Composer, Critic. A pioneer nationalist in Hungarian music. Born Michael Brand into a German-speaking family in Boldogasszony, Hungary (now Frauenkirchen, Austria), he studied piano as a youth but was basically self-taught in composition. In 1842 he moved to Pest as a piano teacher. His early music, including the "Grand Duo" for piano (1838) and the Symphony No. 1 (1843), was influenced by Beethoven, but he began to assert his personality with the unusual one-movement Piano Concerto (1844). He then spent a decade (1846 to 1856) working on his Symphony No. 2, a period that saw radical changes in his whole creative outlook. The revolutionary activity that erupted throughout Europe in 1848, and a growing friendship with Franz Liszt, inspired him to promote a nationalist art by making use of traditional Hungarian idioms in his music. These appeared in his Second Symphony, in the operas "The Beautiful Helen" (1861) and "Sleepy" (1862), the orchestral rhapsody "Homage to Kazinczy" (1860), the cantata "Festival of Purification at the River Ung" (1859), and in piano pieces adapted from native songs and dances. To better identify himself with this cause he changed his German name to Mihaly Mosonyi, the surname derived from his native region. He was also active as a journalist and founded the first Hungarian-language music magazine in 1860. Mosonyi is credited with introducing the cimbalom to the symphony orchestra, an instrument subsequently employed by Liszt and such modern composers as Bartok, Kodaly, and Stravinsky. Among his other compositions are seven string quartets, two piano trios, vocal and incidental music.
Composer, Critic. A pioneer nationalist in Hungarian music. Born Michael Brand into a German-speaking family in Boldogasszony, Hungary (now Frauenkirchen, Austria), he studied piano as a youth but was basically self-taught in composition. In 1842 he moved to Pest as a piano teacher. His early music, including the "Grand Duo" for piano (1838) and the Symphony No. 1 (1843), was influenced by Beethoven, but he began to assert his personality with the unusual one-movement Piano Concerto (1844). He then spent a decade (1846 to 1856) working on his Symphony No. 2, a period that saw radical changes in his whole creative outlook. The revolutionary activity that erupted throughout Europe in 1848, and a growing friendship with Franz Liszt, inspired him to promote a nationalist art by making use of traditional Hungarian idioms in his music. These appeared in his Second Symphony, in the operas "The Beautiful Helen" (1861) and "Sleepy" (1862), the orchestral rhapsody "Homage to Kazinczy" (1860), the cantata "Festival of Purification at the River Ung" (1859), and in piano pieces adapted from native songs and dances. To better identify himself with this cause he changed his German name to Mihaly Mosonyi, the surname derived from his native region. He was also active as a journalist and founded the first Hungarian-language music magazine in 1860. Mosonyi is credited with introducing the cimbalom to the symphony orchestra, an instrument subsequently employed by Liszt and such modern composers as Bartok, Kodaly, and Stravinsky. Among his other compositions are seven string quartets, two piano trios, vocal and incidental music.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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