The modern cimbalom - equipped with pedals - was first presented in 1874 in Budapest. The first milestone in the 20th century history of this instrument, alongside Zoltán Kodály's works, was the meeting between Igor Stravinsky and Aladár Rácz. Stravinsky employed the cimbalom in several of his works (Renard, Les Noces, Ragtime, etc.), and Rácz became a world-famous musician due to his unique way of playing. He passed his knowledge on to his students at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, including József Szalai, who inspired György Kurtág in 1961 to write his first work for the instrument (Eight Duos for violin and cimbalom, op. 4). Ever since, the cimbalom has enjoyed a special attention in Hungarian and international contemporary music, and its repertoire has been significantly expanded by virtue of a close professional collaboration between generations of composers and cimbalom players.

The present collection is a selection of Hungarian works for the cimbalom written after 2000, and it showcases the diverse creative approaches inspired by the instrument. The composers featured in this book are György Kurtág, Zoltán Jeney, Máté Bella, Dániel Dinyés, Balázs Horváth, Márton Kerékfy, Péter Tornyai, and Péter Zombola.