György Ranki

György Ranki was born as György Gaszton Reisz on 30 October 1907 in Budapest (at that time Austro-Hungarian Empire, today: Hungary). The family was of Jewish faith and due to the hostilities against Jews already at that time converted to Calvinism and changed their surname to Ranki in 1914. György Ranki learned to play the piano as a child, but after school first began to study at the technical university. After a year he quit and enrolled at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music where he studied under Zoltan Kodaly between 1926 and 1930.
After his studies György Ranki started a career as a composer. He earned his living as a film composer and through commissions from the Budapest National Theatre. Parallel he tried to place his original compositions at New Music Concerts organised by him and his fellow young composers Sandor Veress, Pal Kadosa, Ferenc Szabo and Ferenc Farkas. But it was a piece of stage music that brought him the first success. The incidental music to the play "Il bugiardo" by Carlo Goldoni was used for a new production at the Vienna Burgtheater. 
György Ranki was also interested in folk music, also the folk music from other cultures and worked with Laszlo Lajtha at the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. In the time shortly before the outbreak of World War II György Ranki made trips to London and Paris. In Paris he worked with Andre Schaeffner at the Musee de l'Homme and catalgued the collection of folk music from the Far East.
During World War II György Ranki returned to Budapest and despite his conversion and change of name had to face hostilities and could only work as a "ghost composer".
After the end of World War II György Ranki established himself more and more as a successful composer. This allowed him to earn a living completely with composing. In 1952 and 1957 he received the Erkel Award and in 1954 his opera "Pomade kiraly uj ruhaja" earned him the renowned Kossuth Prize. Over the next decades György Ranki became one of the leading voices of Hungary and his works were also performed abroad. In 1963 he was made a Merited Artist by the Hungarian government and was awarded the Bartok-Pasztory Prize in 1987, both awards valuing his lifetime achievements as a composer.
György Ranki died on 22 May 1992 in Budapest (Hungary).

The work catalogue of György Ranki contains numerous stage works like operas, operettas, incidental music, ballets, radio plays and theatre plays and music for about 80 films. He has also composed vocal music like an oratorio, choruses and songs as well as orchestral music like 2 symphonies, a viola concerto, works for violin and orchestra, for piano and orchestra, a cimbalom concertino and other works. Among his chamber music are 3 piano sonatas, a string quartet, a Serenata all'antiqua for violin and piano and much more.

In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the composition "Nekrolog" by György Ranki. The work was composed in 1971 and is scored for female voice, mixed choir and cimbalom. It was composed for the 5th anniversay of the passing of Zoltan Kodaly and uses the necrology Bence Szabolcsi wrote after Kodaly's death in 1967.