RÓZSAVÖLGYI (ROSENTHAL), MARKUS:

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Hungarian composer; born at Balassa-Gyarmath 1787; died at Pesth Jan. 23, 1848. Having a native love for music, he went at the age of eleven to Vienna to study, and thence to Presburg and Prague. Attracted by the beauty of the Magyar songs, he composed works based on the national music, and became the most popular violinist in the first decade of the nineteenth century. In 1812 he was appointed conductor of the orchestra at the German Theater in Pesth, and in 1824 was made a regular salaried member of the Philharmonic Society of the county of Veszprim, the name "Rosenthal " being publicly Magyarized to "Rózsavölgyi" on the occasion of his election. He gave several official concerts during the coronation ceremonies atPresburg in 1825; and in 1835 he appeared at the Court Opera House in Vienna. Two years later, at the opening of the new National Theater of Pesth, the Hungarian Orchestra of that city played a work composed by him for the occasion, and he subsequently became a regular member of that orchestra.

The famous Gipsy musicians Patikárus, Sárközi, Farkas, and others were pupils of Rózsavölgyi. After his death the poet Petöfi sang his praises in a long poem, reproaching the Hungarian people for permitting the last years of the artist to be clouded by financial difficulties.

Bibliography:
  • Reich, Beth-El, i. 25, Budapest, 1878.
S. L. V.
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