Dániel Gryllus “In my life, the final forms have always been defined by human relationships”

Are there birthdays that have been particularly memorable?

I remember, for example, the fiftieth, it was at Easter, a beautiful spring day, the whole family sat under the lime tree and there was some sort of heavenly peace. Then my sixtieth. We always have close family birthdays, but that time my son Samu decided to set my song cycle Towards Wholeness to music and they performed it. This was repeated on my seventieth. Childhood birthdays all merge into one. Then I remember that many times it was not easy to find the occasion when the children were young, primarily due to my travelling, and today it is even more complicated because we have to adjust to the schedules of the children.

Do these celebrations represent a moment for stocktaking, a special thanksgiving for you?

Thanksgiving and contemplation are not linked to birthdays; as I get older, I need them more and more.

I cannot break my life down into periods or milestones, nor in relation to Kaláka either, I just feel that everything developed and worked out naturally.

You don’t even remember the moment when you first felt that you had become a musician from being a uni student who played music? After all, this was not evident from the beginning.

It was far from evident, rather a swirling transition. I was in my second year when, in 1969, Kaláka was formed and rapidly the emphasis switched to music-making. We were invited to the TV, to the countryside and my teachers also valued this work. By the time I graduated we were a band travelling abroad and had already won a few minor awards. My meeting with my wife, Katalin Kőváry, is also connected with Kaláka, I met her when she was a theatre director, we had been invited to go there for a performance. We married in 1972. She also contributed a lot to our work, she gave us a new perspective with regard to stage presence and performance of poems.

Thus, gradually music, theatre and poetry rolled into my life. By the time I graduated, there was not even a faint chance of making a civil engineer out of me.

Are work and private life still difficult to separate in your family?

I still always take a little work with me even on vacation. After the 50th anniversary of Kaláka we travelled with my wife to Zanzibar, to the ‘paradise’ with perfect climate. A small island with great hotels and very nice, good people. Of course, even in the midst of complete relaxation, resting by the sea, swimming or reading, you think about future plans and new ideas are born, that are either realised or forgotten. We were truly lucky to also see a beautiful full moon. That always grabs me, but there, when it is over the sea, among the palm trees, it is even more magical.

Your children have since become closely associated with the stage, Dorka became an actress and Samu a composer. Does everyone bring their professional ideas to family gatherings, too?

None of us have a nine-to-five job. When the kids are here for Sunday lunch, music, performances, festivals and filming are woven into the occasion, as everyone shares their current projects with us all. But that doesn’t mean we only talk shop.

Do you have any memories of your children surprising you in some way when they were little?

Dorka was still quite young when I noticed how much she stood out in the choir. As a child, Samu surprised me with his honesty and trust.

For example, on a trip to Transylvania, at the Red Lake I told him that if we threw a coin into the water it would come back, like at the Trevi Fountain in Rome, and he trusted me so much that he took it literally. We threw the coin in and he waited for it to come back. That kind of unconditional trust touches a person.

Did they change you?

I feel like starting a family is so one-sided, but children definitely change a parent.

Do you think that, at 70 a person knows themselves better? Or do they have doubts?

I know myself to be an instinctive person, both in friendship and in finance, I listen to ideas...

Meaning that you're not a very speculative person in the first place, you don’t think about that a lot either?

Well that would not be completely true, I do have things that require a long thought process. For example I wrote the song Családi kör (Family Circle) over twenty years. The Tíz példázat (Ten Parables), the poems of Zolitán Sumonyi, which we’ll sing at the Castle Garden Bazaar in April, just came right.

Image

Photo: Tamás Páczai

Can you tell me which is the trait or talent you are most grateful for?

For example, the fact that I am not very strict in business, I do not need my every single moment and action to be profitable. If we like a record, we release it and, if we happen to make a loss on it, then we will profit on the next one. If we apply for and don’t get funding, we create without it. I would feel bad if an important project didn't happen because of that. However, I have no inhibitions about it either, that is, I am not ashamed to announce at the concert that a record is available, I warmly recommend it because we made it for you, to make you happy, to have it! I don’t hide our light under a bushel, I display it. That was very much about business, but there are other aspects to it. If someone has something to offer, then give it, do it!

Amy Károlyi said a long time ago that, when we said we didn't want to write for the desk drawer, it didn't hurt to be able to pull out that desk drawer and have something in it for when you just have nothing else to show at that moment.

