The Album:

During the pandemic of 2020, Luanne Homzy started studying Hungarian Gypsy music over Skype with the esteemed Miklós Lakatos. Having learned so much repertoire so well and so quickly, Mr. Lakatos suggested she record an album with his orchestra. Due to travel restrictions, Ms. Homzy recorded from her home, and then the Miklós Lakatos Gypsy Orchestra recorded from a studio in Budapest. Enjoy this collection of Hungarian and Eastern European music, full of virtuosity and emotion.



A Brief History of Gypsy Music and Gypsy Musicians in Hungary

The coffeehouse Gypsy music, or shortly Gypsy music, or Hungarian “nóta” (song) is folk style music played by Hungarian Gypsies for the purpose of entertainment. The Gypsy music/Hungarian song's name duality illustrates the genre’s dual cultural connection.

The Gypsy musicians performed in some of the most prestigious courts of Hungary shortly after their appearance in the country. We know from Antonio Bonfini (an Italian humanist and poet who spent the last years of his career as a court historian in Hungary with King Matthias Corvinus) that there were Gypsy musicians playing not only in the courts of Queen Beatrice but also in the courts of Tsar Nicholas and the Archbishop of Esztergom. The Gypsy musicians had an important role in the lives of the aristocracy and the lower ranked nobility during the following century as well.

The beginning of today’s Gypsy music development can be estimated to be the middle of the XVIIIth century. The first known instrumental Gypsy orchestra was the orchestra of Czinka Panna, which consisted of a violinist, a violist, a double bassist and a cimbalom (Hungarian dulcimer) player. This is the required setup of a Gypsy orchestra (band) even today.

In Hungarian, the players are called: the prímás (first violin - or prime violin), terc (2nd violinist - literally “third”, as in the musical interval), Bratsch (viola - or the German word for viola, which comes from the italian word brachia, meaning “arm), nagybőgő (double bass - or literally “big moo”) and cimbalom.

Also regarded as Gypsy “aristocracy”, the Gypsy musicians had a significant role in the cultural life during the Reformation.



The different types of Hungarian Gypsy songs

The “nóta” or “hallgató”, asztali nóta (table song), kesergő (lament): slow melody, song with parlando interpretation, rubato, and feeling of timelessness. Notá are almost always vocal songs with lyrics, whether played with a vocalist, or instrumentally with the prímás playing the vocal line, and are rarely composed without lyrics that can be sung.

Andalgó (Lassú esztamos, trans. Slow Offbeat)
A song, or composition with a slow, contemplative, dreamy character. A slow dance, slower part of the Körmagyar (a type of old Hungarian dance), and in some instances the more moderate part of the dances: verbunkos and palotás. The andalgó is the part that comes before “friss". (They almost always have lyrics that can be sung.)

Csárdás: Songs with regulated rhythm, usually in 4/4, but always even number of beats (duple-meter). (They almost always have lyrics that can be sang.)

Friss csárdás or in short, friss (“fresh”). A version of the csárdás that has faster rhythm and esztam (off beat) accompaniment. (They almost always have lyrics that can be sang.)

Verbunkos formely called toborzó or magyar. A song originally accompanying a solo or group of male dancers, with an even number of beats (duple-meter), slow, but with a tight rhythm and dűvő accompaniment.

Other genres. Besides the aforementioned, the repertoire includes works of Romantic composers - Ferenc Liszt ,Johannes Brams, Vittorio Monti, Sarasate, and others - played in the Gypsy style, as well as popular songs, marches, waltzes, polkas and other dances of those days. Well known operettes, opera excerpts, and later the fashionable film music also found their place in the repertoire.

The Gypsy music of those days influenced and inspired the greatest composers and soloists: Haydn, Liszt, Brahms, Berlióz, Sarazate, Ravel, Enesco, Kodály (and others).




