Musicologist János Kárpáti Dies at 88

János Kárpáti was born in 1932 in Budapest. He first studied violin at the Liszt Academy from 1949, then between 1951 and 1956, he studied musicology under Dénes Bartha, Bence Szabolcsi and Lajos Bárdos. Between 1961 and 2005, he was the director of the university library, in addition to which he taught at the Musicology Department throughout this period. 

He collected folk music in Morocco (1958) and Japan (1988, 1994). His book entitled Music of the East and several other studies on Asian music cultures were the fruit of his trip to Asia. The oeuvre of Béla Bartók was another important subject matter in his writings, and he also held master classes on this subject in many countries around the world.  

From 1980 to 1986, he was the vice president of the International Association of Music Libraries, and from 1998 to 2007, he was the president of the Hungarian Society of Musicology and Music Criticism. He lectured at universities in the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, France, and Italy. He represented Hungary at several international conferences, including ones in Tehran, New Delhi, Florence, Tokyo, Osaka, Detroit, Washington and Los Angeles. He obtained his CSc in 1968 and his PhD in 1995; between 2000 and 2003, he was a recipient of the Széchenyi professorial scholarship. His work was recognised with the Erkel Prize in 1971, the Grand Prix of the National Association of Hungarian Artists in 1991, the Award for Excellence medal of the American Liszt Society in 1996, the Széchenyi Prize in 2005, and the József Eötvös Wreath of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2005.