Sándor Szokolay

Sándor Szokolay [ ʃa ː ndor sokolɒ.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 early to study music and continued his studies from 1947 to 1950 at the Music School in Békéstarhos continued that followed Kodály's ideas. Szokolay studied 1950-1957 at the Music Academy in Budapest with Ferenc Szabó and Ferenc Farkas. He taught at the music school of Radio Budapest and in 1966 professor of composition and counterpoint at the Academy of Music. He composed several operas, inter alia, three ballets, a piano, a violin and a trumpet concerto, two oratorios, a Requiem in memory of Francis Poulenc. His son Balázs Szokolay was known as a pianist.

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

From the beginning Szokolay composed works for young musicians, by which he bound up his claims as a young composer young performers or listeners. In the late 1950s he composed a few instrumental works, notably a sonata for violin solo and concerto for piano and violin, but soon he put his emphasis on vocal music and dramatic music. He scored an impressive success with the oratorio A Tűz márciusa ( Fiery March 1957-58 ), in which he set to music revolutionary poems of Endre Ady. The same passionate tone and a similar ideological commitment to show for his one- act ballet Az iszonyat balladája ( " Ballad of the abomination ", 1960) from whose subject dates from the Second World War.

One of his greatest works is the opera Blood Wedding ( 1962-64 ), based on Lorca's drama. The dark and dense atmosphere of the drama comes in the opera with impressive clarity. After the premiere in Budapest, the opera was quickly adopted by opera houses in Wuppertal, Zagreb, Bratislava, Brno, Helsinki and Tallinn. His second opera Hamlet marks a clear turning point in his creative path. After the captivating and almost brutal effects in Blood Wedding, he saw it as necessary for a more introverted style look. Szokolays true strengths can be seen in his bold images and the unbridled dynamic power of his music. After the opera Samson ( 1971-73 ), he took a 10-year break before he submitted another work in this genre with Ecce Homo. Between 1973 and 1983 he created next to some instrumental works, a number of oratorios and other vocal works.

After Ecce Homo is Szokolays style renewed: it was based more on folk music and Gregorian chant, struggled to maintain tonality and melody, and continued to compose richly ornamented vocal music. In the last period of his work is Szokolay focused on things like nature, light, fun and confidence. The problems than to find a Hungarian national identity played an increasing role in his choice of subject. In the late 1990s he wrote three symphonies, which he enriched his life's work with a new genre.

Szokolays works have been used in several Hungarian films:

• Alba Regia ... please come
• Golden Dragon
• Good game
• Star eye

Works

• Orbán és az Ördög ( "Urban and the Devil " ), Ballet, 1958
• Az iszonyat balladája ( " Ballad of the abomination " ), Ballet, 1960
• Vérnász ( " Blood Wedding " ), opera by Federico García Lorca, 1962-1964
• Deploration, 1964
• Requiem for Poulenc, 1964
• Hamlet, opera based on William Shakespeare, 1965-1968
• Ecstasy, Ballet, 1970
• Az áldozat ( "Sacrifice " ), ballet, 1970-1971
• Sámson, opera, 1971-1973
• Hommage à Kodaly, 1975
• Csáloka Peter, opera, 1978
• Ecce homo, opera, 1984
• Missa pannonica, a cappella show, 1985
• Szávitri, opera, 1989