"Eritis mihi testes" published by the National Széchényi Library (OSZK) was nominated for a prestigious international award. The publication entitled Audio recordings of the 1938 International Eucharistic Congress in Budapest . The bilingual study volume was nominated for one of this year's awards by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), an international organization. The organization brings together the audio and audiovisual recording industry, and its membership covers the entire world.
The 34th International Eucharistic Congress held in Budapest between May 25 and 29, 1938 was not only the XX. turned out to be an outstanding event in the Hungarian public and cultural history of the 20th century, but also in the history of Hungarian sound recording. The content of the study volume is the work of Ferenc János Szabó and Marietta B. Kaskötő (both employees of the Institute of Musicology of the Eötvös Loránd Research Network Humanities Research Center). The audio recordings were compiled by János Ferenc Szabó with the help of OSZK's staff - Dede Franciska and Illyés Boglárka - and digitized and restored by Ákos Solymosi, a staff member of OSZK's Theater and Music Library. In addition to the history of church music recordings, we can also get a glimpse into the operation of contemporary publishers and record companies, which is also a real curiosity from the point of view of cultural history. The studies are followed by the transcribed texts of the audio recordings that can be heard on the CD.
Three types of audio documents have also preserved the events of the congress: commercial gramophone records, studio recordings of Magyar Rádió, and private audio recordings of radio broadcasts recorded on X-ray discs have also survived.
The three types present the Eucharistic Congress from three different points of view.
The book cover was designed by Judit Vincze.
Source: OSZK
The CD supplement of the OSZK volume contains a representative selection of the audio recordings of the congress.
In addition to the folk songs that can be heard based on the official singing order of the Eucharistic meeting, there are special recordings of the details of the opening ceremony, as well as the greeting of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (1876–1958), papal legate (later Pope Pius XII) at the Matthias Church.
The volume is complemented by special illustrations: sheet music, posters, record labels, photographs frame the unity of text and music.
Source: Hungarian Nation
Featured image: Fortepan/Sándor Bojár
