Kalman Balogh

Although Kalman Balogh is equally skilled performing classical, folk, jazz and rock, sitting in with other musicians for impromptu jam sessions is virtually impossible for this acclaimed Hungarian virtuoso.

That`s because Balogh`s chosen instrument, the cimbalom, weighs in at nearly 150 pounds, while its wood carrying case adds another 60 or so pounds to this back-breaking musical equation. "It`s a big problem to travel with one, especially the big one," said Balogh, referring to the concert grand cimbalom he planned to use for his recent San Diego concert with the Okros Folk Music Ensemble.

A cross between a harp, a hammered dulcimer and a keyboardless piano, the cimbalom is a 4 1/2-octave chromatic instrument with both a foot pedal and hand-operated dampening bars. It has 152 strings, which are struck with 8-inch long, cotton-tipped mallets made of wood or metal.

The cimbalom dates back to 720 A.D. in Hungarian history, although earlier versions of the instrument were previously used in the Middle East and the Orient. The national instrument of Hungary, it has been offered as part of the curriculum of the Budapest Academy of Music since 1897, and Bartok, Kodaly and Stravinsky are just some of the noted classical composers whose work incorporated the cimbalom.

Now 41, Balogh was 11 when he started playing the cimbalom in his rural hometown of Miskolc, in northeastern Hungary. His first teacher was his uncle, Elemer Balogh, one of the most renowned cimbalom players of the past century.

"I am a Hungarian Gypsy, and it was absolutely typical for the Gypsies to learn to play this instrument," Balogh said recently from New Jersey. "In fact, most of the Gypsies start earlier, when they are 6, so I started a little late."

Balogh is a graduate of Budapest`s prestigious Ferenc Liszt Academy. He has distinguished himself as his country`s most accomplished and versatile cimbalom player, and as a master of improvisation.

"The Gypsies, especially in the villages, played entirely by ear, and it was handed down - from father to son, and from master to student," Balogh said.

"That was the traditional way. But by the middle of the century, the Gypsies began to study by learning (to read) notes. I learned it by both ways. And I was very lucky to learn the romantic city, or `restaurant style,` of Gypsy music from my uncle. But my style is the older `village music,` which was part of a folk music revival that started more than 20 years ago." Balogh chuckled.

"In the `70s, when I was a teen-ager, the village style was something new and wild and more powerful for me," he continued. "The taste of my generation was different from my uncle`s generation. For me, as a cimbalom artist, it was not enough to play only one style of music. So I began to study music from Romania, Turkey, Greece and other countries where cimbalom is played, and jazz. I wanted to do more and more with the instrument."

Ironically, because most young Hungarians today prefer rock, dance, hip-hop and electronica, Balogh and his touring partners in the Okros Ensemble now perform abroad more frequently than in their homeland. Their performances focus largely on the rural Transylvanian style favored by 64-year-old guest violinist Aladar Csiszar. "Aladar is the last living artist from his region who plays this music," Balogh noted. "We will perform slow laments and fast dance numbers, so people can experience what it would be like to be in his village."

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: George Varga