pest.

Fig. 7.2 Unknown artist, *Bál a kis Redoute-ban* [Ball in the small Redoute], c.1830. Coloured lithography. Historical Museum, Metropolitan Gallery in Budapest. Image courtesy of Budapesti Történeti Múzeum.

*Comments*: The unknown artist portrays an aristocratic ball in luxurious (in the so-called Small Redoute) in Pest. The ballroom is decorated with classical half-columns, ceiling frescos, magnifcent curtains, and both standing and hanging chandeliers (it was built between 1829 and 1832 in the Classical style). Musicians (about ten men with string and wind instruments) are playing on a gallery in the middle of the back wall. The event is not too crowded, with about twenty-fve couples standing or sitting on benches or chairs around the room. In the foreground of the picture, around eight couples are situated facing the musicians, as if they are having a rest or waiting for the next dance. Women are sitting on chairs and men are standing behind or beside them talking to each other. In the background of the room, with their backs to the musicians (presumably Czechs), there stand fve to six couples. Presumably, they are dancing, holding each other by the arm in a side-by-side position. From the left side, the men hold their partners by their left arm on their left side, and by their right arm on their right side. The men stand with their legs apart (in the second position). The participants' costumes are of a new international fashion with trousers (pantaloons), shoes and jackets (presumably neckties). In the foreground, the central man wears a '*frakk*' or tail-coat.

Fig. 7.3 Max Felix von Pauer, *Pest-Budai bál* [Ball in Pest-Buda]. From the collection: Original Skizzen aus Ungarn, 1837–1839. Paper and ink, 110 x 16 mm. Metropolitan Szabó Ervin Library of Budapest (FSZK). János Jajczay, *Pest-Budai figurák a múlt század 30-as éveiből. Max Félix Pauer rajzai a Fővárosi Könyvtárban* (Budapest: Stadtbibliothek, 1941), pp. 9–10. Image courtesy of Fővárosi Szabó Ervin Könyvtár, Budapest.

*Comments*: The author of the picture is Max Felix von Pauer (1804-?), a German-born draughtsman and architect from Bavaria. He spent several years as an architect in Hungary in the 1830s. It was his pastime to commemorate contemporary Budapest through his drawings. He was interested mainly in the representatives of the lower social strata. As an artist, draughtsman, and architect, he did not idealise his experiences. His pictures are like his technical drawings: precise, naturalistic displays of the subject without any particular artistic ambitions. The blackand-white ink drawing here portrays a lower-middle-class ball, in a solidly decorated small hall, with a mixture of participants. Based on their costumes, we assume that some of them are soldiers, tradesmen, merchants, clerks, and servants. Judging by their movements, we presume that half of the twenty-fve guests are dancing and half of them are talking or looking at the dancers. There are ten people on the high pulpit at the back wall of the hall, the majority of them being musicians: a violinist, a viola player, a bassist, a clarinettist, a drummer, and some other people who cannot be identifed. The dancers (six couples) are moving around counter-clockwise in the room, which is graphically indicated by the artist with a broken curved line on the foor. Three of them (one on each side and one at the back) dance in a sideways position and hold each other by their inner arm. The women's arm is under her partner's. She puts her hand on the man's waist; he holds her back at the shoulder blade. One couple in the middle consists of two women. The taller woman keeps her right hand on her own hip from the back, while the shorter woman embraces her partner at her shoulder-blade. Presumably they are dancing around. The couple on the right side at the back are dancing face-to-face with each other without physical contact. Both are concentrating on their leg movements. She rests her hands on her hips, and he keeps his left hand in the pocket of his trousers, his other hand not being visible. The role of the couple in the middle at the back (with the man wearing a fur coat) is unclear. It seems as if they are turning away from each other. It may also be the case that the woman is dancing alone. It is remarkable that some of the female participants wear spurs as well as the men.

Fig. 7.4 Unknown artist, *Tánciskola* [Dance school], 1845–1846. Lithography. Historical Museum, Metropolitan Gallery in Budapest. Ignácz Nagy, *Magyar titok* [Hungarian secret] (Pest: Hartleben Konrád Adolf, 1845– 1846), p. 258. Image courtesy of Budapesti Történeti Múzeum.

