Tulips from Nuts

An instance of the broadcasting advanced classes

8 November 1988. Maiden Pinks

Haydn, Concerto for harpsichord in F minor VII/a. 1st movement

We met in the summer of 1988 in Pilisszentkereszt and then in Füred. We spent days together, families made friends, small children played together with their elder brothers or sisters. It seemed to be a good idea to keep the group together during the school year, too, so I joined two classes and the Maiden Pinks group of Tuesday afternoon became a large group of families. 

The change brought joy to children since they could maintain warm relationships within these family groups. However, it presented difficulties to us, teachers, because the group suddenly became very large, we were dancing in a room stuffed with people. The nylon sheet on the floor at times was also full of children painting. 

Planning such a programme gave us plenty to think about. I had to make big compromises in choosing the music, I had to include simpler pieces for the sake of the young ones. Jóska faced similar difficulties in drawing and painting. Had he not been Jóska but instead some teacher keen on achievement, he would surely have given up. The pictures made by the advanced ones were already exhibited when they were joined by many little children daubing with paint. I show an example now from the laborious classes of the first weeks.

Broadcaster (BC): The class begins as Klári stretches her arms wide open in the middle of the bustling room and begins singing the song ”The rose has opened”. As older students hear her voice they gather around her: Viktor, Villő, Balázs, Szeverin, Petra, Borsi, and Luca. Klári “puts a flower” on the heads of those she can reach, she is walking around everywhere touching children. They are already singing along, they know the song very well, it is their old favourite. The others are still running about, carrying Márk’s little brother who came as a visitor.

Klara’s comments in italics: At the farewell singing of last year’s classes we always greeted him by stroking her mother’s belly. We called him Little Round Loaf and Márk chose greeting songs for him. Now the little Máté is rushing around among us, he is brave and happy, not afraid of anybody. Márk adores him, his eyes, shining with joy eyes follow all the movements of his little brother.

BC: Klári is walking and singing continuously with very soft steps, she distributes flowers, crouches down to them, puts the flower on their head and lays them down to rest with her movements. They lie thickly, their feet, hands and heads touch. Andris is talking, he clearly does not intend to lie down, Orsi is restless, too. Márk is still chasing the little Máté among the armchairs. Dani and Viktor lie next to each other, they are making noise, Dani is tickling Viktor. Kamilla is having a conversation with Luca, they are lying on their stomachs and are not paying attention to Klári. But Klári does not call to them, she just walks on singing and stroking them.

It would be vain to call to them, there are so many of them in so many connections, and in great joy too which shouldn’t be spoiled with words of reproof.

BC: They fall silent slowly, the little Máté was carried out by his mother.

She is a considerate mother and a good friend, she and Márk have been attending the course for a long time, and she knows my methods. She knows when there is a need for silence. A baby can’t be asked to keep silent, maybe he will do so when he falls asleep or is being fed. They take a walk outside and then return for the dance, for a short time only of course. 

BC: Klári sits down by Andris and takes the child’s head into her lap. She speaks by singing very quietly. 

I say all sorts of things in these recitative speeches, like in some magic formula or spell in free parlando rhythm with pentatonic motifs. I bend and ornament the tune in the way we received from ancient Transylvanian melodies.

BC: They have become completely still, Villő is lying stretching to the full length of her body, how much she has grown! Kálmán is holding Klári’s leg. Klári is still talking about things in song.

I can only do this in my mother tongue. Last year in Illinois I sang a spell in Hungarian to American children and they were completely enchanted. I teach in English or Italian, but I can’t improvise such things in these languages, the words don’t come to my mouth.

BC: She sings to Dani that he should smile at Andris because the latter has just recovered from a spotty disease, from scarlet-fever. She sings to Bea that we are all happy for you Bea and do you remember when you snatched Kamilla from the hands of the evil ones combing the fairy queen?

It is a beautiful moment part of our video programme “Partita” when the little kindergartener Bea says “I, I felt the moment in me when I did magic” – and she points to her heart where she felt it.

BC: Bea has grown, she is like older children now and acts more artificially than earlier when she was attending our course.

She learns this in the acting school. She is talented and has already been cast for several films. It is a different genre; she has to be conscious there and therefore can’t experience the imaginary in the same way as before.

Klara: Nuts are growing ripe, some of them are eaten, in pancakes, others hide deep in earth. Let us play the hiding game.

