Béla Bartók

Abstract

The Hungarian-born Béla Bartók is, by any reckoning, one of the most original, profound, and influential composers of the twentieth century. He was one of the first modern composers to realize the importance of collecting folk music, which, often with his colleague Zoltán Kodály, he gathered throughout Eastern and Central Europe and as far away as North Africa. These folk melodies became the basis of much of his music, transmuted with the utmost sophistication, but never academically overcerebral. A man of the highest integrity, Bartók, though Aryan (albeit with a Jewish second wife), would have nothing to do with fascism at home or abroad and refused various prizes.