*Comments*: This picture is an illustration from a novel by Ignácz Nagy (1810–1854), frst published in 1845 in Pest. The event is happening in a petit-bourgeois milieu in Pest. The small room in the fat of the dance master serves to teach fourteen people (seven women and seven men). The rest of the people in the middle of the picture are the fddler, who is the dance master himself; the clarinettist, from the neighbouring fat; and the author of the novel, standing at the door. They are portrayed in an ironic style with their shabby costumes, grotesque movements and ridiculous grimaces. The dancers are divided into two lines, facing each other. There seem to be four men and three women on the left side, and three men and four women on the right side. They are learning a French dance (a kind of contra dance) as the author informs the readers. He writes, on page 258:

Francia tánczot tanultak és nem magyart, s én ezért egyáltalán nem bírok neheztelni, mert ennek valóban nem annyira a tánckedvelők az okai, mint magok a tánczkedvelők tanítói, vagyis a magyar tánczmesterek, akik a szép magyar tánczot annyira kiferdíték, a magyar zene eredeti jelleméböl, hogy lábfcamítás nélkül, alig lehet azt már eljárni. Mintha bizony tagrángásokban szépség rejlenék.

[They learnt a French dance and not Hungarian, but I cannot blame the dancers for it, because, to tell the truth, it is not the dancers but the teachers that are at fault for it, the dance masters themselves, who so deformed the nice Hungarian dance from the original of the Hungarian music that it can not longer be executed without spraining one's foot. As if jerking one's body were nice.]

Irony is created by the surroundings — the empty, plain room — if we think of the pomp of the ballrooms. The writer continues, on page 261:

A két város hemzseg ily táncziskolától, s a reményteljes lyánykák, […] csapatonként barangolnak a művészet eféle csarnokaiban.

[The two towns (Buda and Pest) are flled with these dance schools, and the hopeful young girls […] go around in troops in these halls of art.]

Fig. 7.5 A playbill of the opera *Hunyadi László* composed by Ferenc Erkel, 'father' of the Hungarian national opera. Textbook written by Béni Egressy. The opera was premiered in the National Theatre in Pest, in 1844. The original playbill belongs to the collection of the Széchenyi István State National Library.

*Comments*: *Hunyadi László* is the opera composed by Ferenc Erkel (1810– 1893), creator of the Hungarian national opera, as a genre. As conductor of the National Theatre, he was familiar with the operas by Cherubini, Auber, Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti and he considered their style as a model for his compositions. He tried to amalgamate it with the style of verbunkos and the Hungarian traditional songs of that period. This happened also in the case of other masters, for example, the German Flotow, or the Polish Moniuszko, or the Czech Smetana, the Russian Glinka, who all respectively combined the musical characteristics of their own nation with Italian and/or French and German traditions. *Hunyadi László*, Erkel's second opera premiered in 1844 in the National Theatre in Pest, is one of his best composition embodying his aspiration. The dance scene, named 'Csárdás', inserted into the Act 3 of the opera, titled 'Ármány' (Intrigue), mirrors the same ambitions followed by Tóth Soma, the probable choreographer as well. The kinetic style of the dance modelled that of the 'Első Magyar Körtánc' mentioned in later in this chapter. (In 1850, the title was changed to 'Palotás', which means 'in the palace' in sketchy translation.) At that time the dance scenes were integral parts of the operas, but they were rarely parts of the plot. They were inserted separately between two Acts or added to the end of the opera. In contrast, Erkel tried to give dramatic signifcance to the dance. Hunyadi László and Mária Garay, the main fgures of the opera, are celebrating their forthcoming wedding with their young friends in the garden of the palace, while inside the palace, the king and his landlords are weaving a conspiracy for arresting and executing László. This situation gives the dance huge emotional charge. Since then, 'Palotás' has become very popular independently from the opera. It frequently plays the role of opening dance of national signifcance at the balls and other dance events, even today.

Fig. 7.6 The Polka Mazur, on the front-page of the publication with musical notes, 1864. 150 x 90 mm. Kränzchen-Souvenir, *Polka Mazur für pianoforte von kapellmeister Josef Dubez* (Pest: Rózsavölgyi & Comp., 1862). Image courtesy of the Library of the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy, Budapest.

*Comments*: The picture illustrates a piece of music issued by the most popular music publisher (Rózsavölgyi & Comp.) in Hungary. The music of the Polka Mazur was composed in Vienna by Johann Dubez (1828– 1891) (not Josef Dubez, as printed), the famous Austrian composer and virtuoso music player. The artist (or graphic designer) is not indicated on the front page, but we assume that it was Vilmos Tatzelt, the so-called 'resident graphic designer' for the publisher between 1860 and 1864. The picture portrays an evening ball from the perspective of the open gates of a restaurant or hotel, the location of the dance. We can see the garden of the restaurant with some guests just arriving, and others sitting at the tables on both sides under the trees. The dance might occur inside the building (which has a colonnade and a tympanum in the classical style, and a fag on the top of the roof). Some people might be dancing outside as well, under the trees on the left-hand side, but we cannot be sure because of the small size of the image (115 x 90mm). The whole picture is framed by a decorative wooden construction similar to a greenhouse, and the text crowds around the picture. The publication serves as a ball gift (*kränzchen-souvenir*), as is written on the top of the front page. In the 1860s, these kinds of musical publications — with light dance music in an easy piano forte arrangement — were very popular and appropriate for making music at home. The dance music that was published most often was *Csárdás*, but the Polka, the Polka Mazur, the Mazurka, the Waltz, and the Quadrille featured as well. This fashion came from Vienna, and it was fostered by the appearance of music publishers with more modern techniques in Hungary.