BC: They start a round game to the tune of the song “Dead walnut tree”, Orsi becomes the nut hiding in earth. She lies down, and sinks into the carpet completely. At the end of the song she jumps up and drags in Kamilla. Both of them crouch as nuts. Klári continues the song by singing: “choose somebody”. How easy it is to choose in this group: the little ones always have to be encouraged, but these children are happy to choose. I have noticed how nicely they move in choosing – the boys, too – and that they look into each other’s eyes just as Klári has taught them for years.

Initially they usually choose a partner by poking the other’s belly, or perhaps even less even that, by pointing to the other not looking at him or her. How will they touch their chosen one, their beloved or their children?

BC: There are now only a few ramblers, they all crouch in the circle, so many nuts. The little ones tend to forget silence, some great chatter is going on, especially Andris finds it hard to keep quiet. He is having a private fight with Dani.

Klara: Nuts are talking, too, in tales, but especially quietly so that only the other nut would hear it. András, find out and show us what this fabled, quiet nut-talk may be.

BC: András is gaping, moving his mouth like a silent nut. Dani is joining the game immediately, he is gaping, too.

Now it is the fabled quiet nut, at other times it is the hedgehog, the turtle, the bat or the snails, or the goldfish: these are all examples of quiet movement and help the imagination.

BC: Luca has grown to become a walnut tree, she is bowing about nicely.

Luca is like a child from a fable. Her imagination is exquisitely beautiful but I had to fight it out with her in the first year, sometimes she rushed at me with such strength that my bones were felt like cracking and she followed my requests only when she felt like doing so. She has a rich, colourful personality. She has now grown a special tree from the nut. 

BC: Borsi and Csilla are acting out their walnut tree together, shoulders pushed together. Bendegúz climbs under them.

Klara: Did a mouse climb under the walnut tree?

Bendegúz: No, it is a bat.

Klara: The bat came at the right time, since we want a quiet flying around the walnut trees. 

BC: Bendegúz flies off as bat, Szevi joins them as a bat, too, he is flitting amazingly well. Balázs is marching around with sword unsheathed.

Klara: Balázs, who have you become?

Balázs: A guard. I am guarding the walnut tree so that the Turks may not chop it down.

This is imagination and Hungarian history: Balázs is protecting the walnut tree from the Turks. The same memories of the Turkish occupation are preserved in our nursery rhymes “Katalinka” and “Gólya, gólyagilice”.

Klara: Thank you, Balázs, now we can sleep soundly, there is somebody to protect us. 

I am always charmed by the character of Balázs: he makes peace and protects others. That is how he puts up with his lively little bother who is always eager to fight. He doesn’t hit back. It isn’t an easy lot, but it is beautiful, and I can sit under the walnut tree in peace, under the protective sword of my Balázs.

BC: Their singing is slowly fading.

Klara: Trees go to sleep and rest as they usually do in wintertime. They gather strength. We will gather strength, too, in no time; we will have some great music, we will gather strength from that. 

BC: Now they are only humming the tune without words, more and more quietly.

The hummed tune without word is already an abstraction. With so much repetition the song has become deeper and has been internalised. If I were teaching reading and writing musical scores, at this point already I could take a step towards the physical layout of the song in solemnization, for example, or in hand signs, letters or score.

BC: They lie down, Klári puts her legs up in a candle, many of them follow her, their legs kicking in the air, in the meanwhile they are singing. They are really beautiful.

Klara: Let us seek a place with our roots where we can go to rest, way down deep.

BC: But now they cling to each other with their legs and they start romping. Three of them, Petra, Szevi and Márk are the loudest.

It may happen at any time that a child can’t overcome his nervousness and can’t rest. At these times they usually look for a partner in messing about, because it is better to frolic in company. I have seen them prepare this, I made an attempt with the image of the roots reaching down, but it didn’t succeed, the two agile and lively boys could not come to rest. And Petra was still happily making merry with his friend, Szevi.

Klara: Come here in the dark, I would like to say something. I would like you to look into eyes in the dark. 

It’s not worth talking while they can’t see my eyes. My favourite friend, Susan from California always crouches or kneels down in front of her children when they exchange some important, personal message. She never talks from above. If she is washing the dishes, she leaves the pan, if she is cleaning the house, she turns off the hoover, if she is doing the washing, she puts down the clothes and looks straight into the eyes of the one who comes to her to complain, to ask for something, to tell her or announce something at any time of the day. She is bringing up four children in a little village in the forest, they don’t even go to school, they learn from their parents. 

