Hungarian Folk is Rock Music

British Sea Power's Do You Like Rock Music? baffled critics because the critics thought that the BSP boys were trying to play rock music. Instead, in the liner notes BSP noted that they were, in essence, equating rock music with goodness. And much of the album (notably No Lucifer) dealt with the battle of good and evil, with BSP coming down on the side of deer, old bicycles, darker skies, the wind in your hair, innocence, and immigration.

This somehow relates to my experience watching Hungarian Folk music and dancing. I promise.

Around the corner from my hotel in Budapest, is an old building. (That's a joke. Everything is an old building.) In this particular old building on the European second floor (American third floor) is a theater and in that theater, a Hungarian Folk Ensemble performs nightly. The theater is full of tourists and not just any tourists, but Old Tourists on Cruises. Budapest is one of their Port of Calls and apparently, part of the deal is going to see this Folk Ensemble. So, you would think that this would just be a Grade A tourist trap, like going to the Bar F in Cowboy Town, USA and watching three men in chaps, cowboy hats, and bandanas play Old Suzanna on the guitar with some funny lyrics while you eat pork and beans and wish you were dead. But you would be completely and utterly and gloriously wrong.

Because these Folks bring it and bring it hard. They seem unable to do anything at half-speed and how could they? Hungarian Folk Dancing isn't like square dancing or maypole dancing or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers dancing. It involves boot stomping, boot slapping, hand clapping, thigh whacking, ground slapping, chanting, and yelling. Some times, it almost seems like they are trying to sing to the music, but then it goes back to chanting. The women periodically unleash these "YEEEE-AH"s that pierce your soul. But, in the end, the dancers are a mere distraction away from the musicians.

The musicians are exactly what you would imagine folk ensemble would look like if you pulled them from a Hungarian village one hundred years ago. Mostly middle age, some older and pot-bellied, only one slightly younger, most with thinning hair, and one guy who looks like he could be a vampire, skinny, with thinning, slicked back long hair, a weak goatee, and a sallow complexion. At first sight, it looks like a farce. And then they play and they play with the intensity of the best rock bands I have seen. No sheet music. Each takes turns being the lead and as the lead, he sets the pace and the others watch to keep up. And when those dudes take solo turns, they shred like the great guitarists. The clarinet might be the worst instrument ever created, but this Hungarian absolutely destroyed his solo in Brahms' Hungarian Dance. I have never seen anyone yield a reed instrument in any comparable way. Left me stunned. The violinists played like their fingers were on fire, like the devil was chasing them, like the entirety of their life, the tragedies and the joys, were all being expressed through their instrument.

They joked with each other, they pushed each other to play faster, they played because they loved the music and it just so happened that an audience was watching. It was thrilling. Even if there had not been an audience, I think they would have played the same way.

It was Rock Music.