Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Violin by Iriny Markevych, cimbalom and overall arrangement by Anna Molnár, vocals by Farya Faraji, arrangement closely modeled after Dobroda Zenekar’s which can be heard here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0rDDpzTFI1Y
The melody of this version is identical to another Hungarian air, Napot is Szererem, which can be heard here:
• youtu.be/-Oi7Q-2M0sY?si=vWiBrdmKlMx1hy6R
• youtu.be/tssJ6uFjgR0?si=zYkU3PmLH-hpwHDH
• youtu.be/KKd-PwfQB0o?si=YMc_ElW_MIC6dZZX
Napot is Szererem seems to be a song from the Csángós community, ethnic Hungarians who live in the Bacău region of the Moldova region in the country of Romania. Csángós music is defined by different typlogical features than those found in the music of Hungary proper, such as more pronounced Balkanic features, like the usage of the Phrygian Dominant scale heard here.
The Csordapásztorok tradition is a family of related Hungarian songs telling the story of the Nativity, most traditional versions being in archaic pentatonic versions with ample melismata youtube.com/watch?v=Hlvl7XgCOug This version of Csordapásztorok therefore seems to be a retroactive modification by the band Dobroda Zenekar that arranged it in a typologically Csángós musical style, including the usage of the Phrygian dominant.
Hungarian music like this, which uses this scale, became more common within Hungary itself from the 20th century onwards, when this Hijaz-family / Double-Harmonic-type sound grew in popularity in urban café music in the cities of Hungary, to the point that many Hungarian Classical composers adopted it into their language, solidifying a relationship between it and Hungary in Classical circles.
This scale, however, is not indigenous to Hungary, and its closest indigenous analogue is the Hungarian Minor scale, which does use the same Hijaz-like gaps of the Double Harmonic Major, but in different tetrachordal configurations. Adding to this, the cimbalom models used here are a mix of folk and classical concert cimbaloms. This instrumental aesthetic, along with the more modern Double Harmonic Sound, showcases how the archaic Hungarian folk repertoire is currently being re-stylised with newer aesthetics, in this case some of them due to external influenced. It should be clarified that this specific Dobroda Zenekar rendition is not a traditional field-recording version of a Csordapásztorok from any village, but rather, a richly syncretic rendition that showcases the various influences of the modern, evolving sound of Hungarian traditional music, this rendition being rooted in the Csángós musical tradition, and aligning with the more recent stream of Hungarian music that uses the Phrygian dominant scale. Bálint Sárosi and Zoltán Kodály documented this more recent stream of Kávéházi zene/Keleties hangzás Hungarian music in their writings which I recommend those interested to read:
• Folk music of Hungary by Kodály Zoltán, 1972:
archive.org/details/folkmusicofhunga0000koda/page/7/mode/1up?q=phrygian
• "Gypsy music" by Sárosi, Bálint, 1978
archive.org/details/gypsymusic00saro/mode/1up
Lyrics in Hungarian:
Csordapásztoroknak
Nyájat őrizőknek
Nappal az erdőben,
Éjjel a mezőben.
Oly nagy félelemmel
Telik meg ő szívek
Oly nagy félelemmel
Telik meg ők szívük.
Isten engyalai
Jövének melléjek
Örömet mondani,
Hogy ők ne féljenek.
Menjetek hát gyorsan,
Gyorsan a városba,
Ott megtaláljátok
Jézust a jászolyban.
Nem fekszik ő ágyban,
Sem friss palotában,
Szénán bágyadozik,
Rongyok között nyugszik.
Nincsen őnekije
Bársony takarója
És sem a városban
Egy jó akarója.
English translation:
To the herd-shepherds,
To those watching their flocks,
By day in the forest,
By night out in the fields.
A great fear
Fills their hearts,
A great fear
Fills their very souls.
God’s angels
Came down beside them
To speak good tidings,
So that they need not fear.
“Go now quickly,
Quickly into the town;
There you will find
Jesus in the manger.”
He lies not in a bed,
Nor in a fine palace,
He droops upon the hay,
He rests among the rags.
He has not
A velvet covering,
Nor, in the whole town,
Even a single well-wisher.
