Júlia Hajdu (1925–1987) – Career of a woman operetta composer

Abstract

The object of this presentation is Júlia Hajdu (1925–1987), the first and only female Hungarian operetta composer. Although there is no abundance of female composers in either international or Hungarian music literature, most of the few were canonically mistreated, despite their creations being worthy of research. The author of choice, Júlia Hajdu, had a rather rich artistic career during which she excelled in various musical genres, such as the composition of dance songs, operettas, revues, dance suites, and incidental music. Besides composing, she was also an outstanding pianist. At the Zeneakadémia (Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music), her master teachers were Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) and György Ránki (1907–1992) – the latter, too, being a composer of operettas. Hajdu studied folk music from Kodály and jazz orchestration from Ránki. Hajdu's name was soon mentioned next to the best-known creators of popular genres by both her contemporaries and the critics of the age. Among others, she worked on the popular music shows of Magyar Televízió (Hungarian Television) and was employed as Hanna Honthy's piano accompanist. Hajdu recorded hundreds of dance songs, revues, and dance suites, as well as fourteen operettas, including those for radio and television broadcasts. Her career is to be explored within the cultural, political, and civilizational contexts of state socialism, thus understanding her work as not only another oeuvre of an operetta composer, but also as a representation of the artistic sentiment of a whole era. During her active years, she had to make compromises which she later interpreted as assertions of herself as a female artist in a male-dominated cultural milieu. After recognizing various narrative patterns in her creations, I aim to discuss Hajdu's career along two of the most prevalent and recurring issues: the “female composer as a sensation” narrative, and the “significance of the master teacher” narrative.