FOLKWORKS - TWO VOICES ONE SOUL ONE BODY : ROMANI MUSIC and JEWISH MUSIC - an excellent article by Donald Cohen who is a book author focused on music of the Balkans.
Excerpt:
There are, in fact, two different kinds of Romani music: that which they create for themselves and that created for their non-Roma audiences. This was true almost everywhere, but even more prevalent in Eastern Europe, and nowhere was this more true than in Hungary.
In mid-nineteenth century Hungary the music so endearing to the hearts of native Hungarians was the urban music created and performed by ‘Gypsy’ orchestras. This music, lauded and imitated by the non-Roma audiences and musicians alike, was referred to as style Hungrois. To be found everywhere, in bars and cafes, and at celebrations such as weddings, christenings and birthdays, this music, which included the popular songs and art compositions of both Roma and non-Roma musicians, was wildly popular not only with the poorer and middle classes but it often had the patronage of the local aristocracy.
In the late eighteenth century, when Hungary was part of the Hapsburg Empire, Roma ensembles were employed to create and perform a new dance music called verbunkos; both the dance and the music that accompanied it were specifically designed to stimulate the patriotism of Hungarian youth, thus luring them to enlist in the Emperor’s armies. The verbunkos began as a slow and rhythmic dance, gradually increasing in speed and intensity to quick, stirring, tempos. It is this musical form that developed in the mid-nineteenth century into the wildly popular czardas of Hungary’s bars and cafes.
