Personal Data
Dates: 1881-1945
Born: Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary
Residences: Budapest, New York
Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók was both composer and ethnomusicologist. With his friend Zoltan Kodály, he traveled through rural Hungary and Romania in the early years of the 20th century, using the new technology of gramophone cylinders to record peasant songs in the hopes of preserving Hungarian folk music and sparking a revival of interest in it. He then incorporated much of this music and style into his compositions, weaving in the forms and techniques of Western art music.
For this reason more than any other, Bartók enters the Pantheon of great composers as both the most important national voice of Hungary and as a key innovator in both composition and aesthetics of the 20th century.
Allegro Barbaro
As Carol mentions in the introductory video, the short piece Allegro Barbaro, composed in 1911, makes a good introduction to the music of Bartók.
Bartók’s parents were both amateur musicians who recognized and fostered his musical development. His childhood, however, was marred by the early death of his father in 1888 and the financial difficulties the family experienced.
He progressed rapidly as a pianist and showed an early interest in composition. In 1890, he was given the opportunity to study at the Academy of Music in Budapest, but his mother decided he should remain with the family. They moved frequently seeking better employment and opportunities for Bartók. He gave his first public performance in 1892. After finally settling in 1894 in the town of Pozsony, Bartók received more concentrated instruction.
In 1889, he contemplated entering the Vienna Conservatory—the most prestigious at that time. But Bartók rejected that offer and choose the Budapest Academy instead in both piano and composition. Although he studied and mastered the most advanced compositional techniques of German Romanticism, he felt uninspired writing in that tradition. At the Academy, he developed a strong interest in the music of Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. And he became an advocate of the burgeoning Hungarian independence movement.
While other Hungarian composer were using folklike songs in their compositions, Bartók realized they were not true Hungarian folk tunes. He notated his first song sung by a peasant girl in 1904, and this sparked an interest in further exploration. In 1905, he forged a relationship with Zoltan Kodály that would become a lifelong collaboration.
Bartók was given a professorship at the Budapest Academy in 1907, which allowed him to continue his research. He married one of his pupils, Márta Ziegler, in 1909.
He and Kodály arranged for publication of their first collection of folk songs in 1913, but World War I caused publication to be delayed until after the war. Bartók was not called for service in the war because of his weak physical condition, dating back to a childhood bout of pneumonia.
After the war, Bartók toured extensively, giving piano concerts throughout Europe, and gained an international reputation.
Timeline
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