Klara: The composer who wrote our music was called Joseph Haydn. Haydn loved this piece very much. You can hear it when you are listening to it that he loved it. All the notes were important to him. Do you think that Haydn’s music will enter you ears and your body through your skin if you chat a bit in the meanwhile and say “Hey, whose leg is here?”

BC: They shout “No”.

Klara: You see that is why I ask you now to pay great attention to Haydn, and experience every note of the music with him as he was experiencing it when he wrote it to be this beautiful.

BC: Now comes the forest of the legs game. 

That is, we raise our legs to the first note of the music and dance in this way until the end of the piece. The legs flinging above may be moved easily. When we stand on them, we push them down with our weights. It is worth dancing a little in air even alone, to try out the how easily and variously our legs may move. In a group, however, it is even more interesting, since there are a lot of variants, and the spectacle itself inspires new variations. 

BC: Feri has placed his son into his lap and together they start the leg dance. 

There are fathers ho have been born to rear children, the father of Márk and Máté is such a man. He does the leg-dance with Máté.

BC: The music is especially appropriate for this leg game, I don’t know whether it was Klári who planned it in this way, that is, that they will dance to the music with their legs, but this Haydn piece seems to be made for this.

In planning the class I always come up with several different variations. These are born during my walks in the forest. But the choice is made here from the joint inspiration of the music and the children.

Klara: You can try to peep in and out between your legs.

This one, for example I invented on the slope of Normafa that day. In the foggy silver-light, in that soft brilliance I stooped down, I was looking downwards and I was enchanted by the steep hill with the barren tree from that perspective.

BC: After each playing of the music she gives them some idea to carry on. We are playing the leg game in different groups now, Klári is in the middle of one of these.

That is, the many children – at least 30 that day – have joined groups everywhere, not only around me. This is due to the resourcefulness and independence of our older children. Through the practice they have had they then can connect freely to each other. This is a very important observation, and it tells a lot to the reader. Since with my impulsive personality I could easily gather and control the children, it would be much easier to keep the group together under my personal direction, as it is customary in pedagogy. But this is how I start with beginners, and very soon I reach for others: partners, parents, friends.

BC: Andi, Kálmán and Bea are lying spoke-like around Klári’s bare feet. They always join her to the rhythm of the music. Klári then wraps their legs together with a half-circle-like movement of her own leg.

Haydn offers thousands of excellent opportunities for dance. Here three ingenious and creative children and I were turning to one another with our legs phrase by phrase, always from a different direction, but always paying attention to the bent finishes of the tune. I think even spectators with no musical training will notice the musical background of such games. It is not an analysis written down on paper, but an expression necessarily born of inner musical attention and free movements. The same thing may thus be accomplished by a teacher without musical training, if he or she dances and performs the piece at home prior to classes, and listens to it often, until he or she has comprehended it completely. Our chosen musical pieces are compact little units, easy to consider, they carry the eyes, the ears and the movements in the right direction. Their inner laws are so clear that they reveal themselves like a mountain crystal.

BC: Dani is dancing together with his sister, Adél. He is concentrating hard on Adél’s leg movements and he adjusts his own movements to them. Now Évi joins the two of them. She lies next to Adél and occasionally pokes her to Haydn’s rhythms. This may be a signal suggesting “I am also here with you”. Andris is sitting alone and looking at Dani and Viktor. Viktor is creeping under the armchair. It is interesting, in this term Viktor has this tendency to disappear behind the armchairs.

Yes, it is a good observation. Viktor didn’t use to hide, not even as a small kindergartener. His character is usually open, independent, he is a smart, confident, excellent student. His hidings are perhaps signals that we should pay attention. Viktor might be hurt somehow.

BC: Now there is great noise.

Everyone is shouting for a solo and they are flailing with their arms. Shouting for a solo after such a preparation is very different from simply making noise. Fortunately we don’t often experience this, with the Maiden Pinks, but they are making so much noise now because they are so active.

Klara: Don’t worry, the music is very short and we have time, everyone can dance a solo.

BC: Adél, Dani, Évi and Bendegúz will have a solo. It is interesting, but so far as I have noticed, Bendegúz has not danced together with the triad, and has joined them just now. I didn’t see how they prepared when everybody was dancing, and even now they don’t seem to be preparing for their solo.

