“Are you going to play ‘Ó, Felséges Úr, mi kegyes Istenünk’ today? ” the mentor asked.
“Yes, it is really fascinating, but what does it mean?” I replied.
“Oh! I see, it’s written in Hungarian. Ok, it’s Psalm 8, the title is ‘O, majesty Lord, our merciful God’. ‘Úr’ mean ‘Lord’, you will again and again see this word in this organ collection.”
The conversation during one of my organ classes with my mentor (originally from Budapest), and I am so excited to learn organ pieces composed by Hungarian composer – Zsolt Gárdonyi and Zoltán Gárdonyi from him. It is also very interesting to read musical glossary in Hungarian, e.g. Szabadon deklamálva.
After this piece, I move to the piece “Ne szállj perbe énvelem”.
“This melody is not popular at all in Germany. You still can learn it, but I’m not sure if it is very useful here.” the mentor said.
“In which liturgical circumstances is this choral being sung in Hungarian church?” I asked.
“It has the character of ‘Kyrie’.” (Kyrie is a prayer asking for mercy and pardon from God)
“Well, may be during holy communion, or ‘Buß und Bettag’ … ” (‘Buß und Bettag’ is a day dedicate for repentance)
Because of learning this Hungarian organ collection, each organ class make me feel like I am taking part in an organ academy in Hungary. If learning a new language is a key to open the door to a whole new world; so it is the same by learning music of a new wonderful composer. So many new land to discover, and my time is running out.
Here come the question:
“The questions need to be pressed: Is the church prepared to give its musicians room to experiment (and fail), to juxtapose different styles, to educate themselves in music history, to resist the tendency to rely on formulas that “work” with minimum effort and can quickly guarantee seats filled in church-and all this in order that congregational worship can become more theologically responsible, more true to the God who has given us such abundant potential for developing fresh musical sounds?”
Jeremy S. Begbie, Resounding Truth.