Himnusz
Himnusz (Eng. " Anthem " ) is the official name of the Hungarian national anthem.
History
The text of the Hungarian national anthem was created in 1823 by Ferenc Kolcsey as a poem with the subtitle A magyar Nép zivataros századaiból " From the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people" and is in accordance with the spirit of the times and the circumstances of the times marked. Less warlike than other hymns contain the text in its first verse, a prayer to God to help Hungary and to give him a happier future, because " this people has already atoned for past and future ( enough) ."
To Kolcsey set to music popularized Himnusz very soon, the director of the Hungarian National Theatre in 1844 was to organize a contest. Award Winner was the proposal of Ferenc Erkel, the famous Hungarian opera composer.
According to the judgment of professionals Erkel with its melody succeeded in one of the musical 's most valuable national anthems - but it is with the great range of quite difficult to sing about an octave.
During the uprising of 1848/1849, the song spread quickly, but it was not until 1903 that the official status of a national anthem. Article I of the Hungarian Constitution of 2011 called the Himnusz explicitly.
Although on the floor of the Kingdom of Hungary several languages were spoken, always existed only a Hungarian version of the text; also German, Slovaks, Ruthenians, Romanians, etc. had the anthem so sing in Hungarian. On the other hand, there were the numerous minorities of the Austrian half of the empire official versions of the imperial anthem.
The religious content of the text according to the national anthem is still sung every now and then at the end of a church service.
Since the text was hated by the Communist regime of the post-war period, for obvious reasons, an attempt was made in 1949, after the replacement of the old coat of arms, introducing a new anthem. To this end, the writer Gyula Illyés should the text and the famous composer Zoltán Kodály write the melody. The idea of a new anthem was, however, Kodály with the words " What for? The old is good! " One rejected once and for all. Also, do not prospering, the attempt to replace the Himnusz by the more harmless and also popular by Mihály Vörösmarty Szózat.
Of the eight verses of the hymn, only the first is sung. Traditionally, it is the year, before the countdown to the start of the year, played in the Hungarian television and on the radio - the Hungarians wait standing with champagne glass in hand, until the anthem is played to the end, before they drink a toast to the new year.