Klara: I greatly appreciate when some of you listen to me and come even from the other end of the room if I say “Please, come here”. This means that you can pay attention to me like members of an orchestra pay attention to the conductor. You have already seen an orchestra, haven’t you? The trumpeters are in the back row, so far away from the conductor. Still, they always have one of their eyes on him.

Balázs: Miss Klári, we were at the Academy of Music last Sunday.

Klara: So Balázs, when the conductor cued in, the musicians were looking at him.

Balázs: They were looking at him, but they were looking at the score, too.

Klara: A musician in the orchestra has to look at the score, too. Now there are many of us in this class, more people than last year or the year before that so you will have to learn to have one of your eyes on me when we all dance. I wouldn’t like to ask you this again, all right? You can go anywhere, but Bendegúz, Adél, Dani and Éva will tell us how much room they need and the others should make room for the solo. You may dance in the meanwhile if you want to but I will definitely watch the solo as well as Kati and the tape recorder. 

The attention we pay to solo-dancers is very important to the children. I always watch the solo-dancers, and they sense this deeply, even in their most busy running scenes they always glance at me from the corner of their eyes. The spectators in this class join us in this giving of attention. Parents, strangers, and most of the guests from abroad also participate in classes in this way. There are at times, however, adults who are unable to concentrate, and are staring about emptily, or even chattering to each other, remaining in their disorientated state. They feel neither the dancing children’s nor my powers, because their antennas to receive such things are buried under the dirt and waste thrown on them everyday.

BC: Adél puts her legs up in a candle, and starts to dance to the harpsichord’s solo with a really special trembling. Bendegúz is not in the candle position, until the end of the harpsichord solo he spreads his legs, holds his arms together and moves in this way. When the orchestra begins to play in tutti, he starts moving intensively, reaching out with his legs and holding his hands together above his head at the end. His was the most individual movement.

Klara: You should all receive a golden harpsichord, especially Bendegúz.

This is a great change, because last year after long periods of contemplation and sitting in my lap Bendegúz used to dance alone, this year he is constantly hopping and running around the children of the T. family, especially Adél. They made friends during their summer together, and Bendegúz was bewitched by the fair-haired, blue-eyed Adél’s beauty, her six-year-old maturity. But even now, in the sway of their common dance he was expressing his personal message at the top of his musicality. I had to tell him this.

BC: Everybody goes to the Bendegúz’s group gives them a stroke.

Yes, Bendegúz’s group, not only Bendegúz himself. They all participated in the success, their dance was their common performance.

BC: Now there is great common dancing.

Klara: Great dancing, your legs can fly downwards, and everything else you have should be flying, jumping, swinging. 

BC: During the common dance Klári joins Évi and Andris.

Évi is so good and so talented, still, she is often left alone. Due to her tallness she rarely finds a partner. I chose Andris as a partner for her because he is our smallest child, and Évi is one head above the others. I tried to make both of them experience that neither tallness nor smallness is a problem.

BC: So far, Andris has not had a partner, and he was just looking around. She joins them and climbs a couple of times to and fro under the gate they form.

I built their gate by putting their hands together, two hands up high, Évi reaches down, Andris up, there’s a wonderful gate for you. I was climbing under it to and fro to prove them that it is really a wonderful gate. From the refreshing of their movements, their relaxed ease towards their partner, and the safe connection of their hands I could see that they had found support in each other, and I may go my way.

BC: She now goes away to look at other companies, and to join the round dance. Now she arrives at Gergő and his aunt. Gergő is sitting beside her aunt, he doesn’t even want to dance with Petra, since Petra today joined Orsi, and seems not to care for Gergő at the moment.

Gergő is lonely. He doesn’t have a father or a brother or a sister, and his mother with her great love and constant control is paralysing him. There is a great sadness in beautiful fawn eyes even during his dances. He is incredibly talented. We enjoy his musical movements amazed, groups of our guests from abroad stare at him and mention him in their letter. 

BC: The whole company is shouting, because everyone is having a solo now. Interestingly, now I see Kálmán hand in hand with Bea.

It is not surprising for me, I know Kálmán’s magnanimity. Bea is a guest here and she needs a partner. She would have been left alone in the great hustle and bustle. Kálmán always takes care of such situations. 