Track List:

1. Hungarian Songs in A Major

a. Cifrás nóta - (Lakatos Miklós)
The meaning of the word “cifra”: decorative, improvisatory element of music, dance. Proving the audience the artist’s control over his instrument (bravura) and technical knowledge (technique), a simple song embellished with runs, double stops, and technically difficult passages.

b. Öreg csárdás (Old csárdás) - (unknown composer)
A very old csárdás, which survived by being passed down through dynasties.

c.Friss csárdás- (unknown author - composer)



2. Hungarian Songs in C# Minor

a. Nótá: Amióta meg láttalak nincs nyugta a szivemnek (trans. My Heart Has No Rest Since I Saw You) - (unknown author - composer)

b.Andalgó (unknown author - composer)

c .Csárdás: Asszony kéne már a házhoz (trans. This House Needs a Woman) -Hevesi József-Sz. Nagy Endre

d. Friss: Prímás fantázia részlet, (excerpt)( Lakatos Sándor) Lakatos Sándor (Budapest, 1924. december 17. – Budapest, 1994. május 24.) Liszt Ferenc-díjas cigányprímás (Gypsy violin leader - concertmaster), aMaster of Folk Art



3. El foglak feledni, mást fogok szeretni (trans. I will forget you, I will love someone else) - id. Járóka Sándor (Kisvárda, 1922. február 16. – Budapest, 1984. április 11.) prímás(violin leader - concertmaster), zenekarvezető(conductor), a Master of Folk Art



4. Szevernyeski - (unknown author - composer )
Bulgarian-South Slavik dance from the Southern border of Hungary



5. Hungarian Songs in A Minor

a. Nóta: Elmegyek az életedből (trans. I will leave from your life) - (Selymesi Rezső-Erős Béla

b. Csárdás ( unknown author - composer )

c. Friss ( unknown author - composer )



6. Russian Songs in E Minor

a. Dobri Dien Romale (trans. Have a Good Day, Romani) - Traditional

b. Ya Stretil Vas (trans. I Met You) - Old Russian Romance

c. Joseph Joseph


7. Serbian Kolos


8. Miért fáj úgy a szív (trans. Why Does My Heart Hurt So Much) - (Lakatos Miklós)

9. Hungarian Songs in B Flat Minor
a. Nóta
b.Csárdás
c. Csárdás
d. Friss



About Luanne Homzy:

Internationally acclaimed American/French-Canadian violinist Luanne Homzy is highly sought-after for her technical facility, sensitive musicality and expansive versatility.

Based in Los Angeles, she works as a studio musician, an arranger/composer. She is the leader of the classical California String Quartet, co-leader of Project:CSQ, a rotating roster of artists that record, perform, compose music of different genre, and of the “dazzling” Trio Dinicu, an ensemble performing their own interpretations of Gypsy/Romani music, Eastern European Folk, Classical, Jazz, and Gypsy Jazz.

Trained classically at the Colburn School with Robert Lipsett and Arnold Steinhardt, and obtaining her Masters at the Hamburg Hochschule, she has won First Prize winner of the International Chamber Music Competition Hamburg in 2009 (with the Saguaro Piano Trio), and of the Canadian Music Competition, and recently, 2nd Prize of the Roby Lakatos International Improvisational Violin Competition.

Equally at home in many genres, whether it be classical, jazz, rock, gypsy or Eastern European folk music, she has appeared with artists such as Roby Lakatos, the John Jorgenson Quintet, Florin Niculescu, and Tcha Limberger.

In addition to her performing career, Ms. Homzy composes and arranges jazz, popular, classical, folk, and world music.. Recent works include her composition "Un Souvenir d'hiver" commissioned by the California String Quartet, her string quartet arrangement of "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay, and her orchestral arrangement can be heard on Kid Cudi's track "Kitchen”. She was also the orchestrator for HBO’s show “Into The Storm."

As a studio musician, she has recorded violin and viola for hundreds of projects, and can be heard (and occasionally seen) on movies and TV shows such as "The Ellen Degeneres Show", "A Star is Born", "Rogue One: A Starwars Story", "Lalaland", "Glee", "Rent: Live on Fox", "The Pirates of the Carribean" and on albums by Leonard Cohen, Seal, Lady Gaga, Idina Menzel, to name a few.

Luanne Homzy, originally from Montréal, studied with Robert Lipsett and Arnold Steinhardt on a full scholarship at the prestigious Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, and later obtained her Masters Degree at the Hamburg Hochschule.




Album Notes: Miklós Lakatos