Book - Pap, Zoltán: Muzsikaszó. Budapest, 1910

The songs of the poet, composer, publicist, and parliamentary representative Zoltán Pap and their associated sheet music were published by the Petőfi Society in a richly illustrated deluxe edition in 1910. The colorful, embossed cloth binding of the publication was made at the Nándor Gottermayer Bookbinding Institute, and its designer was Árpád Basch. The sophisticated, Art Nouveau appearance of the volume stands in sharp contrast to the content, the world of Hungarian-style art songs. The front cover is decorated with a series of pale violet blossoming thistles with a row of laurel branches below, and there is a double frame around the composition. Árpád Basch’s name is in the lower right, and the title is in a band at the top, while the composer’s name is at the bottom. The gold embossed letters of the title are connected by a delicate tendril decoration, which ends in a floral ornament, as if it were the stalk of a flower. Art Nouveau ornamentation also fills the area over the smaller lettering in the lower band. Its spine is decorated in a similar manner, with the title on a field of red. The harmonious, intertwined lettering appears again on the title page.