#### Musical Sources

#### *No. 1: Rábaközi stajer tánc [Styrian Dance44 from the Rábaköz Region, a North-Western Region of Hungary], 1813.*

Fig. 7.7 Pálóczi Horváth Ádám, Ó és új mintegy Ötödfélszáz énekek, *ki magam csinálmánya*, *ki másé* [450 Old and New Songs, Composed by Myself and Others] (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1953), pp. 172–73 (notes) and 528–29 (lyrics).

44 The Styrian was a dance name but was also used to refer to Austrians during this period. Given the poetic, political, and often allegorical nature of these songs by Pálóczi Horváth Ádám, the allusional quality in my translation has been retained beneath each line of the original Hungarian text.

#### Lyrics:

*Hát*, *Isten néki! kapjunk rá*, *szokjunk rá a német táncra*; Let it be! Let us take to, let us turn to the German dance; *Bécs után úgyis minket ver a fegyver a szolgaláncra*; After Vienna it is our turn to be chained as slaves by this weapon; *A táncmester nem ismeri*, *nem méri a mi hangunkat*, The dancing master does not know the sound and measure of our music, *Csosztatót vér*, *ne pengessük hát*, *vessük el sarkan*(*t*)*yúnkat.* He plays shufing music, so we stop jingling our spurs, we cast them away. *Szánd meg*, *Árpádom! szánd unokádat!* My Árpád, feel pity for your grandchildren! *Tartsd meg ez vérrel szerzett hazádat!* Keep your homeland obtained by blood. *Már a Rábán túl a nagy sas*, *a kakas körme mivé tett*? What was the great eagle, the nail of the cock doing with us over the Rába (river)? *Stájer tánc végzi a manifestummal kezdett minétet*; The Styrian dance ends the Minuet which was begun by the manifesto;45 *Nyalka csizmám elrombolja a pór szolga-saru formára*; The servant deforms my smart (male) boots into sandals, *Fűzött topányom elszabta francia cipő-kaptára.* He cut my (female) footwear badly like a French shoe.

*Szánd meg Árpádom*, *szánd unokádat*, My Árpád, feel pity for your grandchildren! *Tartsd meg ez vérrel szerzett hazádat.* Keep your homeland obtained by blood.

45 The manifesto refers to that written by the Hungarian aristocracy against Napoleon when he attacked Hungary in 1809.

*No. 2: Ekuzén felel Napóleon [Napoleon answers for the Écossaise], 1813.46*

Fig. 7.8 Pálóczi Horváth Ádám, *Ó és új mintegy Ötödfélszáz énekek*, *ki magam csinálmánya*, *ki másé* [450 Old and New Songs, Composed by Myself and Others] (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1953), pp. 173 (notes), 529 (lyrics).

Lyrics:

*Nem Minétre lépek én*, *Szökni szoktam Ekuszénn*, I do not step for the Minuet, I jump for the Écossaise, *Sok tsatám'*, *vitéz nevem' Ez nyerette meg velem*: I earned victory and fame in battles: *Sőt ez adta Thrónusom'*, *Bétsi Herczeg Asszonyom'*: I gained my throne and my princess from Vienna: *Szerszem elme*, *friss kezek Által épül a Remek.*  The masterpiece is made by a sharp mind and quick hands.

*Nem Minét hozá tehát A 'Stájer litániát*; Thus, the Styrian litany was brought not by the Minuet; *De mind e jó Magyarom! Mind Ipam*, *mind Sógorom*; But all of you my dear Hungarians, together with my father in law and my brother in-law; *Hogy velem ki szálltatok*, *Ekuszét ugrottatok*: You jumped the Écossaise when you came against me: *'S ki ftzamla lábatok*, *Bankóra szorúltatok*: And you sprained your leg, and you became in need of money:

*Tudsz e Sánta! érzeni*? *— Sorsod' az elébbeni*  And now, what can you feel, lame-footed? Your life had been determined *Sok erőltetés*, *kozák*, *'S kontra táncz határozák.*

46 The speaker in this allegorical poem, in which dance forms symbolise nationalities, is Napoleon, and the poem is addressed to the Hungarians.

by earlier being forced to do the Cossack and the Contra dance.   You were riddled with gout, but the money from Vienna revived you.

