Bela Bartok

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Bela Bartok was born in 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Romania) and was one of the most famous 20th Century composers. He studied in Budapest from 1899-1903 at the Royal Academy of Music. It's said Bela was a nationalist and was very proud of his country and culture. He showed a particular interest in the folk music of his country, Hungary, and also of Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. He and Zoltán Kodály, a Hungarian composer whom he collaborated with, dedicated their lives to collecting and finding out more about this folk music. While searching, they realised that Hungarian folk music uses isometric strophe structure, a tempo giusto (strict tempo) and many pentatonic formations. These features are to be found in many of Bartok's pieces. He also tended to use a different type of harmony and tonality in his works to other previous composers which he found in Hungarian folk music and even in the folk music of the countries around him. He didn't use traditional harmony. Examples of pieces where his Hungarian style is shown would be his Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs and Hungarian Sketches. In 1940, Bela Bartok moved to New York. It's said he lost creativity when he moved here at first. Although, after a while he composed his Viola Concerto, 3rd Piano Concerto, Concerto for Orchestra and Sonata for Solo Violin. In these works, Bartok kept his definite Hungarian style, despite not living in his home country.