Rhapsodia carpatiana

In 1940 Hungary was not yet at war but it had already mobilized its army. In order to partly compensate for the people conscripted because of the war, the teachers were assigned to various civilian services during their holidays. I was allotted to the big market hall in Budapest where I had to sort out old documents. Fortunately my boss knew that I was a composer and after a while he closed his eyes to the fact that I was doing something else during working time. It was during this period, in a white coat, that I orchestrated the “Rhapsodia carpatiana” and the “Two Hungarian dances”.

The themes of these works come from music from different short films which I wanted to give a more lasting form. I used Rutenian folk themes from the Ukrainian Carpathians collected by Béla Bartok but not yet published.

The “Rhapsodia carpatiana” had its revival many years later under the direction of my son András, during radio recordings in Hungary, Bratislava and Lausanne”.

— Ferenc Farkas

The “Rhapsodia carpatiana” contains many horn solos which, in 1990, inspired Feren Farkas to compose a reworked version for Alphorn and organ entitled “Echo des Carpathes”.