The aim of the book is to bridge the gap between ethnomusicology and the teaching of folk music. Starting out from the folk music research of Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály and incorporating the achievements of the scholarly generations in their wake, it gives an overview of the historical layers and styles of Hungarian folk music. It presents its complex relations between ages and styles - so different from what characterizes art music; it discusses its contacts with linguistically related peoples and European folk musics, the interactions between folk and art music, the folklorization of music. It touches on the musical peculiarities, mode of performance, function and textual genres of the tunes. The book is enriched with several music examples, photos and facsimiles. The set of examples compiled for the book can be found on the homepage of the Institute for Musicology, Research Centre for the Humanities; the enjoyable musical experience it provides will deepen the acquired knowledge.