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中文EMB Contemporary Music series
One of the most important tasks of our publishing house is the publication and promotion of works by contemporary, that is, 20th- and 21st-century Hungarian composers. This simply-presented, carefully edited contemporary music series serves this purpose by offering high-quality editions of the works of present-day composers from both the younger and the middle generation. The EMB Contemporary Music Series, re-started in the 1990s, has provided a forum for the publication of more than eighty present-day Hungarian compositions and is now the publishers’ most rapidly expanding series.
Balassa: Trumpet ConcertoTrumpet and Piano |
Balogh: Young Wives' SongGłos |
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The Young Wives' Song, written in 1925 by Attila Jozsef (1905-1937) is a poem I found accidentally in the summer of 2010. It struck me on reading it that it can have two different meanings:… |
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Bella: Chuang Tzu's Dream - for violoncello solo and ensemble (2008)Violoncello and various instruments |
Bella: Trance - for violin solo and ensemble (2013)Mixed Ensemble, Skrzypce |
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My composition Chang Tzu's Dream is a homage to the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu (4th century B.C.), who is one of the first important figures in Taoism. His work also influenced Chinese poetry… |
"Trance means an altered state of mind in which a person becomes capable of communicating with spirits by the means of a ritual. Echo like sounds have a significant role in the piece, they were… |
Bozay: Quartetto per archi No. 3String Quartet |
Csapó: A Desert March...Fortepian |
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'Bozay's new quartet is an imposingly splendid work. Its slow second movement reaches almost Bartókian depths. The final rondeau is of elemental force. Each movement is characterized by lucid… |
A Desert March is a protest march and a requiem for European musical culture. This seemingly endless march carries with it subdued or disfigured Western art music quotations (Brahms, Schubert… |
Csapó: Embroidery Patterns on the Cracked Face of the Earth for two clarinets and bassoonWoodwind Trio |
Csapó: Sideways Air on a Black Hole for Clarinet in SibKlarnet |
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The composer writes about his work: My piece entitled „Embroidery patterns on the cracked surface of the Earth” can be imagined somehow as follows: two clarinets and a bassoon „write” beautifully… |
The composer writes the following about this work: 'As if we could only walk sideways in a tilted force field, Petruska-Harlequin in my piece evokes waltz fragments on a capsized 'Titanic'… |
Csapó: Phrag Mental FriezesMixed Ensemble |
Csapó: SutraecitationsChamber Music with Voice |
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Sutraecitations is vocal music composed for tenor (soprano) or bariton (mezzo-soprano) voice, three clarinets, the amplified sounds of piano, an amplifier, loudspeakers, two tuned glasses… |
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Csapó: TundragobelinMixed Ensemble |
Dargay: Albumblatt - 'Városligeti fasor 33.'Flet i fortepian |
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The title refers to image-patterns of summer flowers and vegetation of the Northern Canadian tundra when viewed from a low-flying aircraft. Some characteristic titles among the eleven movements… |
Albumblatt - „Városligeti fasor 33” refers to the title of an unwritten piece that Dargay during his years at the Music Academy planned together with the composer Balázs Futó. The basic idea… |
Dargay: First Words After The LastMixed Trio |
Dinyés: Komment und Zauberflöte for mezzo-soprano, ad lib. flute, violin, violoncello and pianoChamber Music with Voice |
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The composer wrote this piece while still a third-year student at the Music Academy. The basis of the musical process is a formula consisting of 9 notes, created by coding as notes a Christian name… |
The composer writes about his work: „The piece was written for the 2006 Spring Festival. The wording of the commission requested me to try to express what a Mozart opera means to our era… |
Dinyés: Prose for pianoFortepian |
Dubrovay: Violin concerto No. 2 (2011)Violin and orchestra |
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„There’s a woman. She loves me.” The formal devices in Péter Esterházy’s book ‚Egy n’ (‚A Woman’) inspired this piano piece. How many ways can a sentence be continued? How many solutions can there… |
