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Since the mid-nineteenth century, numerous Hungarian press articles have referred to 'Beethoven's funeral march' as a popular funeral piece. According to accounts of representative funerals abroad, this piece was used by military bands to accompany funeral marches, and was in the repertoire of school orchestras, who performed it at funeral ceremonies. It was even featured in literary works as a wellknown funeral piece. In the twentieth century, there were several reports of 'Beethoven's funeral march' being played by Gypsy bands as well. Granted, alongside their most characteristic Hungarian repertoire - csárdás, folk-style songs - Gypsy bands in Hungary have followed the entertaining musical fashions of the time, but the inclusion of this funeral march in their repertoire can be considered peculiar. It is not clear which specific piece is behind the general designation. Customarily, in the case of other popular funeral march-like movements by Beethoven (mainly the slow movement of the Third Symphony and the Piano Sonata in A-flat Major, op. 29 no. 12), the title of the work of origin is stated, however, these pieces were not played by Gypsy bands. Some information points to the designation 'Beethoven's funeral march' denoting an independent Trauermarsch which musicologists ascribe to Johann Heinrich Walch (1776-1855), conductor in Gotha, but which, for a long time, was considered to be a work by Beethoven. In some funeral marches which were recorded on twentieth-century ethnomusicological fieldwork among Gypsy musicians or other local musicians of small towns, or which were found in the music collections of similar musicians, we can recognise that in some Hungarian settlements this piece of music was an integral part of local music tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Lajtha's oeuvre many movements belong to the musical category of marches. There can be found manifold types: grotesque marches as well as creepy, transcendental movements, or sometimes an unstoppable military march is envisioned in the works. The richness of this musical topos can partly be explained by Lajtha's own military experiences. In the First World War he served on the frontiers as artillery officer and cavalry scout. It is quite telling that Lajtha in his correspondance in the late 1940's and in the 1950's still cited many times his memories as a soldier - or even referred to himself as a soldier. As he put it in 1948: 'I was neither a mercenary, nor a renaissance condittore [sic!] just a poor Hungarian lad.' It is not surprising either, that in his works Lajtha reflects often the military topos, nevertheless many types of marches can be indentified by their musical marks. There can be found funeral marches (In memoriam, op. 35, presumably 1941), dancelike marches (Quatre hommages - 3rd movement, op. 42, 1946), a lighthearted march that suddenly turns into a machinelike character (Sonate en Concerts for flute and piano and violin and piano, op. 64 and op. 68, 1958 and 1962), and some parts that sound like a military band playing. In my article I investigate the marches composed by Lajtha between 1945 and 1963. I analyse these works in the context of the generic tradition and the current ideological viewpoints of Hungarian musical circles, and at the same time I try to reveal Lajtha's compositorical models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]