1 00:00:01.16 --> 00:00:06.96 My heart aches so many times when I’m leaving home and I see them. 2 00:00:07.00 --> 00:00:11.60 Acquaintances, good musicians. 3 00:00:11.64 --> 00:00:13.60 They’re crying. 4 00:01:08.80 --> 00:01:11.52 It's so deep inside the people. 5 00:01:11.56 --> 00:01:12.84 The music. 6 00:01:13.68 --> 00:01:18.28 It’s really their everything, they put their lives into it. 7 00:01:18.32 --> 00:01:26.28 And those parents who raise their children as musicians, they do everything for them. 8 00:01:26.32 --> 00:01:29.12 And then to end up like this? 9 00:01:40.20 --> 00:01:45.04 An old man invited me to play on the streets, and I felt ashamed. 10 00:01:46.24 --> 00:01:51.04 I felt ashamed because I was always a part of a good band. 11 00:01:56.32 --> 00:02:02.80 A lot of good musicians in Budapest are struggling. 12 00:02:13.04 --> 00:02:19.20 I always wanted to know more about the accompaniment of an orchestra, 13 00:02:19.24 --> 00:02:26.72 and as time passed, I learned to play music and I went to an orchestra. 14 00:02:26.76 --> 00:02:30.52 To Kálmán Oláh’s band in the Kulacs restaurant. 15 00:02:30.80 --> 00:02:38.64 After I got out of the army I stayed at Kulacs restaurant on a normal wage for 18 years. 16 00:02:38.68 --> 00:02:45.28 It was very good, I enjoyed myself, and I learned a lot from the good old musicians. 17 00:02:49.64 --> 00:02:59.12 I think everyone today, both young and established musicians will go abroad. 18 00:02:59.16 --> 00:03:08.64 Because if there’s no change they will all leave this country. 19 00:03:10.32 --> 00:03:15.12 There’s one or two places where the good young violinists 20 00:03:15.16 --> 00:03:24.12 like Lajos Sárközi or Sándor Déki-Lakatos can still make a living. 21 00:03:26.44 --> 00:03:29.28 I have only one son, what do I want him to become? 22 00:03:31.72 --> 00:03:34.12 A musician. 23 00:03:54.00 --> 00:03:58.08 To me the music? That’s my everything. 24 00:04:09.36 --> 00:04:16.76 I can’t really explain it, but I know it’s just like breathing to me. 25 00:04:31.56 --> 00:04:34.92 He was six and a half years old when he started playing the violin. 26 00:04:34.96 --> 00:04:41.08 After the preparation year, at the age of eight, he started the first year of music school. 27 00:04:41.72 --> 00:04:46.88 What can I say, he didn't want it. He was nervous and angry because he had to practice. 28 00:04:46.96 --> 00:04:48.68 I threw the violin on the ground. 29 00:04:48.76 --> 00:04:52.28 Well, you didn't throw it on the ground, you threw it on the bed 30 00:04:52.32 --> 00:04:55.88 saying that you were not going to do this. 31 00:04:55.92 --> 00:05:00.32 And then, he slowly started to accept it. But it was very difficult. 32 00:05:01.32 --> 00:05:03.64 He's [grandfather] 26 years old here. 33 00:05:06.48 --> 00:05:08.12 Here's me and dad. 34 00:05:08.20 --> 00:05:09.48 Oh, here. 35 00:05:09.52 --> 00:05:14.00 Of course, classical music is like air to me. 36 00:05:14.04 --> 00:05:17.88 But if I really want to have fun and enjoy myself. 37 00:05:17.92 --> 00:05:24.32 I meet my friends, Lajos and Rudolf Sárközi, Elemér Duka or anyone else 38 00:05:24.44 --> 00:05:28.80 and the first thing we listen to is classical music 39 00:05:28.84 --> 00:05:34.72 or we listen to Gypsy music, or we play Gypsy music for ourselves. 40 00:05:36.64 --> 00:05:39.88 We were born with this. We grew into this thing 41 00:05:39.88 --> 00:05:42.48 because we experienced it from our parents. 42 00:05:42.68 --> 00:05:51.76 My mum tried to create the best situation to allow us to live with human dignity, 43 00:05:51.80 --> 00:05:56.00 just like most of the Hungarians. That’s how we lived our lives. 