The three movements reflect classical romantic concertos in not only their structure but also their character. The relations between soloist and orchestra echo the dramatic composition of traditional… |
Dubrovay: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (2012)Violoncello and orchestra |
Dubrovay: Five Piano PiecesFortepian |
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The concerto was inspired by István Várdai's play and is dedicated to him. The triple movement structure and the character of the movements follow the patterns of classical concertos, while… |
This work, composed in 1971, was intended for professional performers. It was written with post-Webern, free twelve-tone technique; its sound is characterized by frequent use of all twelve notes… |
Eötvös: da capo (Mit Fragmenten aus W. A. Mozarts Fragmenten) (2014)Mixed Ensemble, Cimbalom, Marimba |
Futó: Just a song for male voice and pianoGłos i fortepian |
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The meaning of "da capo" is to return to the beginning and start again. A musical process, which reaches somewhere but does not end, beginning again and again in a different way, from different basic… |
The song was written in 2003, after the composer’s spells of work with Tom Bogdan. The piece is dedicated to him and to Meredith Monk, in whose ensemble Tom Bogdan regularly appears; as a performer… |
Futó: Müller-Schubert: Der LeiermannChamber Music with Voice |
Horváth: Alterego, Motorway Junction for saxophone quartetSaxophone (more) |
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The piece was written in 2003, commissioned by the Budapest Spring Festival. The process of the work follows the line of the composer’s personal interpretation of the original poem. In this song… |
Both of the works by the young composer (*1976) that appear in this volume are dedicated to the Budapest Saxophone Quartet. Motorway Junction, written in 1996, was the composer's first work in this… |
Horváth: and the ice is cracking around you, tooFlet i fortepian |
Horváth: IntermezzoString Quartet |
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The title of the piece and its musical content refer to the title and musical ideas of a piano piece by the composer and pianist Balázs Futó. In conformity with his way of thinking, striking… |
''The four parts of the piece originate from the piano cycles of Johannes Brahms. The identical nature of the themes is implied in their descending direction, while their differences lie in their… |
Horváth: Quintet for three performersMixed Trio |
Horváth: PolyMixed Ensemble |
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Quintet for three performers was commissioned by the Trio D'Echo. Its strange title refers to the constant, equivalent fivepart nature of the two outside movements, which use the same musical… |
Poly was written as a homage to György Ligeti and his music. Therefore the musical elements and the titles of the movements refer to those artistic, technical, scientific, acoustic creationsand… |
Horváth: Symmetry-Asymmetry for flute, viola and harpMixed Trio |
Horváth: lines, words, letters... to poems by Parti Nagy for mezzo-soprano, violin and bassoonChamber Music with Voice |
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The title of this piece by Balázs Horváth refers to the interdependence of the musical materials. The first movement explores a complex system of rhythms with different symmetrical and asymmetrical… |
This composition written in 2002 has five movements (I: a sort of canon, II: interlude 1, III: (hexameter), IV: interlude 2, V: false copy ). Three of the songs composed to verses by Lajos Parti Nagy… |
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Kocsár: Echoes No. 1Horn |
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In the past decade the Budapest Klezmer Band and the Ferenc Liszt Chamber Orchestra have proved in their joint concerts that the melodic world of the instrumental music of the Ashkenazic Jews… |
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Kocsár: Echoes No. 2Horns |
Kocsár: Echoes No. 3Horns |
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The noted Hungarian composer Miklós Kocsár (b. 1933) composed his Echoes series consisting of four pieces during the 1980s and 1990s. Written for one, two, three, and four horns respectively, each… |
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Kocsár: Echoes No. 4Horns |
Kocsár: Rapsodia per trombone, pianoforte e percussioneMixed Trio |
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The noted Hungarian composer Miklós Kocsár (b. 1933) composed his Echoes series consisting of four pieces during the 1980s and 1990s. Written for one, two, three, and four horns respectively, each… |
