In December 1970, Tamás Cseh and Géza Bereményi met after midnight, among mutual friends, at a pub in Budapest. The next day, they wrote their first two songs together; over the following decades, they wrote hundreds more, released albums, created stage shows, and influenced countless Hungarian musicians and writers. In the essay collection More and Less than a Friend, the writer and translator Diana Senechal introduces Cseh and Bereményi's work to an English-speaking audience. Some of the essays take up individual songs, albums, or stage shows; some explore the songs' recurring themes; and some consider the songs' history and legacy. Lively and insightful, and supplemented with a playlist, this book will appeal to those interested in Hungary, music, songwriting, poetry, language, and the whimsicality of life.
"This is a remarkable book. Diana Senechal brings together her talents as a writer, translator, musician, poet, and cultural critic to explore the multifaceted relationship between Tamás Cseh and Géza Bereményi, two Hungarian songwriters whose partnership started in the seventies and spanned decades. Senechal examines how the duo-Cseh as composer and performer and Bereményi as lyricist-created an array of compelling characters that appeared in song after song and in various stage shows and albums. Her translations of the works and her analysis of sonic patterns are subtle, engaging, and historically informed, capturing the allusiveness and playfulness of songs that are simultaneously personally, culturally, and politically evocative but not didactic. Senechal's prose is a pleasure to read-clear, thoughtful, and precise-portraying the creative practices of two powerful and underappreciated artists."
- Ernest Suarez, Ernest Suarez, co-author of Poetic Song Verse: Blues-Based Popular Music and Poetry; David M. O'Connor Professor of English at the Catholic University of America
"Again and again, chance plays its games, making miracles possible. Such a miracle occurred when, in the winter of 1970, two young men met in the early hours of morning, and from that meeting songs were born that would extend across the generations. Chance brought Diana Senechal to Hungary so that she would encounter these songs, fall in love with them, write a book about them-and through this, another miracle might happen: the song lyrics and melodies might attract American readers, potential listeners. The chance of miracle guided Diana when she put her profound, precise, yet simple and infinitely personal work on the table. This simplicity and intimacy is the common watermark of the book's two heroes, Géza Bereményi and Tamás Cseh; the writer, Diana Senechal; and our conviction that each reader will likewise connect with the book, the songs, and two unfamiliar, charismatic creators."
- László Bérczes, author of Cseh Tamás: Bérczes László beszélgetőkönyve - ("Tamás Cseh: László Bérczes' Conversation Book"); theatre director; Ördögkatlan Festival co-founder and co-organizer
