Hungarian national anthem
| English: Himnusz | |
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Original sheet music for Himnusz.
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National anthem of  Hungary
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| Also known as | Isten, áldd meg a Magyart English: God, bless the Hungarians A magyar nép zivataros századaiból English: From the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people |
| Lyrics | Ferenc Kölcsey, 1823 |
| Music | Ferenc Erkel |
| Adopted | 1844 |
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Himnusz
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"Himnusz" is the official national anthem of Hungary. It was adopted in the 19th century and the first stanza is sung at official ceremonies. The words were written by Ferenc Kölcsey, a nationally renowned poet in 1823, and its currently official musical setting was composed by the romantic composer Ferenc Erkel in 1844, although other less-known musical versions exist. The poem bore the subtitle "A magyar nép zivataros századaiból" ("From the stormy centuries of the Hungarian people"); it is often argued that this subtitle – by emphasising past rather than contemporary national troubles – was added expressly to enable the poem to pass Habsburg censorship. The full meaning of the poem's text is evident only to those well acquainted with Hungarian history.
The lyrics of "Himnusz" are a prayer beginning with the words Isten, áldd meg a magyart (
listen ) ("God, bless the Hungarians").
The title in the original manuscript is "Hymnus" - a Latin word meaning "hymn", and one which had no widely used counterpart in the Hungarian language at the time. The phonetic transcription "Himnusz" replaced the original Latin spelling over time, and as the poem gained widespread acceptance as the de facto anthem of Hungary, so too the word "himnusz" took on the meaning "national anthem". It is only in specialist usage that it is used in its original meaning of "hymn" in Hungarian.
Although Kölcsey completed the poem on 22 January 1823, it was only published first in 1829 in Károly Kisfaludy's Aurora, without the subtitle, despite it being part of the manuscript. It subsequently appeared in a collection of Kölcsey's works in 1832, this time with the subtitle. A competition for composers to make the poem suitable to be sung by the public was staged in 1844 and won by Erkel's entry. His version was first performed in the National Theatre (where he was conductor) in July 1844, then in front of a larger audience on 10 August 1844, at the inaugural voyage of the steamship Széchenyi. By the end of the 1850s it became customary to sing Himnusz at special occasions either alongside Vörösmarty's Szózat or on its own.
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