BC: Petra and Orsi B. are having a solo. They are both lying on their stomachs, bending their knees and hold together their feet to the first sounds of the harpsichord. When the harpsichord plays the main theme sometimes Orsi touches Petra’s leg, sometimes they do it the other way round. At the close of the first theme they turn on their backs, or rather on their sides but in a way that they are almost lying on their backs, and start a really intensive kicking into the air. The more intensive emphases are given by Orsi, and are followed by Petra.

Klara: My little girls, this was very beautiful. Go to Petra’s mother for a stroke, both of you, Orsi’s mother is not here yet. When she arrives, you should go to her for a kiss.

BC: They go there, and Petra’s mother embraces both of them. 

Klara: With the help of Jóska now we will set up the drawing tools and then you may go on dancing your solos. You remember, some minutes ago I said we always have one eye on the conductor. You can see the conductor even when you are half turning your back to him. Let me congratulate those who have noticed immediately that I would like to do something. 

I congratulate that they managed to pay attention. Attention is not an obligation, it is not a must, but a wonderful achievement, the soul’s achievement.

Klara: Thank you for your help. At first it is a bit difficult to get used to the fact that there are so many of us now, and that you will have to place the boards close to one another but now we have learnt that, we become cleverer all the time. 

This was the explanation affecting their reasons. This, however, is only one side of reason, now comes the other.

Klara: I ask you to stay together, really close to one another, let us hold each other’s hands and listen to the music once again. In the meanwhile Jóska and the mums and dads will set up all the necessary things. We thank them for their help. Now we stay with the music. 

BC: Everybody holds someone else’s hand and they are listening to the music in this way. Klári is stroking those sitting next to her to the music, and is looking very intensively at all of them, round, one by one, she’s looking at even those she can’t reach with her hands. 

This is the strength deriving from spiritual composure, my older children are always ready to receive it because they know it from experience. 

Klara: Let us all try to find everyone else’s eyes during one playing of the music, which is a short time. We should be looking around in a way that we meet everyone else. My eyes have met the eyes of almost all of you during the music. 

“Almost all of you” is a little warning because there have been some of them whose eyes I could not see even though they were quiet and holding each other’s hands. Silence and stillness are not always signs of attention, however; they may be indicating passivity, too. One can see it from the eyes what heights they have climbed to. 

Klara: Now rub your own fingers together with the music and look around at the others in this way. 

Holding hands is adult-like, but it may lead astray if the partner is indifferent or inattentive. I could see that there are some who don’t like holding their partner’s hands, that is why I switched to personal attention. In my experience stroking and rubbing your fingers together aids concentration. We raise ourselves from here to a higher level when we look at each other’s eyes. Not only our partner’s eyes, as we usually do, but everyone else’s, all around, it is a very powerful experience.

BC: Now I can see intensive concentration on the music. But Réka is just sitting, doing nothing, just like Dani. Bendegúz is stroking and rubbing his hands together nicely and is looking around at everyone. Andris, Petra, Adél, Kamilla and Balázs are already looking around to the music, just like Bea, Márti, Luca and Borsó. Borsó and Luca are playing their own eye-game. 

Two sisters, in close friendship and loyalty even though their characters are quite opposing. Their creativity is inherited from their mother and is the result of constant inspiration. Luca displays it in flames; Borsó hides it in quietly glowing embers. The dancing of their eyes was uniquely beautiful, interesting, intensive and musical. 

Klara: Whose eyes have you met?

BC: They start listing who has met whose eyes. Balázs has looked at everyone, he looked around.

Klara: Now look at the adults sitting in this room. Go, look for their eyes. Your hands may be playing in the meantime, but your eyes should be searching everywhere.

BC: Balázs has the most musical eyes now. He goes up to the girls and pushes his head forward. It is really unique as he looks up and down quickly and even rolls his eyes to the trills of the harpsichord. Then, when there are sequences together with the orchestra he sweeps the room with his look and searches and tries to look into everybody’s eyes. Klári is looking at Réka and is trying to blink at her to the music, to establish eye-contact with her, but it is difficult because Réka is staring with glassy eyes and doesn’t want to join this dance of the eyes. 

She has lost her brother, because Döme was sent abroad for a year, and Réka became very lonely. She doesn’t look for friends here either, but carries her sorrow alone. I could see from the very beginning that she wouldn’t like eye-contact, nor the many people around her. I thought she would loosen up together with me, but her eyes didn’t answer, she remained closed. She is clearly in need of love. Perhaps her parents’ love isn’t warm enough for her. Fortunately, she finds consolation in painting. She is attached to Jóska, and paints beautiful things.

