Music, Liszt, Poetry

The Everyday Life of Emil Ponori Thewrewk

Emil Ponori Thewrewk (1838–1917), native of Bratislava, was among the first in Hungary to base classical philology research on scientific methodologies. Ponori Thewrewk spent his childhood in his hometown, then he continued his studies in the Piarist Gymnasium in Pest, followed by courses abroad, in Graz, Vienna, Berlin and Leipzig. Upon his return to the Hungarian capital, he founded on the German model the Budapesti Philológiai Társaság (‘Budapest Philological Society’) and was co-editor of the Egyetemes Philologiai Közlöny (‘Universal Philological Journal’).¹

Although he had an extensive network of foreign contacts, his teaching and scientific work tied him to Budapest. Except for his youth, he lived in the Buda Castle District.

He also wrote cultural history press articles about the capital.² However, the true motivation of this enthusiasm was not urban planning.

I have never loved any city as much as Pest; but do not think that it is because of its landscape or buildings, but rather because of some of its inhabitants. After having written prose poems elsewhere, here I face the sprouting of my emotions, which warmed my heart and set my heart’s songs flowing. On this shore stands Józsa, and therefore let no one be surprised that every sinking foam reflects her image.³

While the safe “harbor” of his private life was his first wife, Josephine Matlekovits, nicknamed Miss Józsa (1841–1864), on the “shore” of his musical writings stood the figure and oeuvre of Ferenc Liszt (1811–1886). In fact, Emil Ponori Thewrewk read out his inaugural address at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences entitled A magyar zene rhythmusa (‘The Rhythm of Hungarian Music’) in 1873, the year of the official unification of Pest-Buda-Óbuda and Ferenc Liszt’s 50th artistic jubilee. A similar occasion framed the celebration of Ponori Thewrewk’s 13 years activity as a high school teacher (1861–1874) and 37 years as a university teacher (1874–1911), i.e. half a century of teaching; namely, this coincided with the 1911 Liszt centenary.

According to the latest research, classical philologist Emil Ponori Thewrewk sang under the baton of Ferenc Liszt, corresponded with him, and even met him several times.⁴ Although the original plan was for Ponori Thewrewk to give Hungarian language lessons to the composer, this failed because they could not arrange a suitable time. However, Ponori Thewrewk admired Ferenc Liszt until his death. This admiration was most sincerely expressed in his poems.

These verses were inspired by the composer's figure and his gaze on Emil Ponori Thewrewk, whom Ponori Thewrewk saw at the mass of the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (commonly known as the Inner City Parish Church) on 15 August 1856. It was never published in print, and is preserved only in Ponori Thewrewk’s diary from his youth. In contrast, the epigram written at request for the 1873 jubilee of Ferenc Liszt, was published by numerous press magazines and journals.⁵ Kornél Ábrányi Sr. even had the four-verses long epigram scattered from the gallery of the National Theatre during the performance of Csikós (‘Horse keeper’) by Ede Szigligeti (play staged on 10 November 1873, in honor of Liszt).⁶

As Emil Ponori Thewrewk himself told, he entered into the world of music by searching for the laws of poetry.⁷ As a classical philologist, by profession, he was primarily interested in problems related to rhythm, in research examining the relationship between music and language. He even kept a separate notebook for this purpose.

The hypothesis of these research, following ancient Greek theories, is that the rhythm of speech can be equaled with the rhythm of music. As a result, Ponori Thewrewk refuted Ferenc Liszt’s theory regarding the Gypsy origin of Hungarian music (Liszt’s theory provoked intense debates at the time).⁸ Since the stress in the Gypsy language is at the end of the word, unlike in Hungarian, where it falls on the first syllable, any analogy or correspondence between the two is incorrect, and therefore their music cannot show any common features. Ponori Thewrewk expanded this thesis in his A hang mint műanyag (‘The Sound as Source of Composition’, 1866) essay as well as in his inaugural address at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences entitled A magyar zene rhythmusa (‘The Rhythm of Hungarian Music’, 1873).

Ferenc Liszt was aware of the content of A magyar zene rhythmusa (‘The Rhythm of Hungarian Music’) and thanked Ponori Thewrewk in a letter for a copy of and dedication of the German edition.

It is unknown, whether a German edition was actually published. Only one copy of the second, revised Hungarian edition (1881) has survived in Liszt’s library, which Ponori Thewrewk dedicated to the Magyar Zeneművelők Társasága (‘Hungarian Musician’s Society’).⁹ The printing cost of “The Rhythm of Hungarian Music (2nd edition) was 95 forints 32 penny.”¹⁰

Unlike Liszt, Emil Ponori Thewrewk was also familiar with the Gypsy language. In 1886, together with József Budenz (1836–1892) and at the request of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Ponori Thewrewk reviewed the manuscript of Czigány nyelvtan (‘Gypsy Grammar’) by Archduke Joseph (Joseph Karl Ludwig 1833–1905).¹¹

Ponori Thewrewk, with his precision and broad interest, attached a voluminous Irodalmi Kalauz (‘Literary Guide’) to the book, which accounts for almost half of it. In it, he published a detailed bibliography of Roma cultural history research and listed the literary, visual and musical works that depict and/or are inspired by it. For the latter purpose, and “instead of a long search”,¹² he contacted two renowned music critics of the time: the Wagner fan Kornél Ábrányi Sr. and the anti-Wagnerian Eduard Hanslick.

