Die Lieder des Wanderers

No one had yet set a work of Milán Füst to music. I only knew of this writer and poet’s existence through some parodies he had written in a leading literary magazine. We met for the first time at the end of 1949, I instantly liked the old master. He offered me several of his books which I read avidly. The violence of his prose and the robustness of his rhetoric aroused in me the desire to get to know him better.

In 1956, I set two of his poems to music with piano accompaniment : “Útra kelni” (Taking to the road) and “Tavaszi dal” (Spring song). At that time Füst was sick and couldn’t leave his home. I also knew he didn’t have a piano. In order to present him my two songs, I wrote a new accompaniment for flute, viola and cello. The poet was very surprised when I gave him the score that I had dedicated to him. He leafed through it with emotion, wondering how we were going to interpret it. He understood immediately when the musicians accompanying me took out their lectern.

I composed a third song, “A kalandor” (The adventurer). The whole piano version was translated later into German and published under the name “Die Lieder des Wanderers”. — Ferenc Farkas