When our church came into being in the US (formally in 1924), it served Rusyn, Hungarian, and Croatian Greek Catholics – basically, all those coming from within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this country, we have had both Hungarian and Croatian parishes, of which a few are still in existence.
With this in mind, for the forthcoming hymnal I plan to include some of the best-loved or most frequently sung hymns from those traditions. So here are three Hungarian spiritual songs for Christmas:
- Angels from heaven – Mennyböl az angyal
- Come, shepherds, joyfully – Pasztorok, Pasztorok örvendeznek
- Praise the Lord – Dicsöség mennyben az Istennek
The first is a Hungarian version of So nebes anhel (and may even have been the original version), so we already have it in English. The other two are provided with new English translations.
When the hymnal is finally published, I plan to provide recordings of BOTH the Slavonic and Hungarian lyrics, as an aid to proper pronunciation.
Let me know what you think!
I grew up in a RC Hungarian Parish. These were probably the most popular (in addition to, say, Silent Night in Hungarian etc.) I have an old hymnal from the 30’s with musical notation. Would that help with anything. I don’t believe there are any copyright restrictions.
Thanks, Gregg, for the offer! I think I have what I need for Magyar from my old parish in Munhall, unless there are other songs which were sung in our Greek Catholic parishes which I just completely missed, and which ought to be included. It looks like we’re good for now.
I had a Bing Crosby cassette tape that had a slightly different translation of Angels From Heaven but searched the internet high and low and no one else seems to have seen it. It was on one of the Bing’s Christmas Around the World. I purchased three copies and all have been lost.