Bla Bartk

Bla Viktor Jnos Bartk March 25, 1881 September 26,

1945) was a Hungariancomposer and pianist. He is
considered one of the most important composers of the
20th century; he and Liszt are regarded as Hungary's
greatest composers (Gillies 2001). Through his collection
and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the
founders of comparative musicology, which later
became ethnomusicology.
Bla Bartk was born in the small Banatian town of
Nagyszentmikls in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-
Hungary (since 1920 Snnicolau Mare, Romania) on
March 25, 1881. Bartk's family reflected some of the
ethno-cultural diversities of the country. His father, Bla
Sr., considered himself thoroughly Hungarian, because
on his father's side the Bartk family was a Hungarian
lower noble family, originating from Borsod county (Mser 2006a, 44; Bartk 1981, 13), though
his mother, Paula (born Paula Voit), had German as a mother tongue, but was ethnically of
"mixed Hungarian" ancestry (Bayley 2001, 16). Among her closest forefathers there were
families with such names as Polereczky (MagyarizedPolish or Slovak) and Fegyveres (Magyar).
Bla displayed notable musical talent very early in life: according to his mother, he could
distinguish between different dance rhythms that she played on the piano before he learned to
speak in complete sentences (Gillies 1990, 6). By the age of four he was able to play 40 pieces
on the piano amd his mother began formally teaching him the next year.
Bla was a small and sickly child and suffered from severe eczema until the age of 5 (Gillies
1990, 5). In 1888, when he was seven, his father (the director of an agricultural school) died
suddenly. Bla's mother then took him and his sister, Erzsbet, to live
in Nagyszls (today Vinogradiv, Ukraine) and then to Pozsony (German: Pressburg,
todayBratislava, Slovakia). In Pozsony, Bla gave his first public recital at age 11 to a warm
critical reception. Among the pieces he played was his own first composition, written two years
previously: a short piece called "The Course of the Danube" (de Toth 1999). Shortly thereafter
Lszl Erkel accepted him as a pupil.

Compositions
Further information: List of compositions by Bla Bartk and List of solo piano compositions by Bla
Bartk

Bartk's music reflects two trends that dramatically changed the sound of music in the 20th century:
the breakdown of the diatonic system of harmony that had served composers for the previous two
hundred years (Griffiths 1978, 7); and the revival of nationalism as a source for musical inspiration, a
trend that began with Mikhail Glinka and Antonn Dvokin the last half of the 19th century
(Einstein 1947, 332). In his search for new forms of tonality, Bartk turned to Hungarian folk music,
as well as to other folk music of theCarpathian Basin and even of Algeria and Turkey; in so doing he
became influential in that stream of modernism which exploited indigenous music and techniques
(Botstein [n.d.], 6).

One characteristic style of music is his Night music, which he used mostly in slow movements of
multi-movement ensemble or orchestral compositions in his mature period. It is characterised by
"eerie dissonances providing a backdrop to sounds of nature and lonely melodies" (Schneider 2006,
84). An example is the third movement Adagio of his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.

His music can be grouped roughly in accordance with the different periods in his life.

Youth: Late-Romanticism (18901902)

The works of his youth are of a late-Romantic style. Between 1890 and 1894 (nine to 13 years of age)
he wrote 31 pieces with corresponding opus numbers. He started numbering his works anew with
"opus 1" in 1894 with his first large scale work, a piano sonata. Up to 1902, Bartk wrote in total 74
works which can be considered in Romantic style. Most of these early compositions are either scored
for piano solo or include a piano. Additionally, there is some chamber music for strings.

New influences (190311)

Under the influence of Richard Strauss (among other works Also sprach Zarathustra) (Stevens 1993,
1517), Bartk composed in 1903 Kossuth, a symphonic poem in ten tableaux. In 1904 followed
his Rhapsody for piano and orchestra which he numbered opus 1 again, marking it himself as the
start of a new era in his music. An even more important occurrence of this year was his overhearing
the eighteen-year-old nanny Lidi Dsa from Transylvania sing folk songs, sparking Bartk's lifelong
dedication to folk music (Stevens 1993, 22). When criticised for not composing his own melodies[citation
needed] Bartk pointed out that Molire and Shakespeare mostly based their plays on well-known
stories too. Regarding the incorporation of folk music into art music he said:

The question is, what are the ways in which peasant music is taken over and becomes transmuted
into modern music? We may, for instance, take over a peasant melody unchanged or only slightly
varied, write an accompaniment to it and possibly some opening and concluding phrases. This kind
of work would show a certain analogy with Bach's treatment of chorales. ... Another method ... is
the following: the composer does not make use of a real peasant melody but invents his own
imitation of such melodies. There is no true difference between this method and the one described
above. ... There is yet a third way ... Neither peasant melodies nor imitations of peasant melodies
can be found in his music, but it is pervaded by the atmosphere of peasant music. In this case we
may say, he has completely absorbed the idiom of peasant music which has become his musical
mother tongue. (Bartk 1931/1976, 34144)