Violin by Iriny Markevych, cimbalom and overall arrangement by Anna Molnár, vocals by Farya Faraji, arrangement closely modeled after Dobroda Zenekar’s which can be heard here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0rDDpzTFI1Y
The melody of this version is identical to another Hungarian air, Napot is Szererem, which can be heard here:
• youtu.be/-Oi7Q-2M0sY?si=vWiBrdmKlMx1hy6R
• youtu.be/tssJ6uFjgR0?si=zYkU3PmLH-hpwHDH
• youtu.be/KKd-PwfQB0o?si=YMc_ElW_MIC6dZZX
Napot is Szererem seems to be a song from the Csángós community, ethnic Hungarians who live in the Bacău region of the Moldova region in the country of Romania. Csángós music is defined by different typlogical features than those found in the music of Hungary proper, such as more pronounced Balkanic features, like the usage of the Phrygian Dominant scale heard here.
The Csordapásztorok tradition is a family of related Hungarian songs telling the story of the Nativity, most traditional versions being in archaic pentatonic versions with ample melismata youtube.com/watch?v=Hlvl7XgCOug This version of Csordapásztorok therefore seems to be a retroactive modification by the band Dobroda Zenekar that arranged it in a typologically Csángós musical style, including the usage of the Phrygian dominant.
Hungarian music like this, which uses this scale, became more common within Hungary itself from the 20th century onwards, when this Hijaz-family / Double-Harmonic-type sound grew in popularity in urban café music in the cities of Hungary, to the point that many Hungarian Classical composers adopted it into their language, solidifying a relationship between it and Hungary in Classical circles.
This scale, however, is not indigenous to Hungary, and its closest indigenous analogue is the Hungarian Minor scale, which does use the same Hijaz-like gaps of the Double Harmonic Major, but in different tetrachordal configurations. Adding to this, the cimbalom models used here are a mix of folk and classical concert cimbaloms. This instrumental aesthetic, along with the more modern Double Harmonic Sound, showcases how the archaic Hungarian folk repertoire is currently being re-stylised with newer aesthetics, in this case some of them due to external influenced. It should be clarified that this specific Dobroda Zenekar rendition is not a traditional field-recording version of a Csordapásztorok from any village, but rather, a richly syncretic rendition that showcases the various influences of the modern, evolving sound of Hungarian traditional music, this rendition being rooted in the Csángós musical tradition, and aligning with the more recent stream of Hungarian music that uses the Phrygian dominant scale. Bálint Sárosi and Zoltán Kodály documented this more recent stream of Kávéházi zene/Keleties hangzás Hungarian music in their writings which I recommend those interested to read:
• Folk music of Hungary by Kodály Zoltán, 1972:
archive.org/details/folkmusicofhunga0000koda/page/7/mode/1up?q=phrygian
• "Gypsy music" by Sárosi, Bálint, 1978
archive.org/details/gypsymusic00saro/mode/1up
Lyrics in Hungarian:
Csordapásztoroknak
Nyájat őrizőknek
Nappal az erdőben,
Éjjel a mezőben.
Oly nagy félelemmel
Telik meg ő szívek
Oly nagy félelemmel
Telik meg ők szívük.
Isten engyalai
Jövének melléjek
Örömet mondani,
Hogy ők ne féljenek.
Menjetek hát gyorsan,
Gyorsan a városba,
Ott megtaláljátok
Jézust a jászolyban.
Nem fekszik ő ágyban,
Sem friss palotában,
Szénán bágyadozik,
Rongyok között nyugszik.
Nincsen őnekije
Bársony takarója
És sem a városban
Egy jó akarója.
English translation:
To the herd-shepherds,
To those watching their flocks,
By day in the forest,
By night out in the fields.
A great fear
Fills their hearts,
A great fear
Fills their very souls.
God’s angels
Came down beside them
To speak good tidings,
So that they need not fear.
“Go now quickly,
Quickly into the town;
There you will find
Jesus in the manger.”
He lies not in a bed,
Nor in a fine palace,
He droops upon the hay,
He rests among the rags.
He has not
A velvet covering,
Nor, in the whole town,
Even a single well-wisher.
