Gergely Agócs and Fonó Orchestra – Paternal branch / CAFe 2017

Featuring: Xanifa Abubakirova – voice, doromb, Azat Atangulov – voice, quray, Halilova Kusum Bijolatovna – voice, Bolatov Makhmud Muratovich – voice, agach-komuz, Islam Satyrov – voice, dombra, Arslanbek Soltanbekov – voice, dombra, Taulula Choir

The members of Fonó Orchestra: Andrea Navratil – voice, Gergely Agócs – voice, tárogató, Hungarian pipe, flutes, zither, Tamás Gombai, István “Szalonna” Pál – violin, Sándor D. Tóth – viola, hurdy-gurdy, ütőgardon, zither, Zsolt Kürtösi – double bass, cello, accordion, Bálint Tárkány-Kovács – cimbalom

Zoltán Kodály finished his essential study, The Hungarian Character in Music (1939), with these words: “One of our hands is held by the Nogais, the Votyaks, the Cheremis, the other by Bach and Palestrina. Can we join these distant worlds? Rather than a ferry tossed between Europe and Asia, can we be a bridge, or even a piece of land contiguous with both? It could keep us busy for another thousand years.”

Kodály looked for the kin of Hungarian folk songs (encouraged by similar melodies in Mari, Chuvash, Tatar and Bashkir songs) in the folk music of the Ugric and Turkic peoples of the steppes of Eurasia and the surrounding regions.

Fonó Orchestra and their Karachay, Balkar, Nogai, Bashkir and Kumyk friends will explore the parallels between Hungarian folk music and the musical folklore of Kipchak Turkic peoples.