44 00:06:00.84 --> 00:06:05.72 So I can’t really define what nóta is about. 45 00:06:05.88 --> 00:06:07.72 Because it’s about everything. 46 00:06:07.76 --> 00:06:09.24 It's about life. 47 00:06:09.32 --> 00:06:13.40 All I can say is it's about real life. 48 00:06:18.88 --> 00:06:23.44 I was 15 or 16 when I started to like Gypsy music. 49 00:06:24.88 --> 00:06:28.48 A famous Hungarian prime violinist made me like it. 50 00:06:29.28 --> 00:06:30.96 He was Sándor Járóka Jr. 51 00:06:31.80 --> 00:06:35.28 He asked us which nóta was our favourite. 52 00:06:36.08 --> 00:06:38.04 I said I didn’t have one. 53 00:06:38.08 --> 00:06:41.28 He scolded me "Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? 54 00:06:41.32 --> 00:06:45.08 You’re from a musician family, and you don’t know any nóta?" 55 00:06:46.16 --> 00:06:47.68 And he asked me "Are you in love?" 56 00:06:47.72 --> 00:06:49.04 I said "Yes". 57 00:06:49.08 --> 00:06:53.20 So he told me the lyrics of a nóta and sang it to me while playing the guitar. 58 00:06:53.24 --> 00:06:59.76 I was taken, and from then on I started listening to it. 59 00:07:02.80 --> 00:07:06.60 Now that Gypsy music is in this state, it’s hard. 60 00:07:06.64 --> 00:07:08.64 I don’t know what will happen 61 00:07:08.68 --> 00:07:12.16 but I personally want it to survive. 62 00:07:12.24 --> 00:07:17.56 And if it was up to me it would survive, but it doesn’t only depend on me. 63 00:07:17.60 --> 00:07:22.60 There are many people my age who don’t imagine themselves 64 00:07:22.64 --> 00:07:28.40 playing in restaurants and they stay away from it 65 00:07:28.48 --> 00:07:32.68 even if it’s just a small gig. 66 00:07:42.84 --> 00:07:48.44 But whatever happens to the Seven Talents [band], 67 00:07:48.56 --> 00:07:53.12 I’d like to obtain a position in a symphony orchestra as a violinist 68 00:07:53.12 --> 00:07:55.24 and make a living doing that. 69 00:08:00.56 --> 00:08:10.92 Musicians have this tradition that when a child is born and he is taken home from the hospital, 70 00:08:13.04 --> 00:08:20.76 the dad and the granddad meet the baby on his first day home. 71 00:08:20.80 --> 00:08:26.44 And they put the instrument, the bow, in his hand. 72 00:08:26.48 --> 00:08:32.36 And the one that grabs the bow of the violin will become a violinist. 73 00:08:33.88 --> 00:08:37.16 The one that grabs the contrabass bow will become a contrabassist. 74 00:08:39.04 --> 00:08:45.00 That was true of Lajos and he held it like a violinist. 75 00:10:26.08 --> 00:10:30.08 My father is a musician, a Gypsy musician 76 00:10:30.20 --> 00:10:33.36 and I grew up with that since I was a baby. 77 00:10:33.52 --> 00:10:36.64 Gypsy music was being played. My father was practicing 78 00:10:36.76 --> 00:10:42.84 and I always tried to copy my father, so to me Gypsy music was first. 79 00:10:43.04 --> 00:10:46.56 And later, of course, they introduced me to the other genres. 80 00:10:46.60 --> 00:10:52.20 But since this was embedded in me at home, it was my first musical experience. 81 00:11:13.36 --> 00:11:19.48 It is our music. This is the Hungarian people’s music, and we will preserve this treasure 82 00:11:19.56 --> 00:11:24.48 because it’s important not only to the Gypsy people, 83 00:11:24.56 --> 00:11:29.48 but it’s a very important thing for the Hungarian people 84 00:11:29.52 --> 00:11:31.60 because it is a part of our culture. 85 00:11:47.72 --> 00:11:52.24 It’s such a unique thing in the world that only we, Hungarians, know it. 86 00:11:52.36 --> 00:11:56.96 And the truth is that no one else can play it except for us, 87 00:11:57.00 --> 00:11:59.60 even if we write down the notes, not even then, 88 00:11:59.64 --> 00:12:01.60 because they don’t have that feeling inside. 