Bartk became first acquainted with Debussy's music in 1907 and regarded his music highly. In an
interview in 1939 Bartk said
Debussy's great service to music was to reawaken among all musicians an awareness of harmony
and its possibilities. In that, he was just as important as Beethoven, who revealed to us the
possibilities of progressive form, or as Bach, who showed us the transcendent significance of
counterpoint. Now, what I am always asking myself is this: is it possible to make a synthesis of these
three great masters, a living synthesis that will be valid for our time? (Moreux 1953, 92)

Debussy's influence is present in the Fourteen Bagatelles (1908). These made Ferruccio
Busoni exclaim 'At last something truly new!' (Bartk, 1948, 2:83). Until 1911, Bartk composed
widely differing works which ranged from adherence to romantic-style, to folk song arrangements
and to his modernist opera Bluebeard's Castle. The negative reception of his work led him to focus
on folk music research after 1911 and abandon composition with the exception of folk music
arrangements (Gillies 1993, 404; Stevens 1964, 4749).

New inspiration and experimentation (191621)

His pessimistic attitude towards composing was lifted by the stormy and inspiring contact with Klra
Gombossy in the summer of 1915 (Gillies 1993, 405). This interesting episode in Bartk's life remained
hidden until it was researched by Denijs Dille between 1979 and 1989 (Dille 1990, 25777). Bartk
started composing again, including the Suite for piano opus 14 (1916), and The Miraculous
Mandarin (1918) and he completed The Wooden Prince (1917).

Bartk felt the result of World War I as a personal tragedy (Stevens 1993, 3). Many regions he loved
were severed from Hungary: Transylvania, the Banat where he was born, andPozsony where his
mother lived. Additionally, the political relations between Hungary and the other successor states to
the Austro-Hungarian empire prohibited his folk music research outside of Hungary (Somfai, 1996,
18). Bartk also wrote the noteworthy Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs in 1920,
and the sunny Dance Suite in 1923, the year of his second marriage.

"Synthesis of East and West" (192645)

In 1926, Bartk needed a significant piece for piano and orchestra with which he could tour in
Europe and America. In the preparation for writing his First Piano Concerto, he wrote his
Sonata, Out of Doors, and Nine Little Pieces, all for solo piano (Gillies 1993, 173). He increasingly
found his own voice in his maturity. The style of his last periodnamed "Synthesis of East and West"
(Gillies 1993, 189)is hard to define let alone to put under one term. In his mature period, Bartk
wrote relatively few works but most of them are large-scale compositions for large settings. Only his
voice works have programmatic titles and his late works often adhere to classical forms.

Among his masterworks are all the six string quartets (1908, 1917, 1927, 1928, 1934, and 1939),
the Cantata Profana (1930, Bartk declared that this was the work he felt and professed to be his
most personal "credo", Szabolcsi 1974, 186), the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936),
the Concerto for Orchestra (1943) and the Third Piano Concerto (1945).
Bartk also made a lasting contribution to the literature for younger students: for his son Pter's
music lessons, he composed Mikrokosmos, a six-volume collection of graded piano pieces.

Composition Highlights
Title Year Avg. Duration Genre
Mikrokosmos, progressive pieces (153) for
1926 02:25:55 Keyboard
piano in 6 volumes, Sz. 107, BB 105

Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 127 1943 38:10 Concerto

Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta, Sz.

1936 29:45 Orchestral
106, BB 114

Duos (44) for 2 violins, Volumes 1-4, Sz. 98, Chamber

1931 48:14
BB 104 Music

For Children (Gyermekeknek), teaching pieces

(85) without octaves in 4 volumes for piano, 1908 01:02:51 Keyboard
Sz. 42, BB 53

Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major, Sz. 119, BB

1945 24:08 Concerto
127 (completed by Tibor Serly)

Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major, Sz. 95, BB

1930 28:04 Concerto
101

Contrasts, pieces (3) for clarinet, violin & Chamber

1938 16:34
piano, Sz. 111, BB 116 Music

Chamber
String Quartet No. 4 in C major, Sz. 91, BB 95 1928 23:03
Music

String Quartet No. 3 in C sharp major, Sz. 85, Chamber

1927 15:36
BB 93 Music

String Quartet No. 6 in D major, Sz. 114, BB Chamber

1939 28:49
119 Music

String Quartet No. 5 in B flat major, Sz. 102, Chamber

1934 30:45
BB 110 Music

Piano Sonata, Sz. 80, BB 88 1926 12:55 Keyboard

 Title Year Avg. Duration Genre
Sonata for 2 pianos & 2 percussion, Sz. 110, Chamber
1937 25:44
BB 15 Music

Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Sz. 112, BB

1937 37:54 Concerto
117

Sonata for violin solo, Sz. 117, BB 124 (edited Chamber

1944 26:20
by Yehudi Menhuin) Music

Romanian Folk Dances (6) (Romn npi

1915 5:35 Keyboard
tncok), for piano, Sz. 56, BB 68

Hungarian Peasant Songs (15) for piano, Sz.

1914 12:31 Keyboard
71, BB 79

String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Sz. 67, BB 75 Chamber

1915 27:02
(Op. 17) Music

Romanian Folk Dances (7) (Romn npi

1917 6:22 Orchestral
tncok), for orchestra, Sz. 68, BB 76