Today’s we’re listening to Hungarian folk music. My friend Olivia Szabo is from a small industrial town on the river in Hungary (Dunaújváros – which roughly translates to “new town on the Danube”). I met her when she moved to the US in 1999. Her daughter, Gaia, is about to start Kindergarten and her son, Galen, is entering the terrible twos. Olivia teaches English to international students and what she enjoys the most about living in the US is the diversity. She shares with us some popular folk music from Hungary: enjoy!
Becky: I read a great article on PBS Kids that talked about what music kids should listen to, and how listening to a variety of genres may help them learn better. In the article, Peggy Durbin (a music educator at Kindermusik in Columbia, MD) suggested having children interact with the music by clapping, dancing, and playing instruments. As for choosing the music
The best musical library for your child includes a wide variety. [Lili] Levinowitz (cofounder of Music Together and Professor of Music Education at Rowan University of New Jersey) compares music you play to the foods you serve: you don’t want your child eating only mac and cheese, or similarly, listening to the same CD all the time. “Create an ear food buffet,” she says. Your musical menu should consist of songs from your culture and those around the world, as well as music that you love.
I discovered Hungarian folk music at a local international festival. The light, energetic, and colorful music is produced by flutes, horns, the Hungarian bagpipe called duda, zither aka citera, and the most important instrument: the violin. Continue reading →