Of course, in my case, there may already be so much in there that it is impossible to realise throughout my lifetime. And in the meantime, the world has also changed a lot. Sándor Kányádi always said that you have to move to the internet, that in fact, there are almost no desk drawers anymore. Older people complain that people don't read poetry, while young people simply put them online and read them there, too. János Lackfi and I have now uploaded our song Himnusz az égi-földi kenyérről (Anthem on heavenly-earthly bread), which is available for everyone to listen to. The Lutheran Church made it the song of the Year of Holy Communion. We wrote it so that it could easily become a congregation song and I am glad that it is well received by the other denominations as well. Gábor Smidéliusz , my brother Vilmos  and I have already sung it during a radio broadcast service.

Are there any New Testament stories or parables that are harder for you to accept or understand?

Everything is multifaceted and I don't know of any situation that I would completely reject. Of course, there are uncertainties and doubts in everyone. Marcell Jankovics said that the believer and the atheist are not opposites, as the atheist is also a believer who believes that there is no God.

Doubt is the opposite of faith. At the same time, sometimes one can doubt even basic truths, because the whole story of Jesus is difficult to accept with common sense, Mary, too, was frightened and Joseph also had to be encouraged.

Man, for example, sometimes experiences resurrection only as a symbol, a projected image. How many are really able to embrace the Resurrection? Reason cannot, only faith can.

Did you ever try to explain that to your children?

Not me! They attended religious education classes. It is a great invention of the apostle Paul that we have a corruptible body here on earth and an incorruptible body, and that we should not confuse the two. He must have said that before reading the Gospel. That contrasts with the belief that Jesus was resurrected in an actual body and met with people. If that is another dimension, does it also apply to me? I think only faith or art can answer the really difficult questions.

I often remember that the name ’Kaláka’ is also the motto of your whole life. Family, friendship, community, profession and entertainment are inextricably intertwined, you ask and accept from everyone what they can give, and you are not miserly with what you have, either.

We can thank uncle Zoli, the grandfather of István Mikó for the Kaláka name. There was no other name to rival it. It truly contains work, fun, community, and folklore... In the beginning, when not everyone had their own more definite style, we often figured everything out together. Things still evolve in the community today, but we bring ideas in a much more mature form. In fact, it all consists of human relationships, those have defined the final forms in my life as well.

If we couldn’t laugh or have dinner with Kaláka, then nothing would be work. Bands don’t break up based on what chord you struck or what note you sang off key. Conceptual differences also collide very quickly and then they never come together. 

I am lucky. I can handle the publishing, the festivals, the organisation of the band, the independent initiatives (as, fortunately, everyone in Kaláka has independent works) and the biblical albums and it doesn’t cause me any tension. I really don't like arguing. Maybe it’s also related to my asthma because once or twice in the past, when I worked myself up, I started to gasp, so maybe that’s why I’m a very compromising person.

Image

Photo: Emmer László

That is not necessarily easy in the art world... there are those who are unwilling to perform together on the same stage or even at the same event.

It never gets that far with me, I'll tell you sooner if I have an issue. In my life, I may have ‘fallen out’ with two people. I must say I don’t have anyone who is displeased with me or, at least, I don’t know of anyone. At church, there is always too little time available for me to remember who I should forgive. The people I work with are also important human beings. I feel like they are part of our lives and it would be hard for me to turn someone away who is approaches me.

In Kapolcs, in the Valley of Arts, after pushing through the ten days in the Kaláka Poetry Centre, you always visit the surrounding programmes during the day or even in the evening. You make time for everyone if they stop you, and many do. How do you maintain your curiosity after a tiring festival day?

I'm interested. I don't have to convince myself. I monitor the events of the nearby Vera Harcsa, Muharay and Folk centres for example, but I also always go over to Taliándörögd to see the exhibitions. Just because it interests me to see how others do it differently. I feel that that openness is mutual. We have already given joint concerts with many of our artist friends. Unforgettable, is the surprise concert given for our 40th birthday, and now a joint concert with Budapest Bár and their soloists for the fiftieth. It caused me great joy this autumn when underground bands of musicians younger than our children surprised us with a record containing Kaláka adaptations, it is titled ‘De jó elhagyni magamat (It is good to let myself go)’.

How are you preparing for your seventieth birthday?

I am currently preparing for the Castle Garden Bazaar, where we will be performing the Teljesség felé (Towards completeness) concert with Márta Sebestyén, Ferenc Sebő, Miklós Both, Mókus, Bea Palya, Szilvia Bognár, Ági Szalóki, which we performed 10 years ago and which, according to the current status, is to be held on 26 April, as it has not yet been cancelled. Such a joint singing event is fantastic! Again, that is being organised by my son Samu, and will be the 13th performance.