Bela Bartok

Ashland Davis

Composer paper

Music Appreciation

Dr. James Christensen

May 1, 2017

Bela Bartok

        Bela Bartok was a Hungarian musician who was born on March 25, 1881in a small town Banatian in the Kingdom of Hungary, he passed away on September 26, 1945 at the age of sixty-four. Bela learned how to play the piano at young age by his mother, at the age of four he was able to play 40 different works on the piano. He later attended the Royal academy and graduated in 1903. Bartok’s teachers at the Royal academy were Janos Koessler, for composition and István Thoman for piano. Bela performed his first public concert at the age eleven, he performed several pieces, and one of his own compositions, ‘The Course of the Banube’ that he wrote at the age of nine. This helped launch Bela a bright reputation as a pianist, even out of Hungary. At the academy Bartok met Zoltan Kodaly, who became a longtime friend and colleague, together they collected folk music from the region in attempt to protect it. After graduating Bela Composed one of his first major works, ‘Kossuth’, a poem which honored Lajos Kossuth, a hero of the Hungarian Revolution. Before he attended the academy, Bela studied in Slovakia, with Laszlo Erkel, who was also a Hungarian composer. Bela was accepted into Vienna Conservatory, but decided not to attend.

He was not only a composer but also a pianist, teacher, and an ethnomusicologist. Bela is a founder of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology.  Bela married Marta Ziegler when she was just sixteen, they had a son Bella Bartok III.  Marta was Bela’s inspiration for his only opera, ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’. After being together for almost fifteen years they divorced. Just two months after his divorce he remarried to Ditta Pasztory, one of his piano students who was only 19, he at the time was 42. They had a son named Peter. In 1940 Bela became increasingly ill, four years later he was diagnosed with leukemia, but it was too late for a cure. With the help of Joseph Szigeti, and Fritz Reinger, Bela produced his final sets of masterpieces.  In his memory, there are statues of him in Brussels, London, and Budapest.  His plaque and bust are in New York City, and Ankara Turkey.

 He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century. Bela created his own signature style by synthesizing the Hungarian pattern of music and other folk music throughout his career. Some of Bela’s famous works are deeply influenced by Debussy, this is clearly evident in ‘Fourteen Bagatelles’(1908). He was inspired by Klara Gombossy to compose ‘Suite for piano opus 14’ (1916), ‘The Miraculous Mandarin’ (1918), in this time he also completed ‘The Wooden Prince’ (1917). Bela also wrote a book ‘Mikrokosmos’, a six-volume collection of piano pieces, to help his younger students and his son Peter.