When Prince Franz Rakoczy II (1676-1735), with his young wife, the
Princess Amalie Caroline of Hesse, made his state entry into his capital
of Eperjes, his favourite musician, the court violinist Michael Barna,
composed a march in honour of the illustrious pair and performed it with
his orchestra. This march had originally a festive character, but was
revised by Barna. He had heard that his noble patron, after having made
peace with the Emperor Leopold I in 1711, was, in spite of the general
amnesty, again planning a national rising against the Austrian house.
Barna flung himself at the prince's feet and with tears in his eyes,
cried "O gracious Prince, you abandon happiness to chase nothing!" To
touch his master's heart he took his violin and played the revised
melody with which he had welcomed the prince, then happy and in the
zenith of his power. Rakoczy died in Turkey, where he, with some
faithful followers, among them the gipsy chief Barna, lived in exile.
This Rakoczy March, full of passion, temperament, sorrow, and pain, soon
became popular among the music loving gipsies as well as among the
Hungarian people. The first copy of the Rakoczy March came from Carl
Vaczek, of Jaszo, in Hungary, who died in 1828, aged ninety-three.
Vaczek was a prominent dilettante in music, who had often appeared as
flautist before the Vienna Court, and enjoyed the reputation of a great
musical scholar. Vaczek heard the Rakoczy March from a granddaughter of
Michael Barna, a gipsy girl of the name of Panna Czinka, who was famous
in her time for her beauty and her noble violin playing throughout all
Hungary. Vaczek wrote down the composition and handed the manuscript to
the violinist Ruzsitska. He used the Rakoczy Lied as the basis of a
greater work by extending the original melody by a march and a "battle
music." All three parts formed a united whole.
The original melody composed by Michael Barna remained, however, the one
preferred by the Hungarian people. In the Berlioz transcription the
composition of Ruzsitska was partially employed. Berlioz worked together
the original melody; that is, the Rakoczy Lied proper, and the battle
music of Ruzsitska and placed them in his Damnation de Faust.
The Rakoczy March owes its greatest publicity to the above named Panna
Czinka. The gipsy girl's great talent as a violinist was recognised by
her patron, Joann von Lanyi, who had her educated in the Upper Hungarian
city of Rozsnyo, where as a pupil of a German kapellmeister she received
adequate musical instruction. When she was fifteen she married a gipsy,
who was favourably known as the player of the viola de gamba in Hungary.
With her husband and his two brothers, who also were good musicians, she
travelled through all Hungary and attracted great attention, especially
by the Rakoczy March. Later her orchestra, over which she presided till
her death, consisted only of her sons. Her favourite instrument, a noble
Amati, which had been presented to her by the Archbishop of Czaky, was,
in compliance with her wishes expressed in life, buried with her.
The Rakoczy March has meanwhile undergone countless revisions, of which
the most important is beyond doubt that of Berlioz.
Berlioz composed this march while in Hungary, and had it performed
there. Its first performance at Pesth led to a scene of excitement which
is one of the best-remembered incidents in Berlioz's life. In
consequence of its success, Berlioz was asked to leave the original
score in Pesth, which he did; requesting, however, to be furnished with
a copy without the Coda, as he intended to rewrite that section.
The new Coda is the one always played now, the old one having indeed
disappeared.
Liszt's arrangement of the same march, it may be remembered, led to a
debate in the Hungarian Diet, in which M. Tisza spoke of the march as
the work of Franz Rakoczy II. He was wrong; and so was Berlioz mistaken
in saying that it is by an unknown composer. Its real author, according
to a statement quoted by Liszt's biographer, Miss Ramann, was a military
band master named Scholl. Liszt had really made his transcription in
1840, but refrained, out of respect for Berlioz, from publishing it till
1870.