Búgócsiga

The Búgócsiga ensemble first appeared in front of the audience in Târgu Mureş in early October 1971. Among the founding members, guitarists Endre Deák and Barna Fülöp were classmates in high school (1967–71), and then students of the local Pedagogical College majoring in music and physical education (1971–74). Bassist András Gáll worked in the local glass factory for six hours, four shifts, and drummer Miklós Kerekes enlisted as a soldier at the time of his founding for eighteen months. Instead, Balázs Sikó became the drummer. The band started playing in the main club of a local company, the first few concerts were given as HUMMING TOP. The name was the idea of ​​András Gáll, who looked up the words from an English dictionary. The program consisted mainly of adaptations in English and Hungarian, and in addition to the club, they performed at student festivals, freshmen's balls and other university events. The great light music festival of Hungarians living in Romania was called Siculus, which was held four times between 1970 and 1973. The Whistling Snail first entered the 1972 festival. This was a turning point in the band’s history, as their own compositions were demanded here. Endre Deák started writing folk song-inspired songs for the band. In addition to the founding members, Sándor Dobránszky (college classmate, violinist, viola player and singer) was already performing at the Siculus'72 festival, and Miklós Kerekes was sitting at the drums again. Fülöp Barna left the team in early 1973, so they performed with four members at the last Siculus Festival in September 1973. The Whistle Snail received special prizes in both Siculus races. In the spring and summer of 1973, they also performed as Adonis for a time. The reason for this is that the local authorities did not take a good look at the choice of Hungarian names, although this ban proved to be temporary. Recordings were made regularly for the Hungarian-language program of the Târgu Mureş Regional Radio, and some films were made thanks to the Hungarian-language editorial staff of the Romanian Television. The contemporary press clearly considered Búgócsiga to be the most beautiful orchestral name. In early 1974, some more compositions were made and recorded in the studio. At that time, the Búgócsiga played in a completely acoustic line-up: in addition to Deák and Dobránszky, Gábor Bereczki was the new member. Some of the band's own songs were composed by József Babrik, who was also a music student at the Pedagogical College. As a lute, Babrik was a prestigious cultivator and expert of Transylvanian early music. His ensemble, Camerata Transsylvanica, which plays old music, consisted of three members of the Búgóiga from the spring of 1974, led by Babrik. In the summer of 1974, four performers were organized by the House of Culture in Sepsiszentgyörgy: the Concorde duo (Erika Józsa and Károly Horváth), the Harmat duo of Barot (Erzsébet Zakariás and Attila Zakariás), the Búgócsiga and the Camerata Transsylvanica It was an extraordinary tour that left a deep mark on all the participants. A few days after the lecture series, the heart patient József Babrik passed away. At that time, the band's entire three-year era was over. On the one hand, due to the death, and on the other hand, the members had to leave the autumn of 1974 as fresh graduate teachers for jobs and foreign lands designated in accordance with the Romanian regulations at that time. In the autumn of 1974, Deák and Dobránszky continued to play as a duo for a short time, retaining the name Búgócsiga. The Búgóiga's last activity during the winter holidays of 1974-75 was to make one last studio recording, on which the 1974 summer line-up played. In addition to his own songs, four Neo-Renaissance songs by József Babrik were also recorded acoustically, which were then recorded on the musician's 1976 album Ej, haj löngyvirág (Electrecord ECE 01695). The recordings of the Búgócsiga were played regularly by the Târgu Mureş radio until the early eighties. Although they received practically only local publicity, the song Hej, ladilom became known outside Transylvania in the 1990s as one of the well-known “modern folk songs” of Hungarian folk music.