16th Century
The Nádor Codex of 1508 presents the first use of Gregorian melodies with Hungarian texts . The same period saw the local folk styles grow more diverse, while political authorities railed against secular music. Szavolcsi notes the author of the Sándor Codex (early 16th century), who described secular music as accompanied by "fiddle, lute, drums and cimbalom... and used tenor, discant and contratenor" singers, meaning it was in the style of the motet .
The 16th century saw the rise of Transylvania, a region the Turks never occupied, as a center for Hungarian music, as well as the first Hungarian publications of music, both published in Kraków. István Gálszécsi's songbook was the "first Hungarian gradual to the Gregorian hymn-melodies and German choral music of which we can see new Hungarian translations", while the Cronica of András Farkas includes the first surviving historical song . About forty melodies are known from this era, and are already in a distinctively Hungarian style which took influences from across much of Europe in several dozen distinct forms that were "mostly notated in a rigid and clumsy way" but were "undoubtedly much more colourful and flexible in living performance" and were in reality "little masterpieces of melodic structure" . The most significant musician of this period was Sebestyén Tinódi, the "greatest stylist and master of expression of ancient Hungarian epic poetry... whose heritage the people's music of two centuries was unconsciously nourished" .
Accentuated declamation was fashionable in music education during the early 16th century; a more rigid choir style is represented by a collection called the Melopoeiae, from 1507 . A collection by Johannes Honterus was the first Hungarian printed work with music, dating from 1548. These collections were enriched by "melodic configurations" that, according to Bence Szabolcsi, could be explained by the arrival of the "song material of the Czech Reformation, the melodic treasure of the German Reformation and the psalter of French Huguenots" . The poet Bálint Balassi remains well regarded for his poems from this period, which were based on Polish, Turkish, Italian and German melodies, and may have also been influenced by the villanella . Some songs from this period, influenced by the music of the nobles and their minstrels from as far away as Italy, remained a part of the Hungarian folk tradition at least until modern song collection began. Religious and secular music were closely connected at this time, and documentation of the former grew with the publication of many songbooks filled with free psalm paraphrases called lauds, facilitating the practice of communal singing among the nascent Protestant churches . This conflation of religious and secular song was much criticized from the pulpit, from the both the Protestant and Catholic churches. The latter allowed popular songs after a 1564 edict from Ferdinand I, which allowed the bishops to use them only after close scrutiny . They were again banned in 1611, however, and a Catholic collection of Hungarian church songs was not agreed upon until 1629, at the Synod of Nagyszombat. The collection, Benedek Szőlősy's Cantus Catholici, was published in 1651, and wasn't followed by a Protestant version for about 90 years .
Hungarian instrumental music was well known in Europe in the 16th century. The lutenist and composer Bálint Bakfark was especially famous, known as a virtuoso player of the lute ; his works were collected and published as Intavolatura and Harmoniae musicae (published in 1553 and 1565 respectively) . He was one of the pioneers of a style based on vocal polyphony. The lutenist brothers Melchior and Konrad Neusiedler were also noted, as was Stephan Monetarius, the author of an important early work in music theory, the Epithoma utriusque musices.
Read more about this topic: Music History Of Hungary