	Home Bartok Bela 1881 - 1945 (64) QUOTES
	Béla Bartók (Béla Viktor János Bartók) (1881-1945) was a Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist, one of the most important composers of the 20th century who managed to combine classical music with the rhythms and modes of folk tradition. Béla was born on March 25, 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, a small town that at the time belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today the town is called Sînnicolau Mare and is part of Romania). His father was the director of the local agricultural school and an amateur musician, while his mother was a piano teacher. They began their son's musical education at the age of 4. Béla's father died when he was 8, and his mother took him and his sister and started looking for work in various cities. They ended up in Bratislava in 1894. However, young Béla had already made his first public appearance as a pianist in 1892 in the small town of Nagyecsed, where he played a work by Beethoven and a composition of his own. From 1899 to 1903, he studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest, and in 1902 he attended the premiere of Richard Strauss's work "Also sprach Zarathustra", which influenced him in his early compositions. Translated to English: "He was initially influenced by Brahms and the French impressionists, but eventually arrived at a purely personal style, where audacity is combined with impeccable technique, modernism with almost classical austerity. In 1904, he heard an elderly woman singing traditional songs from her region, Transylvania, and since then his interest in traditional folk music was awakened. He began to collect songs from Transylvania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Serbia, Turkey, and of course, Hungary. In total, he collected about 6,000 folk songs and in 1913 enriched them with another 200 of Arabic origin, which he collected on a visit to Biskra, Algeria. Most of these songs were published under the title "Hungarian Folk Music", a work that remains a reference point. During World War I, he was deemed unfit for military service due to health problems from an early age. In 1937, he began to worry about the Nazi spread in Europe, and after the annexation of Czechoslovakia and Austria in 1938, he seriously considered leaving his country. He visited the United States in late 1939 for concert tours, returned to Hungary in April 1940, gave a final concert in Budapest, and departed for the United States. However, his health deteriorated in America, and in 1944 he was diagnosed with advanced leukemia. He died on September 26, 1945, in New York. He was married and had two children.

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Bartok Bela 1881 - 1945 (64)

QUOTES

Béla Bartók (Béla Viktor János Bartók) (1881-1945) was a Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist, one of the most important composers of the 20th century who managed to combine classical music with the rhythms and modes of folk tradition. Béla was born on March 25, 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, a small town that at the time belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today the town is called Sînnicolau Mare and is part of Romania). His father was the director of the local agricultural school and an amateur musician, while his mother was a piano teacher. They began their son's musical education at the age of 4. Béla's father died when he was 8, and his mother took him and his sister and started looking for work in various cities. They ended up in Bratislava in 1894. However, young Béla had already made his first public appearance as a pianist in 1892 in the small town of Nagyecsed, where he played a work by Beethoven and a composition of his own. From 1899 to 1903, he studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest, and in 1902 he attended the premiere of Richard Strauss's work "Also sprach Zarathustra", which influenced him in his early compositions. Translated to English: "He was initially influenced by Brahms and the French impressionists, but eventually arrived at a purely personal style, where audacity is combined with impeccable technique, modernism with almost classical austerity. In 1904, he heard an elderly woman singing traditional songs from her region, Transylvania, and since then his interest in traditional folk music was awakened. He began to collect songs from Transylvania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Serbia, Turkey, and of course, Hungary. In total, he collected about 6,000 folk songs and in 1913 enriched them with another 200 of Arabic origin, which he collected on a visit to Biskra, Algeria. Most of these songs were published under the title "Hungarian Folk Music", a work that remains a reference point. During World War I, he was deemed unfit for military service due to health problems from an early age. In 1937, he began to worry about the Nazi spread in Europe, and after the annexation of Czechoslovakia and Austria in 1938, he seriously considered leaving his country. He visited the United States in late 1939 for concert tours, returned to Hungary in April 1940, gave a final concert in Budapest, and departed for the United States. However, his health deteriorated in America, and in 1944 he was diagnosed with advanced leukemia. He died on September 26, 1945, in New York. He was married and had two children.