At the bank of the Tisza

Budapest 1950. Musicians were obliged by the new communist regime to adopt a new style of music “easy to understand and in a state of constant optimism”.

For fear of sanctions, I stopped using dodecaphony. In order to support my family, I accepted a number of orders. Realism being in fashion, I composed cantatas on popular themes: “On the banks of the Tisza” is one of them. — Ferenc Farkas