89 00:12:01.64 --> 00:12:08.76 The musical feeling is there, yet the Hungarian taste of life is missing. For example 90 00:12:08.88 --> 00:12:15.00 Hungarians make merry by weeping. I can describe the whole thing with that. 91 00:12:16.08 --> 00:12:17.80 Let's figure out an order. 92 00:12:18.00 --> 00:12:19.40 Brahms should be the last one. 93 00:12:19.44 --> 00:12:20.68 No. 94 00:12:20.76 --> 00:12:22.12 No? Then let's start with that. 95 00:12:22.16 --> 00:12:23.08 No. 96 00:12:24.80 --> 00:12:26.16 We talked about that yesterday. 97 00:12:43.80 --> 00:12:45.44 The tempo is not the same here. 98 00:12:45.48 --> 00:12:46.96 Much faster. 99 00:12:48.48 --> 00:12:50.96 Almost, yes. Seriously. 100 00:13:26.76 --> 00:13:29.96 So you can say that it’s such an old thing 101 00:13:30.08 --> 00:13:36.64 that it has become a common way of life among the Romungro Gypsies. 102 00:13:36.76 --> 00:13:40.24 They play Hungarian music and they make a living out of it. 103 00:13:42.08 --> 00:13:44.28 It’s really been like that for several hundred years now. 104 00:13:44.36 --> 00:13:49.72 For the Romungro Gypsies this Hungarian music is the thing that defines our lives. 105 00:14:15.04 --> 00:14:18.00 Different restaurants are closing down 106 00:14:18.04 --> 00:14:20.40 and better and better musicians are ending up on the street 107 00:14:20.44 --> 00:14:22.72 because they don’t have a job. 108 00:14:36.84 --> 00:14:44.96 They lose everything - their job and their traditional way of living. 109 00:14:45.32 --> 00:14:53.92 It’s been passed on through generations, and everyone grew up with that. 110 00:15:05.20 --> 00:15:09.80 And the Roma can’t find jobs, there are no opportunities. 111 00:15:10.16 --> 00:15:13.88 Discrimination, even though they are nice people and good musicians. 112 00:15:13.96 --> 00:15:17.60 They dress cleanly, as you can see in the restaurants, 113 00:15:17.64 --> 00:15:20.68 and their performances are amazing. 114 00:15:22.08 --> 00:15:27.36 And somewhere, still, when they turn away, people say "Gypsy". 115 00:15:30.12 --> 00:15:36.08 My cousin and I started a band that plays different genres of music 116 00:15:36.12 --> 00:15:42.08 which can be a starting point for young people. 117 00:15:42.16 --> 00:15:45.68 And we’re trying to create opportunities for ourselves. 118 00:15:51.04 --> 00:15:54.16 Music brings people together so much so 119 00:15:54.36 --> 00:15:56.40 that there’s no discrimination. 120 00:15:56.44 --> 00:16:02.08 Despite the fact that I'm a Gypsy, when I'm playing, people still enjoy themselves. 121 00:17:02.56 --> 00:17:05.24 Hungary’s gem is Gypsy music. 122 00:17:05.48 --> 00:17:07.76 Tradition has to be preserved. 123 00:17:08.36 --> 00:17:13.80 Hungarians like Gypsy music very much and tradition has to be preserved. 124 00:17:17.64 --> 00:17:21.76 You know, my son left his violin in the family, a very serious piece. 125 00:17:23.28 --> 00:17:29.16 And my grandchild said "Mama, I will take good care of this 126 00:17:30.96 --> 00:17:37.36 because my son might inherit from my father and he might become a violinist." 127 00:17:39.36 --> 00:17:43.24 He said "Mama, this is something only I would talk about, 128 00:17:44.32 --> 00:17:47.20 but actually, I have it deep in my heart. 129 00:17:47.24 --> 00:17:51.04 Something tells me that my son might become a violinist. 130 00:17:52.20 --> 00:17:53.80 And he will get the violin." 131 00:17:55.08 --> 00:17:58.88 When he is born, we will put it in his hand.