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Kocsár: Sonata per violino soloSkrzypce |
Kocsár: SuiteTrombones |
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(Hungaroton HCD 31784) |
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Kocsár: Varianti per violoncello soloWiolonczela solo |
Kondor: Chanson d'Hastieres pour Soprano, cymbalum et corChamber Music with Voice |
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Ádám Kondor was born in Budapest in 1964. He completed his studies at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music, and in 1994 gained his diploma in composition. His most influential teachers were Albert Simon… |
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Kondor: Douze coupsSkrzypce |
Kondor: Hälfte des Lebens - ein Ereignis -Wiolonczela i fortepian |
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This work collects together basic musical gestures, and while not aiming at completeness, the twelve movements nevertheless form a loose cycle. They are compositional studies, insofar as they explore… |
This short, metaphorical work captures the moment when a person casts a summative glance over the past, takes final leave of all that has happened and peers with cautious hope into the future, which… |
Kondor: Joyance - for Saint Julius Hydrophilos for piccolo/flute, harp and string trioMixed Ensemble |
Kondor: Old Bockhampton Tunes on poems by Thomas Hardy for female voice and violinChamber Music with Voice |
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In this piece the musicians have not only instrumental but also acting roles. They have to walk about the performing area in accordance with a specific plan, while uttering words and sentences taken… |
Ádám Kondor compiled this series from poems written by Thomas Hardy after the age of 70, when the poet was mourning the death of his wife. According to the composer, he was fascinated by the figure… |
Kondor: Positions für Bariton und KlalrinetteChamber Music with Voice |
Kondor: Schattenwelt, SchlachtfeldMixed Duet |
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Linked to expressive, passionate verses by Albert Ehrenstein (1886?1950) is a quiet meditation by an unknown 16th-century English poet on the relationship between music and the night. Two languages… |
The set of eight short duets entitled Schattenwelt, Schlachtfeld was composed in 1999 and was influenced by the extraordinary clarinet-playing of Barbaros Erköse (Istambul). Employing simple stage… |
Kondor: Tayil for male voice (narrator) and eight instrumentsMixed Ensemble |
Kondor: Variations of a DoubleKlarnet i fortepian |
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This composition is a paraphrase of a work entitled 'Chi fa notte il giorno' by the contemporary Italian composer Luca Lombardi. It was given its premiere on June 1, 2003 at the Art Gallery… |
Variations on a Double is a real musical leviathan: almost an hour long, it is a sound-monstrosity that makes exceptional demands of the performers, and is the product of an unusual degree of fusion… |
Lendvay: StudyAltówka |
Madarász: Concerto F(L)AFlute and orchestra |
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The piece, commissioned by Eszter Lázár and the Hungarian Radio, was composed in 1995 on occasion of the 50th anniversary of Béla Bartók’s death. Its world premiere was held on 1 October… |
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Madarász: Hasidic StoriesBrass Quintet |
Madarász: Embroidered SoundsChamber Music with Voice |
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Orbán: SonataBassoon and Piano |
Perényi: Introduzione e scherzoWiolonczela solo |
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The premiere of the chamber music work written at the end of 1987 was given in August 1989 in Manchester. With its fast-slow-fast sequence of movements and the manner of its formation this piece… |
One of the greatest contemporary cellists, Miklós Perényi (b. 1948), appears with great success as a soloist and chamber musician on concert stages across the world. In addition to giving concerts… |
Petrovics: Rhapsody for Cello No. 2/aWiolonczela solo |
Sári: To EchoMixed Ensemble |
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Sáry: El viaje definitivo - The final journey to the poem by Juan Ramón JiménezChamber Music with Voice |
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The work (dating from 1992), similarly to the earlier composition entitled Journey to Ixtlan, was composed by Sáry to the poem 'El viaje definitivo' by the famous Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez… |