In Kornél Ábrányi Sr., in “the distinguished specialist”, about whom “I thought that as a music teacher and writer he would know more about the literature related to Liszt’s work [“gypsy book”] than I did. I was greatly disappointed.”¹³ However, Ponori Thewrewk was impressed by Hanslick’s list of operas based on gypsy topics.

The following list appeared in the Hungarian edition of the book (1888):¹⁴

This was not the first time that Emil Ponori Thewrewk had sought the help of the Viennese music critic and aesthete Hanslick. The result of their correspondence is the list of Anacreon operas, which Ponori Thewrewk attached to his Hungarian translation of Anacreon (1885); volume published in the Academy’s series of Greek and Latin Masterpieces.

While Ponori Thewrewk primarily translated from Greek, his first wife, Josephine Matlekovits, nicknamed Miss Józsa (1841–1864), translated The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe into Hungarian.¹⁵ Inspired by this sentimentalist epistolary novel and on the advice of her suitor, Emil Ponori Thewrewk, Miss Józsa kept a diary. The language of the entries is German, up until the 2nd season ticket concert of the Philharmonic Society held at the National Museum on 6 January 1861, under the baton of Ferenc Erkel. The program featured:

1. Robert Schumann: Symphony no. 1 ‘Spring’ in B flat major, Op. 38
2. Ferenc Erkel: Bánk bán – Finale (collaborating opera singers: Kornélia Hollósy, Károly Kőszeghy)
3. Ludwig van Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 – 1st movement (soloist: Ede Reményi)
4. Mihály Mosonyi: Festive Music (Ünnepi zene)¹⁶

After the evening and on the occasion of it, Miss Józsa noted her first Hungarian diary entry.

Another diary entry in Hungarian, presumably pasted in later, in Emil’s handwriting, records their first meeting in the gallery of the National Museum.

Emil Ponori Thewrewk immortalized her muse in his poems and married her in 1862. From their short marriage only one child was born, the journalist István Thewrewk (1863–1931).

My love

Life is beautiful if a strong heart
Blows its troubles far away;
Beautiful, if with firm commitment
We break down its numerous obstacles.

I embrace you tightly as a man,
I hold you, Józsa, as my holy property;
No curse separates me from you, dear
No blessing shall be my seducer.

While on this earth, I live for you –
Only death separates me from you;
Neither the grasp of death fears me:
I am immortal through my soul.

The mutual attraction of the bodies
What else is, if not love forever?
In our grave, my soul’s flames
Mixes me with your ashes.

Buda, 2 May 1862.¹⁷

Several of Ponori Thewrewk’s poems were set to music, for instance the Az árva lány panasza (‘The Complaint of the Orphan Girl’), Eső csap a fák lombjára (‘Rain Falls on the Foliage’) and Esti sóhaj (‘Evening Sigh’) by Henrik Gobbi (1841–1920; he was acquainted with Liszt).¹⁸ Ponori Thewrewk himself also set his poems to music. He dedicated the Ablakomon (‘On My Window’) song to his former student and later second wife, Katalin Mészáros Perchich (1841–1905). About their wedding ceremony they contacted Mayor Kammermayer, Pastor Scholtz, and provost Mihály Bogisich. Finally, on the afternoon of 10 January 1885, they swore eternal fidelity to each other in the Lutheran Church of Buda Castle. Although Bogisich regretted that he could not marry them, he congratulated the young couple all the more cordially.¹⁹

This popular art song was probably composed and published in the second half of the 1860s. A copy was sent in a letter of thanks to the Buda Men’s Choral Society, of which Emil Ponori Thewrewk was a member at the time. Ponori Thewrewk even wrote the verses of the Buda Men’s Choral Society’s official motto. The motto was set to music by Antal Knahl, the choirmaster of the Buda Men’s Choral Society and later director of the Buda Academy of Music (1868–1875).

This, a few bars long motto was also published in the Zenészeti Lapok (on 12 October 1865, issue VI, number 2). This first Hungarian-language music journal (1860–1876) also functioned as the press organ of the choral movement, as its editor-in-chief was Kornél Ábrányi Sr., secretary and later president of the National Choral Society. As a composer, Ábrányi significantly enriched the choral repertoire, but composed numerous Hungarian fantasies, too. As a music historian, he wrote, among others, the history of choral societies.²⁰ He even sent at least two of his volumes for patronage to the “outstanding leader of the Hungarian intellectual and artistic world”,²¹ i.e. Emil Ponori Thewrewk. One of the volumes, a “very interesting literary, artistic and historical work”, is presumably the 1899 memoir Képek a múlt és jelenből (‘Pictures from Past and Present’).

The other volume is Ábrányi’s A magyar zene a 19-ik században (‘Hungarian Music in the 19th Century’), the “work of public interest intended for the Paris World Exhibition” (in 1900).

Emil Ponori Thewrewk was considered an authority through his work. He was not only in contact with the renowned figures of the musical world of his time, but also enjoyed their respect. Like many of his contemporaries, music was not his vocation or source of livelihood. He explored any topic primarily as a scientist, a classical philologist, but only as a music lover and poet. Through his essays and a few folk songs, he successfully combined his “hobbies” – the rhythm of music and text, speech and melody, – not only in theory, but also in practice. The life and work of Emil Ponori Thewrewk exemplifies that in the second half of the 19th century, as always, music was a debate topic for both amateurs and professionals, from all fields of culture and science.

Translated & curated by Sára Aksza Grosz