Sárosi [sza’:roszi] Bálint, *1 January 1925 Csikrákos (now Racul, Romania), †15 July 2022, Hungarian ethnomusicologist. Graduate of higher philological studies at the University of Pázmány Péter (PhD in 1948). In 1956, he completed musicological studies with D. Bartha and B. Szabolcsi (PhD in 1990), and in 1958 – composition with Z. Kodály at the Academy of Music in Budapest. From 1991 he was a university professor.
In 1958–88 he worked at the Institute of Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 1974–1988 he was the head of the ethnomusicology department. He conducted field research on folk music throughout the Hungarian-speaking area and in Ethiopia (1966) and Armenia (1970); he taught at the universities of Innsbruck (1985–86) and Göttingen (1989–90 and 1994). Ordinary member of Széchenyi Irodalmi és Művészeti Akadémia (SZIMA). In 1978–1991 he was a member of the board of the International Council of Traditional Music (ICTM).
Cooperating with a Hungarian radio in 1969–87, he was making folk, traditional music popular; the series of broadcasts was then developed into a textbook of Hungarian musical folklore – Folk Music. Hungarian Musical Idiom. He published record anthologies of musical folklore, including: three anthologies with Hungarian instrumental music. Complementing his great predecessors (Z. Kodály, B. Bartók), Sárosi focused on instrumental music and its performers, creating, among others, the first, exemplary monograph within a handbook of European folk musical instruments. He devoted many publications to Gypsy musical traditions (Gypsy Music), especially the exquisite music of his native Transylvania. These works include analyses of the musical repertoire, transcriptions of ensemble instrumental music, studies on performance practice, comments on the development of the international profile in the musical tradition of the Gypsies, and discussions of historical and iconographic sources.
Laureate of many prizes: Ferenc Erkel, Széchenyi, Hazám and prestigious Hungarian award Príma Primissima. Awarded the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary and the Golden Presidential Medal of the Republic.
Die Volksmusikinstrumente Ungarns, «Handbuch der Europäischen Volksmusikinstrumente», vol. 1, ed. E. Emsheimer, E. Stockmann, Leipzig 1967
Zigeunermusik, Budapest 1971, published in English Gypsy Music, Budapest 1978
Folk Music. Hungarian Musical Idiom, Budapest 1986, also in German
Volksmusik: das ungarische Erbe, Budapest 1990
Sackpfeifer, Zigeunermusikanten. Die instrumentale ungarische Volksmusik, Budapest 1999
Hangszerek a magyar néphagyományban, Budapest 1999
János Bihari, Budapest 2003
Zenei anyanyelvünk, Budapest 2003
A cigányzenekar múltja 1779–1903 (‘the past of Gypsy bands 1779–1903’), Budapest 2004
A hangszeres magyar népzenei hagyomány, Budapest 2008
A cigányzenekar múltja II. 1904–1944 – Az egyokrú sajtó tükrében, Budapest 2012
Bejárt utak – Önéletrajzi jegyzetek, Budapest 2017
Bagpipers, Gupsy Musicians – Instrumental Folk Music Tradition Hungary, Budapest 2017
Dudások, cigányzenészek – A hangszeres magyar népzenei hagyomány, Budapest 2019
Articles in the conference book International Folk Music Council, published in “Studia Instrumentorum Musicae Popularis”, ed. E. Stockmann, Stockholm:
Instrumentalensembles in Ungarn (conference in Stockholm 1969), II, 1972
Instrumentale Volksmusik in Ungarn (in Balatonalmádi 1973), IV, 1976
Geigenspezifische Melodiegestaltung (in Kazimierz Dolny 1977), VI, 1979
Professionelle und nichtprofessionelle Volksmusikanten in Ungarn (in Seggau 1980), VII, 1981
Eine „mehrsprachige” Zigeunerkapelle in Transilvanien (in Pirana in Croatia 1983), VIII, 1985
