He Has the Power

Today we visited the Liszt Academy Zeneaedemia for a lecture on music education in Hungary. One of the most important points of emphasis in this lecture was the importance of children and intergenerational cultural sharing.Compulsory education starts at age three. Prior to age three there is nursery school but mothers are given three years of paid maternity leave in which they can stay with their toddler and participate in activities such as Mommy and me music classes that encourage the sharing and socialization of infants and toddlers through the use of folk music. And doing as only we do we were able to rehearse in the awesome Music Hall .

Those of us not familiar with Hungarian composers were also introduced to Hungarian composer, pedagogist, educator, Zoltan Kodaly. When he was asked about the exposure and time at which children should be introduced to music he is said to have responded nine months before birth. Koldolay’s pedagogy believed that the following was important in developing music education:

                Teaching vocal skills

                Teaching relative somatization

                Teaching music reading and writing

                Sharing and passing down folk music

The Swarthmore connection knows no boundaries and He has the power to make the appropriate connections and links in His time and way. While here we met a former Swarthmore professor and alumni at our concert who had invited one of our choir members to speak while here in Budapest.

John Van Til ‘61 former Swarthmore Sociology  Professor is here as part of a Fulbright Fellowship Program. The program with which he is working is designed to help students from 7 different countries workshop and discuss issues of diversity. Sam Brackeen ’68 met with the students to discuss how the Swarthmore College Gospel Choir started. He shared how the choir was initially started in part due to students feeling a longing for a part of home that did not exist at that time at the college. Sam also discussed gospel music and its historical perspective as well as the importance of spirituals globally in gospel music and more central to our goal as an important part of the continued repertoire and history of the Alumni Gospel Choir.

Lunch was at the Magdelena Merlo  followed by a visit to the Kodaly Museum.

Traveling the streets of Budapest by coach we saw the Szechenyi Baths, along with a return pass by Heroes Square. Services at the bath include steam baths, hot tubs, saunas and massages. Open all year round this is one of the biggest and hottest spas in Europe. Budapest was termed the “Spa city” by the international spa congress in 1937 due to the natural endowment of medicinal waters. Artesian springs were explored in 1877 supplying the pools along with mineral waters from later explorations which gushes from depths of 1000 to 1300 meters. The water when reaching the surface is 70-80. The water is said to have many curative properties and to be a treatment for arthritis.

The lack of boundaries was also shown when a couple of visitors to Budapest saw the Swarthmore College Choir sign on our tour bus while walking near the hotel and decided to immediately purchase tickets for the concert this evening. After the concert ended they approached us and informed us that they were from Wallingford, PA. It is amazing but clearly not coincidental that we had to come thousands of miles away to meet someone from home.

Today was our first performance as part of our European Performance Tour. Our audience was standing room only.  We performed at the Benczur Haz. We were on the program with Jazz and More. Jazz and More is an ensemble that sings a wide repertoire of music from showtunes to spirituals and everything in between in both English and Hungarian. Their energy, professionalism and true love for what they did was obvious from the moment we met. They graciously supported us and welcomed us into “their space” and shared in an awe inspiring experience.

The two groups came together to sing the finale song   “Joyful, Joyful”. The stirring rendition merging two choirs from two countries who spoke two different languages was an opportunity and experience unparalleled. The crowd was stirred and the choirs were moved proving that perhaps music really is a universal language. Despite the clear language barrier in many cases the feelings and Presence shared and shown transcended those boundaries and further proved the power of music.

Our day ended with a night cruise down the Danube River on the Sirona. Seeing some of the sights that we had seen over the last two days through the illumination of the night sky was awesome and awe inspiring. To be able to stand at the stern of the boat and know that we were surrounded by Buda on one side and Pest on the other was an experience to behold. It was also interesting to see the renewal and renovation of structures that were virtually destroyed during World War II. The seven bridges that connect the two parts of the country Buda and Pest were all completely destroyed and to be able to ride under them and know that this piece of history was virtually non existent for years following the war. We traveled under the Chain Bridge, a symbol of the city, built in 1839 which took 10 years to construct. It was blown up by the retreating German army in 1945 and was rebuilt four years later. We were also able to see Parliament and the Hungarian Statue of Liberty.

Til next time,

NiYa