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Sáry: Chamber Music for Optional EnsemblesMixed Ensemble |
Sáry: MagnificatChamber Music with Voice |
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This collection is a sequel to the composer's earlier book entitled Creative Musical Exercises and is intended to help students and performers (of any level of musical ability) to accept the novel… |
In this work written in 1982 with strict compositional techniques the melodic instrument plays the melodic inversions of the voice part. The fast, even movement is characteristic of both parts… |
Sáry: Dance Music (1987-2000)Mixed Ensemble |
Sáry: Triptichon - in memoriam Ildikó Vékony (2011)Mixed Duet |
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The work was composed in memory of the Hungarian cimbalom player Ildikó Vékony, who died in an accident in autumn 2009. It is based on an earlier piece for solo cimbalom Slow and Brisk (Sáry László:… |
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Sáry: Journey to Ixtlan to a fragment of the poem by Juan Ramón JiménezChamber Music with Voice |
Serei: Album leaves and Interludes for pianoFortepian |
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This composition for soprano and chamber ensemble was inspired by the incomparably beautiful poem El viaje definitivo by the Spanish poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, who was awarded the Nobel Prize… |
The piano series entitled Album leaves is an open piece, like an imaginary keepsake album which is continually added to, and the pages are connected through the owner of the album. The movements that… |
Serei: Three chinese quatrains to poems by Li Tai-Po, in the Hungarian translation by Géza KépesGłos i fortepian |
Serei: Letters from X - Fax from X - For 51 to LIMixed Trio |
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The work by Zsolt Serei entitled Three Chinese Quatrains, for soprano voice and piano, was composed in 1996?97 to verses by the 7th-century Chinese poet Li Tai-Po. The atmosphere of these songs… |
Letters from X was composed in 1981, Fax from X in 2003, and For 51 to LI in 2009. Not only the instruments but also the performers - all three works are dedicated to Zoltán Gyöngyössy and István… |
Serei: L'ombre sur les structures pliéesMixed Ensemble |
Serei: Serenade for horn and chamber ensembleMixed Ensemble |
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The piece was written in honour of Pierre Boulez's 75th birthday. Besides the title, put together like a mosaic from three Pierre Boulez pieces entitled Dialogue de l'ombre double, Structures… |
In view of its arrangement Serenade, written for horn and chamber orchestra of fourteen instruments, may be regarded as a chamber concert. The one-movement piece written on command of horn player… |
Szőllősy: Addio per violino principale e 9 archiString Orchestra |
Szőllősy: Passacaglia Achatio MáthéString Quartet |
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The latest work by András Szőllősy, who celebrated his 80th birthday last year, was given its first performance in May 2002 by the Addio chamber orchestra, within the framework of the contemporary… |
(Hungaroton HCD 31727) |
Szőllősy: Sonata for Solo Violin (1947)Skrzypce |
Tihanyi: Silence of the WindsChamber Orchestra |
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András Szőllősy (1921-2007) was one of the most significant Hungarian composers of the second half of the 20th century, yet his oeuvre has not become as well-known as that of György Ligeti, two years… |
(Hungaroton HCD 31352) |
Tihanyi: Shadow PlayMixed Trio |
Tihanyi: In the Forests of the Night for 15 strings (2015)String Orchestra, String Ensemble |
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(BMC CD 027) |
The work was commissioned by the Budapest Strings and received its first performance on March 21, 2015, where it was conducted by the composer. It is not an orchestral piece per se, but a chamber… |
Tihanyi: Frieze - for viola and ensemble (2015)Mixed Ensemble |
Tihanyi: IrrlichtspielViolin and orchestra |
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The title of the work refers to the ornament-like musical motifs of the solo part. These open the piece and later, during the elaboration of the form, they provide for building blocks… |
Three compositions which belong together were written by Tihanyi in 1991-1992: Winterszenen, Nachtszene (night Scene) and Irrlichtspiel (Will o? the wisp). The Irrlichtspiel composition for violin… |
Tihanyi: Jan Jansson's trip from Denmark to DenmarkFlet |
