BÉLA BARTÓK

March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945

Béla Bartók, a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist, was born on this day in Veliki Semikluš. He is considered one of the most eminent composers of the 20th century because his influence contributed a lot to the development of ethnomusicology, anthropology and ethnography in music. He worked as a professor at the “Franz Liszt” Academy of Music, and at the same time he was a passionate collector of folk original music from the countries of Central Europe. In 1940, due to the war, he left his home and went to the United States, where he taught at Harvard University. He loved the work of Johannes Brahms, and with the support of Zoltán Kodály, he researched the folk music of many nations. Influenced by Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy, he accepted folk music and applied it in his works. Combining folklore, traditional elements with contemporary sound, he managed to create a natural blend of melodies that possess an authentic style enriched with lavish musical motifs. His oeuvre includes many works of various genres and forms, of which stand out: the opera Bluebeard’s Castle, works for piano Allegro barbaro and the Romanian Folk Dances, Mikrokosmos

Romanian Folk Dances

Advent Chamber Orchestra, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Translation: Jelena Čolović