Károly Bura Gypsy First Violinist

Activist, Revisionist, Visionist

This excellent book is the first to present the life and work of legendary first violinist
Károly Bura. Tracing the life path of Károly Bura, the author of the book,
Tamás Hajnáczky, succeeds in presenting the whole turbulent historical epoch
after the breaking up of the Austro-Hungarian empire, a time when Hungarian
Gypsy musicians together with their compatriots experienced Trianon trauma
and took part in an affirmation of the Hungarian national idea. The book tells
the fascinating story of Hungarian Gypsy musicians, who were not simply passive
recipients of policy measures and victims of historical circumstances but were
also active architects of their lives and who made a significant contribution to
Hungarian culture and Gypsy culture as well. The young, but already experienced
scholar, Tamás Hajnáczky, succeeds in superbly illustrating how the efforts of
Károly Bura, and the Gypsy musicians' organizations in which he was a moving
force, contributed to making Gypsy music an inseparable part of Hungarian national
culture. The book presents the struggle of Károly Bura to secure for Gypsy
musicians an equal and decent place in Hungarian society, and, at the same time
and within that framework, how he contributed to the preservation and development
of the Gypsy musicians' identity.
The book demonstrates novelty, originality, and distinctiveness and is a must
reading for everybody interested not only in Gypsy music, Roma history but also
for history scholars interested in the region and this specific historical period.