Tihanyi: Scene for Five CharactersBrass Quintet |
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The composer calls his Scene for Five Characters for brass quintet a mystery-play parody or a mystical comedy, enriched with theatrical components. The four ancient elements (fire, water, earth… |
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Tihanyi: Two Imaginary Dialogues (2011)Chamber Orchestra |
Tihanyi: Linos for harpHarfa |
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The work (completed in December 2011) is commissioned by Vladimir Tarnopolski and his Ensemble Studio for New Music Moscow. Composing this piece it made me meditate on my relationship to Russian… |
Greek mythology seems spontaneously to have offered the figure of linos as the central character in a work for solo harp. (Linos was a poet, believed to be the brother of Orpheus, and according… |
Tihanyi: Eight Invocations to the Lunar PhasesAltówka i fortepian |
Tihanyi: Preludium, Invocation, PostludiumString Trio |
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Eight movements of differing character, which represent the various stages of a coherent astronomical and psychological process of the lunar phases. (Full moon, Waning gibbous moon, Last quarter… |
The first and third movements are adapted from an earlier instrumental composition (Shadowplay), the second one originates from the Eight Invocations to the Lunar Phases. It was premiered on December… |
Tihanyi: Rundherum for piano and string quartetMixed Ensemble |
Tihanyi: Summer MusicChamber Orchestra |
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The piece was composed in the spring of 2012, at the request of the Kempten International Chamber Music Festival. The title Rundherum refers to the staging of the piece and the movement… |
(Hungaroton HCD 31792) |
Vajda: Lightshadow-TremblingKlarnet |
Vajda: Light SonatinaFortepian |
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Gergely Vajda composed Lightshadow-trembling at the age of 20 in 1993. Being a clarinettist, he was interested in the possibilities of both traditional and modern ways of playing. Noise elements… |
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Vajda: Sonata for Solo ViolaAltówka |
Vajda: Sonata for Solo VioloncelloWiolonczela solo |
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This virtuoso concert piece was originally composed for viola in 2004. (The version for violoncello was written in 2006, and the version for violin in 2010.) As with other works by János Vajda… |
A virtuoso concert piece, a transcription for violoncello of the Solo Sonata composed for viola in 2004. As in other works by János Vajda, in the well-proportioned structure of the solo sonata… |
Vajda: Sonata for Solo ViolinSkrzypce |
Vidovszky: 12 String QuartetsString Quartet |
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This virtuoso concert piece is a violin transcription of the Solo Sonata composed for viola in 2004. As with other works by János Vajda, the well-proportioned structure of the solo sonata… |
"Based on the seriousness and sophistication of the undertaking, the 12 pieces could perhaps be compared to Ligeti's series of etudes. Each starts from a basic musical element, form of movement… |
Vidovszky: German DancesString Quartet |
Vidovszky: Nine Little Greeting Chorales to KurtágFortepiany |
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The work, dated 1989, appears to be a pure stylistic exercise with the Schumannian and Brahmsian patterns of "true" romanticism. Vidovszky creates a kind of "minimal music" from the abstraction… |
Arrangement of nine Protestant chorale melodies known from the works of J.S. Bach in two-piano and one-piano versions. The piece was created in 1996, to greet the 70-year-old György Kurtág, who often… |
Vidovszky: Autres gymnopédiesFortepian |
Vidovszky: ReverbChamber Music for Strings and Piano |
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The author writes about his work: "The composition was written in 1994 and premiered the same year in Pécs, at the House of Arts. I wrote these three short piano pieces as a gift to the musicians… |
''In this composition I was not searching for the conventional possibilities of the piano quintet, but for the acoustic distance between the two types of sound. The sounds of the piano are not meant… |
Vidovszky: Soft Errors for chamber ensembleMixed Ensemble |
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László Vidivszky's work entitled Soft Errors (1989) might be described as a serendipitous find: as a result of a 'chance computer event', from the fragments of music it contained Vidovszky's computer… |
Jávori: Klezmer-Suite (1999)
