Even the audience was made up of singers at the jubilee choir meeting of the Székesfehérvár Club of the Honvéd Retirees of Fejér County, whose main patron was Tamás Vargha, member of the Székesfehérvár Parliament, and András Cser-Palkovics, the mayor of the county seat.
– This presentation of Hungarian sheet music and Hungarian military song started 15 years ago, in 2008. So this would be the 16th time, only covid delayed our calculations, so we are celebrating the anniversary this year. Our primary goal with this event was to preserve and popularize military songs and, of course, to pass them on to young people. Our other goal, which is at least as important, is to unite organizations similar to ours that are connected to the national defense. We will visit the places where choirs operate and invite them, said retired colonel Gábor Vadon, president of the Székesfehérvár club of retired members of the Hungarian Armed Forces of Fejér county.
They did not hold a national event, it can only be considered a regional one, but the hall was still full, as they accepted invitations from places such as Szombathely, Győr, Budapest or even Szentendre. The choir meeting is held every year around May, sometimes with the participation of 7-8, but sometimes 10-12 choirs.
We asked how young people know military notes and songs and whether they come or are interested?
-On the one hand, the young people come here, and on the other hand, we also go to the young people. There is a recently formed formation, the Nőszirom mixed team. The formation led by Katalin Egyedné Fodor, founded in 2005, currently has 16 members and we have visited kindergarten and school children with them, but we are there every year in the summer camps organized by the Honvéd Tradition Preservation Association. In these forums, we not only perform military songs, but also talk about the history and development of military songs, and according to our experience, children and young people are receptive to them and like military songs, answered Gábor Vadon.
Every year, the choir meeting is organized thematically, always adapted to the events and anniversaries of the given year. On this occasion, the 175th anniversary of the Hungarian Armed Forces and the 200th anniversary of Sándor Petőfi gave the occasion for the event, but they even go back to the Middle Ages, if that is the case, so for example the glorious recapture of Buda Castle was already at the center of the whole day’s singing. As the events giving the theme change, so do the songs and sheet music, as the possibility of immersion is enormous for the choirs. The repertoire is wide from the 14th century to the present day, but in the year 2023, the songs of the 1848-49 war of independence and revolution, as well as the military songs of the First and Second World Wars, were played, sometimes encouraging, sometimes filled with bitter sadness and homesickness. All participants sang the first song, A huszár gyűer szátő a tánçot.
At the end of the meaningful day, each performing choir received a memorial card and a ceramic souvenir as a memory and thank you for accepting the invitation and helping to achieve the goals of the Székesfehérvár Club of the Fejér County Honvéd Retirees.