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Verbunkos (Hungarian:[ˈvɛrbuŋkoʃ]), other spellings beingVerbounko,Verbunko,Verbunkas,Werbunkos,Werbunkosch,Verbunkoche; sometimes known simply as thehongroise orungarischer Tanz[1] is an 18th-centuryHungarian dance andmusic genre.
The verbunkos is typically in a pair of sections, slow (lassú), with a characteristic dotted rhythm, and fast (friss), with virtuosic running-note passages. In some cases, this slow-fast pair alternates at greater length.[1]
The name is derived from theGerman wordWerbung, a noun derived from the verbwerben that means, in particular, "to recruit"; verbunkos—recruiter. This music and dance was played during military recruiting before the Habsburg emperors, who were alsokings of Hungary, introducedconscription in 1849. A group of a dozenhussars performed the dance in different parts, with the leading sergeant opening with slow movements, then the lower officers joining for more energetic parts, and the youngest soldiers concluding the dance with jumps andspur-clicking.[1]
Despite its name, the melodies originate fromHungarian folk andpopular music and have been sometimes attributed toRomani people (Gypsies), because the accompaniment was usually played by Romani musicians in characteristic Romani style.[1][2][3]
The Romani composerJános Bihari (1764–1827) remains the most well-known composer and interpreter of verbunkos. Eighty-four compositions of his remain.[4] Bihari was aviolinist who played in the court inVienna during the entireCongress of Vienna in 1814. Another composer of verbunkos wasJózsef Kossovits (d. c. 1819).
With the establishment in 1837 of the Hungarian National Theatre in Pest, the verbunkos style began to change under the influence of the first director of the theatre and operatic composer,Ferenc Erkel, whose most successful operas wereHunyadi László (1844) andBánk bán (1861).[4]
Haydn incorporated verbunkos into the "Gypsy Rondo" piano trio, composed in 1795.Béla Bartók'sContrasts (1938), a trio for clarinet, piano and violin, is in three movements, the first of which is named Verbunkos. HisViolin Concerto No. 2 is also an example of verbunkos style.[citation needed]
TheSlovácko verbuňk is also an improvised folk dance in theSouth Moravia and Zlín districts of theCzech Republic, and was inscribed in 2008 on theRepresentative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.[5]
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