*Már neked tsak Stájer jó*; *Mellyben nints mutatio*: Only the Styrian is good for you, which has no variation: *Szokj hozzá szegény Nemes! Másra nem vagy érdemes*; Get used to it, poor Noblemen! You do not deserve any other! *Egy 's közös a' Musikás*, *Egy a' szála*, *táncz se más.*  You have only one musician, who plays for everybody for the same dance in the common hall47 *Ha tsak egy régi lejtő Nem lesz a' bú felejtő.*  Unless we dance an old *Lejtő* [Hungarian dance] to comfort us.

*No. 3:Magyar Táncz [Hungarian dance], 1813, ad notam Vissza-nevetés [sung to the melody entitled Laughing Back, or Answer by Laughter]48*

Fig. 7.9 Pálóczi Horváth Ádám, Ó és új mintegy Ötödfélszáz énekek, *ki magam csinálmánya*, *ki másé* [450 Old and New Songs, Composed by Myself and Others] (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1953), pp. 131 (notes), 265 (lyrics).

47 The musician here, symbolically speaking, is the Habsburg Monarchy.

48 *Magyar Táncz* is the name of the song which is sung to the popular melody *Vissza-nevetés*.

#### Lyrics:

dance.

*Azt mondják*, *hogy nem illik a tnc a magyarnak*, They say that dancing does not suit the Hungarian, *Nem ha neki butyogót s fél nadrágot varrnak*, It is true, if they sew knickerbockers and short trousers for him, *De pengő sarkantyúnak*, *kócsagtollas főnek*, But our dance suits the jingling spurs and the cap with egret feather, *Illik*, *gyönygyös pártának*, *Magyar fejkötőnek.* And it suits the pearly headdress and the Hungarian bonnet. *A franc tánc mind negédes*, *mind szeles a német*, French dances are all afected, the German ones are giddy, *Nincsen mutációja*, *mind egyrül varr hímet*, They have no variety; they sew the fgure only on one side,49 *Melancholis az anglus szövevényes tánca*, The entangled dance of the English is melancholic, *Csak az ugrós magyar tánc a Szent Dávid tánca.*  Only the jumping Hungarian dance is worthy of Saint David's

*Comments to Nos. 1–3*: The author of the three songs is Pálóczi Horváth Ádám (1760–1820), a poet, writer, and collector of songs at the turn of the eighteenth century and in the early years of the nineteenth. He came from a family headed by an educated Protestant (Helvetian) priest. His career was that of a community-minded patriot and a so-called 'honoratior' — working as a lawyer, engineer and deputy of the parliament. Scholars of Hungarian music history and literature remember him primarily because of his collection of traditional and popular songs, which aimed to preserve the old Hungarian songs at the turn of the eighteenth century and in the early years of the nineteenth. Additionally, he wrote poems himself and 'applied' music to them in a similar style to the collected songs. His collection was ready for publication in 1813, but, because of its political, anti-Habsburg content, it was prohibited. The entirety of the material, with texts and melodies together, was only published in 1953 as a critical source publication. The three songs presented here are closely related to dance. On the one hand, the texts written by the author mention several dance names

49 Appropriate dress was important to the performance of Hungarian dances. Foreign fashions in dress and dance did not, the poet claims, suit them. Combining here the symbolism of dancing and embroidery to represent each nationality, the poet scorns the lack of variety and simplicity of German dances.

(Steierish, the Minuet, the Écossaise, Cossack, contra dance, and *Lejtő*, a Hungarian couple dance) and the manner of dancing them. On the other hand, the melodies are adaptations of contemporary dance songs — the frst and the second are based on German dance songs, the second, presumably on the music of a Hungarian jumping dance. They were popular as political songs, and, in some areas of Hungary, also as dance music. This is why Pálóczi was chased by the police. The musical transcription he made does not indicate the tempo, the rhythm or the bars. He used old-fashioned, simple techniques for writing music, but it can still be interpreted to a limited degree. Pálóczi's musical transcriptions are therefore very useful sources for music history, dance history and literature.

*No. 4:The Accompanying Music for the "Dance Németes (Landaris) 48 előtt a határőrző székelyeknél" [Germanic Landler before 1848, by Székler Frontier Guards at the Tirolean Border] (Without Lyrics), Early Nineteenth Century.*

Fig. 7.10 Réthei Prikkel Marián, *A magyarság táncai* [Dances of Hungarians] (Budapest: Stúdium, 1924), pp. 232–33.