Video taken by Fenyvesi Attila. You can watch another short video from the same night here.
The village of Szék (Sic) was the first stop on a 2-week trip with my friend Fenyvesi Attila.
We set out straightaway to find some musicians to invite to play— Sipos Marci (brácsás, also plays violin very well although he’s modest about it) and Moldován György “Gyurika” (prímás). Gyurika’s father was also a prímás.
For those uninitiated reading this blog, “prímás” (pronounced “pree-mosh”) is a term for the lead violinist in a band. “Brácsás” is the term for a musician who plays the brácsa (pronounced “brot-sha”, also known as kontra) which is an instrument with 3 or 4 strings and a flat bridge, which plays chords.
I enjoyed hearing Széki tunes from these great musicians and also hearing about the work they do when they aren’t playing music. Gyurika works as a contractor, and Sipos Marci works as a shepherd (more on that later).
They emphasized that the amount of live folk music events happening in Szék had been decreasing for years even before the pandemic.
Sipos Marci kindly invited us over to his house a couple of days later. He has a self-effacing, modest demeanor. He started by showing us some photos (see captions above) and also told us some stories about what being a shepherd is like. He splits the shepherding duties with one other guy, and they each will spend a few days at a time out with the sheep.
The most memorable story he told us: When he dreams about his sheep, that means that the weather the next day will be rainy, so he comes prepared with a raincoat. But, one night, he got drunk and didn’t remember dreaming about his sheep, so he was unprepared the next day when it started hailing. In order to get out of the hail, he took shelter under his donkey (!)
These are the types of stories people told us in Szék.
We were joined by Ludányi Noémi, a prímás who moved to Szék from Budapest four years ago. She brought her adorable 2-year-old son, András. András was lying at Noémi’s feet and watching her as she played : )
She grew up in Ecséd, a village near Hatvan, Hungary and started out playing classical music, because népzene (folk music) training wasn’t available there. In secondary school she had the opportunity to start studying folk music in Vác. Her favorite styles are Széki and Palatkai— she’s had the opportunity to play Széki music extensively with Pali Marci and Palatkai music with Kodoba Florin. Pali Marci encouraged her to sing songs while she’s playing.
After playing, Noémi showed us her house, which is up the road from Sipos Marci’s. Like many others in Szék, she’s raising farm animals including pigs, goats and two horses. We watched the sun set over the hills from her field.