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Such texts and music have been recorded in this work by the author, which the German-speaking inhabitants of the village Elek still remembered from their childhood. Their value is increased by the fact that the dialect conserved is that of the isolated Group who descend from villages south of Würzburg in northen Bavaria, from where their forefathers immigrated to Hungary in 1724. The songs, rhymes, games etc. brought from their old home, or invented, or possibly learned at school, some not quite original, may still be heard. In the present work the Author does not endeavour to clear the problems of the origin of these songs, but simply to publish the material. In the nursery rhymes Hungarian influence is not present, but four of the texts have a Hungarian equivalent. Two texts are mixed in their language showing the influence of the Rumanians living in Elek. The rest are of German origin. Whether the German popular texts are truly of traditional German origin can not be stated for sure, nor that those which are formulated in literary style, are not. 37 of the texts are in dialect, 9 are mixed in their language, 7 are literary German.
The published 53 children's songs and rhymes may be divided as follows:
I. |
Lullabies |
II. |
Rhymes of grownups to babies |
III. |
Verses with holiday greetings |
IV. |
Games |
V. |
Counting-out rhymes |
VI. |
Rhymes about nature and animals |
VII. |
Mocking rhymes |
VIII. |
Rhymes to practise remembering |
IX. |
Other nursery rhymes |
There is music published to 22 texts; to the others there is no music.
In most of the texts there is a definite rythm. Lines with 3 or 4 beats are most frequent, and these variate fairly rapidly: after a line with drawn rythm a line with quick rhythm follows, or following 3 beats, a line with 4 beats. From the nature of the language follows that syllables which precede the beat e.g. a foreword, are frequent. In a few cases, e.g. No. 11 and 41 the Jambus or the Traichaikus is noticeable. Double rythmus are the most frequent. Further rhyming lines are often added to the original verse of four lines and these types of additions are always in dialect. In the case of a few surprisingly long nursery rhymes it is likely to suppose that several texts are recited together. The remarks of the Author regarding the dialect, the form of verse and the beat, also the descriptions of the games is added to the texts.
Musically the basic tune is that which is typical of children's songs world-wide: the s-l-m notes. The System of the tunes is the following:
I. The kern of the tune is: sl sm (d) in 12 tunes
II. The kern of the tune is triple tune: s m d in 2 tunes
III. The kern of the tune m r d (s) in 4 tunes
IV. The kern of the tune is 6 sounds in 4 tunes
The Germán song about sowing oats is worth special attention for it is this song that might help to solve the problem of the origin of the similar Hungárián song collected by Bartók in 1906 in Doboz.
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