Musical Crossovers in Budapest: ERASMUS+ Teaching Mobility at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music | by E. Reisinger

The interaction of musical traditions is always not only a wellspring of artistic creativity but also a negotiation of power and privilege. In late March 2025, I was invited to discuss phenomena of musical crossovers during an ERASMUS+ Teaching Mobility at the Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem in Budapest.

Over the course of four days, we delved into the microcosm of New York City, an international metropolis and a vibrant space for such cultural encounters. We focused on the period from the 1920s to the 1940s, when the question of what (modern) “American” music could and should be regained momentum. In this context, many musicians explored hybrid compositional styles that oscillated between African American and European classical music. In New York, the Harlem Renaissance created particularly fertile ground for this discourse.

In my public guest lecture Bach breaks out and goes to town: Gender, Class, and White Privilege in Jazzing the Classics” at the beginning of the week, I engaged with pieces that explicitly referenced European classical music but combined it with syncopated rhythms and jazz instrumentation. Such versions of well-known melodies from the concert and opera canon were extremely popular in the U.S. in the 1930s and 1940s and echoed from radios and record players across the country. On the basis of the two pieces “Bach breaks out” (Lou Singer, 1941, probably presented on air by harpsichordist Sylvia Marlowe) and “Bach goes to town” (Alec Templeton, 1938, made a hit by clarinetist Benny Goodman), I discussed the power dynamics within this genre at different levels.

A special highlight of the lecture was the performance of Singer’s “Bach breaks out” by students of the academy. Written around 1941 for harpsichordist Sylvia Marlowe’s radio performances, this piece is part of a collection of sheet music that had been forgotten in boxes in a private attic in New York for decades. It was only by chance and with the help of a friend that I was able to locate this music (in form of Marlowe and her band’s original performance material) and to ensure that it is now properly stored in an archive and, most importantly, accessible to researchers and musicians.1 It is likely that, on 25 March, 2025, this piece had been heard live for the first time in over 80 years.

Clip from the performance of “Bach breaks out” at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, 25 March, 2025 – Edvárd Gergely (alto saxophone), Bence Fleischer (trumpet), Martin Nagy (clarinet), Lóránt Péch (piano), Lőrinc Mohácsy (double bass), Richárd Enyedi (harpsichord); preparation & rehearsals: Kristóf Bacsó. ©E. Reisinger 2025.

In the subsequent seminar, “Race, Gender, and Concert Jazz,” we looked at the other side: the integration of African American idioms into classical concert music. Through the example of the music of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and Mary Lou Williams, we engaged in an exchange about issues of representation and marginalization in the music business, in processes of repertoire formation and canonization, and ultimately in the writing of music history.

Both parts were linked on a methodological-theoretical level by the concept of intersectionality, as introduced by sociologists Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge:

Intersectionality investigates how intersecting power relations influence social relations across diverse societies as well as individual experiences in everyday life.2

Rather than seeing people as a homogeneous, undifferentiated mass of individuals, intersectionality provides a framework for explaining how categories of race, class, gender, age, and citizenship status, among others, position people differently in the world.3

This approach has been widely adopted by scholars in cultural studies and the humanities, including historical research. During my stay in Budapest, the students of the academy and I explored how this, as one possible interpretive framework, could help us rethink various aspects of music history and address its complexity.

The students were interested, open minded, and very reflective. Also, I need to express my sincere thanks to my colleagues in Budapest, particularly Lóránt Péteri and Gabriella Murvai-Bőke, who have been such great hosts. I felt warmly welcomed at the academy, and I do appreciate my privilege of being allowed to enjoy such a wonderful and inspiring time in this beautiful city.

Impressions from my week in Budapest: 1. at the guest lecture (©J. Stacher 2025), 2. enjoying a marvellous performance of Bartók’s A kékszakállú herceg vára by the students of the Liszt Academy in their astonishing concert hall (©E. Reisinger 2025), 3. during the seminar with the students of the Liszt Academy (©G. Murvai-Bőke 2025), 4. inside the beautiful historic building of the Liszt Academy (©J. Stacher 2025); 5. spring time in Budapest (©E. Reisinger 2025).


  1. New York City (NY, USA), The New School Archives, Sylvia Marlowe Papers, Scores and Recordings, Series 3: Scores, https://digital.archives.newschool.edu/index.php/Detail/collections/MP002601. ↩︎
  2. Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, Intersectionality, Cambridge: Polity Press, 22020, 2. ↩︎
  3. Ibidem, 19. ↩︎


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Elisabeth Reisinger (May 16, 2025). Musical Crossovers in Budapest: ERASMUS+ Teaching Mobility at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music | by E. Reisinger. Performers as Patrons of New Music. Retrieved November 17, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13xyo


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