BC: Now they have covered their eyes and are waiting for the first note in that way. Now even Réka has joined the music, she is blinking to it and looking into Bea’s eyes: they open and close their eyes to the rhythm of the harpsichord. Gergő is sitting beside me completely alone, turning his head away from the group and looking at his aunt. He is dancing to her beautifully with his eyes and eyelashes. His dance is full of music.

Klara: Now find yourselves the skirt, blouse or trousers of one of the adults and draw the music on it.

This is a funny way of making contact, we were full of guests, and I would the children to get close to them. But drawing also means that we put sounds into visual form that is, we take a step towards the score. Such personal drawings are, of course individual. They can’t substitute for the traditional score, but might prepare and strengthen the concept and allow an approach to the score from a new perspective.

BC: One of the Japanese guests wears culottes. Klári goes there with Viktor and Réka. Dani goes nowhere on his own so Klári tries to lure him there to help draw Haydn’s music on the Japanese girl’s skirt. The Japanese girl enjoys the game, she is smiling brightly. Most of the children are buzzing around Éva’s (the mother of Borsó and Luca) skirt and the trousers of Bendegúz’s father. 

Naturally, they go where they find the warmest reception. There are some guests, even some parents who find it at least strange to have Haydn’s music drawn on their waists.

BC: Now comes the next variation: everybody should find a back and draw the music.

Backs are full of sensory nerves. The adults get a very pleasant gift on their backs.

BC: Orsi is laughing loudly, she is fooling around. The music starts. Bea sticks with the Japanese girl, Klári has managed to persuade Réka to join Ági, Márk’s mother whose pullover is nicely loose.  Klári gives Réka a gentle smile. 

Márk, Ági’s son makes his choice freely from among the guests from abroad, he has already spotted the tallest bearded one, and thumps – as if on a piano – on his back. He doesn’t need maternal protection. 

BC: Réka starts to draw her hair to and fro to the music, to the left and then to the right, then Klári comes up to show her that Ági’s hair may be tousled, too, because she has beautiful, flowing, long hair. They do it wonderfully, all this tousling is very musical.

Hair is a great material. They really liked my hair until it was long. They got really disappointed when I had it cut. Ági also has beautiful, flowing, silky fair hair and her face is an aesthetic experience with her lively, bright eyes. Réka is bewitched by the fact that she may deal with such an aesthetic quality and that Agi is enjoying it. 

BC: Viktor and Dani are laughing together, they are not listening to the others, although they are sitting close to them. Everybody enjoys this drawing on the back very much, and everybody is doing it enthusiastically, concentrating beautifully. Only Viktor and Dani stay out of the game. 

Viktor has problems with learning nowadays, he doesn’t perform as well in school as he used to, he is tired and finds it difficult to concentrate. This is likely a temporary thing. Dani is among the smallest children, he is proud and happy to be able to play with the big boy, Viktor. 

BC: After a long period of musical concentration Klári now initiates another activity: doing somersaults. She turns a somersault herself, and another one, this is received with great applause. Now they are entreating her to do one more backwards, but she doesn’t dare, so Balázs will do it. Klári shows them that they may jump high, up to the ceiling. They leap high as rubber balls, on both legs or on one leg only around and around, there is great gasping. Then Klári calls them to gather round, and congratulates Mark for coming immediately.

Doing somersaults and jumping was a great, free release after the intense concentration. But at these times they may become too exuberant for the teacher’s hands, and roll about as drops of water, impossible to catch. Because of this, it is good to gather the strengths together and to emphasize the starting point of the new activity. Mark came back first, I congratulated him. The older ones are never very late, most of them have been with me for years, they know me, respect me, and they don’t want to hurt me.

Klara: I can wait very patiently even until tomorrow morning. But, please, come here, the sooner the better, because Jóska has something important to say. I would like to ask Adél, Bendegúz and Danika, too, to come here, because this is where Jóska will be talking to you. I am sure that you had even sent Haydn’s music with your eyes to Jóska too. 

The three friends are sparkling with the memories of their summer experiences, they are happy together, it is very good to see this. If we had a whole day, I would never interrupt their merrymaking. But there are so many things to deal with during these two short hours! Now Jóska is speaking. I can’t let other voices suppress his message. 

