Sándor Szokolay

Sándor Szokolay (2009)

Sándor Szokolay [ ˈʃaːndor ˈsokolɒ.i ] (born March 30, 1931 in Kunágota , † December 8, 2013 in Sopron ) was a Hungarian composer .

Career

Szokolay was born into a family of musicians, began studying music at an early age and continued his studies from 1947 to 1950 at the music school in Békéstarhos, which followed Kodály's ideas. Szokolay studied from 1950 to 1957 at the Budapest Music Academy with Ferenc Szabó and Ferenc Farkas . He taught at the Radio Budapest Music School and became Professor of Composition and Counterpoint at the Music Academy in 1966. He composed a. a. several operas , three ballets , a piano, a violin and a trumpet concerto, two oratorios and a requiem in memory of Francis Poulenc . His son Balázs Szokolay became known as a pianist.

Until his retirement in 1994 he lived in Sopron near Lake Neusiedl . For his work he received two Erkel prizes, the Kossuth Prize (1966) for the opera Vérnász ("Blood Wedding") and the Bartók Pásztory Prize (1987).

From the beginning, Szokolay composed works for young musicians, combining his demands as a young composer with those of young performers or listeners. In the late 1950s he composed several instrumental works, notably a sonata for solo violin and concertos for piano and violin, but soon he focused on vocal music and dramatic music. He achieved impressive success with the oratorio A Tűz márciusa ( Fiery March 1957-58), in which he set revolutionary poems by Endre Ady to music. The same passionate tone and a similar ideological commitment characterize his one-act ballet Az iszonyat balladája (“Ballad of Abomination”, 1960), the theme of which comes from the Second World War .

One of his greatest works is the opera Blood Wedding (1962–64), which is based on Lorca's play. The dark and dense atmosphere of the drama comes into its own in the opera. After its premiere in Budapest, the opera was quickly adopted by opera houses in Wuppertal, Zagreb, Košice, Brno, Helsinki and Tallinn. His second opera Hamlet marked a clear turning point on his creative path. After the captivating and almost brutal effects in the blood wedding , he saw the need to look for a more introverted style. Szokolay's real strengths are evident in his bold images and the unbridled dynamic power of his music. After the opera Samson (1971–73) he took a 10-year hiatus before he presented another work of this genre with Ecce homo . Between 1973 and 1983 he created a number of oratorios and other vocal works in addition to a few instrumental works.

After Ecce homo , Szokolay's style was renewed: he oriented himself more towards folk music and Gregorian chant , struggled to preserve tonality and melody and continued to compose richly decorated vocal music. In the last period of his career, Szokolay concentrated on things like nature, light, play and trust. The problems of finding a national identity as a Hungarian played an increasing role in his choice of subject. In the late 1990s he wrote three symphonies , adding a new genre to his life's work.

Szokolay's works have also been used in several Hungarian films:

• Alba Regia… please come
• Golden dragons
• Good game
• Star eye

Works

• Orbán és az ördög (“Urban and the Devil”), ballet, 1958
• Az iszonyat balladája ("Ballad of Abomination"), ballet, 1960
• Vérnász ("Blood Wedding"), opera based on Federico García Lorca , 1962–1964
• Deploration , 1964
• Requiem for Poulenc , 1964
• Hamlet , opera based on William Shakespeare , 1965–1968
• Ecstasy , ballet, 1970
• Az áldozat ("The Sacrifice"), ballet, 1970–1971
• Sámson , Opera, 1971–1973
• Homage to Kodály , 1975
• Csalóka Péter , Opera, 1978
• Ecce homo , opera, 1984
• Missa pannonica , a cappella mass, 1985
• Szávitri , Opera, 1989

Web links

Commons : Sándor Szokolay  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Szokolay Sándor - detailed information and catalog raisonné ( Hungarian , English )
• Literature by and about Sándor Szokolay in the catalog of the German National Library
• Sándor Szokolay in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Elhunyt Szokolay Sándor zeneszerző