RÓZSAVÖLGYI, MÁRK

RÓZSAVÖLGYI, MÁRK (Mark Mordecai Rosenthal ; 1789–1848), composer and violinist. Born in Balassagyarmat, Hungary, Rózsavölgyi studied the violin in Prague and became a violinist in various theatrical ensembles. After 1813 he lived for some time in Baja, but undertook numerous concert tours, and from 1833 to his death lived in Pest. He began to publish his works in 1817 – from 1824 onward mostly under the name of Rózsavölgyi, although the official change of name was granted to him only in 1846.

Rózsavölgyi composed over 100 pieces in the popular style of the Hungarian Verbunkós ("Recruiter's dance") and czardas, some suite-like collections of Hungarian dances, and two stage works. His works, especially the czardas pieces and the dance suites, are of major importance for the development of the form. Three of Franz Liszt's Hungarian rhapsodies are indebted to compositions by Rózsavölgyi: the allegretto of the 8^th, the introduction of the 12^th, and the vivace of the 13^th. The authorship of the "Rakoczi March" was erroneously attributed to Rózsavölgyi by the musicologist Fetis, and in spite of later research this has been persistently repeated in a number of books. Rózsavölgyi's autobiography, written in 1834, has been preserved in manuscript in the Ráday Library in Budapest.

His son gyula (1822–1861), together with Norbert Grinzweil, founded the important music publisher's firm of Rózsavölgyi és Társa in 1850. The firm existed, with various changes of proprietorship, until 1949, when it was nationalized.

[Bathja Bayer]