BC: They settle down, but there is still great hustle and bustle. There are so many of them that they don’t find their places, boards, papers, brushes. They are looking for and asking for all sorts of things.

Yes, it is a difficult task to organize painting in the room with the wall-to-wall carpet. We put the boards and the various instruments on nylon sheets, we fetch water from far. The older ones have go used to it and are helpful and very cautious, but we have a lot of problems with the little ones. Water and paint will spill even with the best intentions. Everybody is trying to do their best, but I fondly remember those practical “art-rooms” equipped with the necessary instruments that I met in many kindergartens and schools abroad. 

BC: Jóska can finally speak, all of them have fallen silent.

Jóska: Today I brought you a surprise, a poem, we listen to it, with eyes closed, in the dark. You can draw and later paint what you see and imagine in yourselves to the music and the poem. Never mind if you don’t understand the poem completely, the important thing is that you feel its idea and draw what you would like to.

Klara: Don’t draw the poem but the things that occur to you when you listen to the poem. Anything. As we usually do, right Jóska?

Jóska: Yes, that’s right, as we usually do. The poem is a new thing now, but don’t be afraid of it.

BC: The tape starts, the voice of Latinovits Zoltán (an outstanding Hungarian actor) recites a poem of Attila József (a great Hungarian poet), entitled “Istenem” (My God). As soon as they heard the first word, they all became completely silent, they were listening to it with great concentration, with rapture almost. 

The poem from the tapes was Jóska’s idea, his choice. It didn’t only inspire drawing but also offered spiritual support on this hard day. It could be understood easily, the little ones were not asking questions, the poem is so beautiful and Latinovits’s performance is so inspired that all of us were transfigured and uplifted.

József Attila: Istenem

Dolgaim elől rejtegetlek,

Istenem, én nagyon szeretlek.

Ha rikkancs volna mesterséged,

Segítenék kiabálni néked.

Hogyha meg szántóvető lennél,

Segítenék akkor is mindennél.

A lovaidat is szeretném,

És szépen, okosan vezetném.

Vagy inkább ekeszarvat fogva

Szántanék én is a nyomodba.

A szikre figyelnék, hogy ottan

A vasat még mélyebbre nyomjam.

Ha csősz volnál, hogy óvd a sarjat,

Én zavarnám a fele varjat,

S bármi efféle volna munkád,

Velem azt soha meg nem unnád.

Ha nevetnél, én is örülnék,

Vacsora után melléd ülnék,

Pipámat egy kicsit elkérnéd,

S én hosszan, mindent elbeszélnék.

Attila József: My God 

(prose translation by Miklós Péti).

I hide you before my things 

my God, I love you so much 

if you were a street-crier, 

I would help you with my voice, 

if you were a ploughman, 

I would help you in the fields, 

I would tend your horses, 

I would lead them carefully and lovingly, 

or, if it pleased you, I would hold the handle of the plough

and drive the plough behind you, 

I would look out for the hardened soil 

so that you would push the iron deeper. 

If you were a field-guard to guard the young plants, 

I would drive away half of the crows, 

and had you other jobs like these 

you wouldn’t get tired of them for you would have my company. 

If you were laughing, I would be merry, too, 

after dinner, I would sit by you, 

you would borrow my pipe for a while, 

and I would tell you tales at length” 

BC: They are all busy drawing. Luca and Kamilla ask for a solo, they still would like to dance.

One hour is not enough for either drawing or dancing. The two together can’t fit two hours. We try to make a compromise, the first hour is devoted to musical movement, singing and toning up, the second is dedicated to drawing and painting, and at the end we sing a farewell song. Many children want to dance solos, so it happens that those who request a solo may dance during painting-time. The music is played to painting, too, there is no conversation during painting. When they start to chat, we stop the music. All this of course requires intensive control, organization and complete attention. It also involves compromise: it would surely be better to spend a whole day together singing, dancing, telling stories, talking to each other, and representing things, which would involve many more activities than drawing and painting: the practising of other representational techniques, a slideshow sometimes, and the browsing of books on art. It’s a nice dream. 

BC: Kamilla and Luca are sitting opposite each other, with long, stretched legs, sticking the soles of their feet together. To the first sounds of the harpsichord they lie down and start to weave in and gently kick each other’s legs. The harpsichord’s trills appear in the movement of Luca’s upper body, she sometimes shakes her hair and shoulders, and lifts her head off the ground. Now, as a tune comes to a close to be followed by another theme in the harpsichord’s play, they weave together their legs, they try to bend their knees into curves which allows them to dance criss-cross on each other’s legs while the theme lasts. As the theme closes they cease for a moment, their soles are stuck together again, and the spiralling of legs stops. 

Klara: How did you understand each other when you were lying and couldn’t see each other? 

Luca: It happened in the way that we held each other’s legs and then we knew how to do it.

I am always amazed with the variety of ways my children communicate their ideas and thoughts to each other. It would be nice to be able to look into their heads and see how they found out this leg-messaging. Compared to this, our adult communication is quite poor being confined to words and a few obligatory gestures! 

BC: Bendegúz and Adél will dance now. Bendegúz is sitting cross-legged, waiting for the first note and concentrating hard on David who is in charge of the tape-recorder. As the first note sounds, Bendegúz starts, goes to Adél and whispers something to her, I think he asks her to wait for him. They are in constant movement. Adél is walking resolutely to the music, the rhythm of the harpsichord. Bendegúz can hardly catch up with her, he overtakes her, tries to embrace her a little bit, and grabs the lower arm of the girl on all fours attempting to stop her. When she is stopped by Bendegúz, Adél starts kicking and stamping her feet to the rhythm of the music. They end with a joyful chase and a sudden stop.

Klara: Please, tell us the story

Adél: I was a dog, Bendegúz was my master.

Bendegúz: Adél always wanted to flee.

Klara: And you fed her in the meanwhile, didn’t you. And at the end did she stay or escape?

Bendegúz: She ran away but I reached her.

By no mere chance, I think. Bendegúz really wanted to reach his beloved Adél, as he finally did. 

BC: Now Orsi is dancing solo. She crouches down very low, putting her head between her arms, her body, her arms and her back tremble periodically, her arms, she rises to her knees to the first note of the harpsichord. As the tutti arrives, she looks around as if she just woke up from some dream. She blinks and starts to walk very vaguely. She is still wondering at her two hands and feet. She jumps to the change of emphasis and stops at the closing of the theme. Then suddenly, as the tutti comes, all hesitation disappears from her movements, sparks fly from her eyes, makes a great flight at the end of which she falls down to the floor. It was a wonderful Haydn flight.

Orsi has found herself. These are the greatest moments. We were experiencing catharsis. I was moved, I could not say a word, I didn’t have to, we were just holding on to each other with Orsi. I have no explanation why such a metamorphosis happens at exactly that time, to exactly her, and to this very music. It is enough that I know that it does happen sometimes, and I hope that it happens to others, too, when it is most needed. 

Orsi’s story: I was a nut, and at first a good fairy cast a spell on me, and gave me a chance. She gave me the chance to be a tulip. Suddenly the nut became a tulip and I didn’t know what was happening around me. I looked at myself, and suddenly I realized what the good fairy had done to me. I realized I was a tulip. I wanted to make the most of my chance and started to dance. The spell only lasted an hour. I really got into it, but then suddenly I changed back to a nut. 

Klara: Was it better to be a nut?

Orsi: It wasn’t, to be a flower was better, I was a tulip. Then I became very sad.

Klara: Why did you become sad?

Orsi: Because it was good to be a tulip, I got to know a lot of flowers. 

Klara: And then, as a nut?

Orsi: It was boring as a nut because people always picked me up and ate me. 

Klara: They ate you, too?

Orsi: Yes, they did.

Klara: Then why did you turn back to a nut?

Orsi: Because the good fairy wanted it in this way. Because if a nut is a nut, then it must remain a nut from then on.

Balázs is explaining his drawing: “Here is God’s field-guard. God is the field-guard, and the storyteller helps him here, and here are the crows. Here is God’s house, here is the pigsty, and here is the horse-stable. When God is laughing, the storyteller is laughing and smoking his pipe.

Klara: Can you show us where he is smoking his pipe?

Balázs: Here he is smoking his pipe and laughing. Here they still had roof tiles, but then they ran out of it and they had build a thatched roof to finish the house.

Balázs’s family put great effort into building their house, they had been building it for long years. The little boy must have witnessed the problems, “running out of tiles” might be a memory from real life. But the thatched roof is fabled and may have been inspired by poetry. The laughing God and the happily smoking storyteller in the picture are beautiful.