Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers. Through his collection and analytical study of

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

, he was one of the founders of

comparative musicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

, which later became ethnomusicology.

Biography

Childhood and early years (1881–98)

Bartók was born in the

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...

ian town of Nagyszentmiklós in the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

(present-day

Sânnicolau Mare Sânnicolau Mare (; hu, Nagyszentmiklós; german: Großsanktnikolaus; sr, Велики Семиклуш, Veliki Semikluš; Banat Bulgarian: ''Smikluš'') is a town in Timiș County, Romania, and the westernmost of the country. Located in the Ba ...

, Romania) on 25 March 1881. On his father's side, the Bartók family was a Hungarian lower noble family, originating from Borsodszirák, Borsod. His paternal grandmother was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Bunjevci Bunjevci ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Bunjevci, Буњевци, ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevac, Буњевац, sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=, separator=" / ", Bunjevka, Буњевка) are a South Slavic sub-ethnic group living ...

origin, but considered herself Hungarian. Bartók's father (1855–1888) was also named Béla. Bartók's mother, Paula (née Voit) (1857–1939), also spoke Hungarian fluently. A native of Turócszentmárton (present-day

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

), she also had Hungarian and Slovak ancestry. Béla displayed notable musical talent very early in life: according to his mother, he could distinguish between different dance

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular re ...

s that she played on the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

before he learned to speak in complete sentences. By the age of four he was able to play 40 pieces on the piano and his mother began formally teaching him the next year. In 1888, when he was seven, his father, the director of an agricultural school, died suddenly. His mother then took Béla and his sister, Erzsébet, to live in Nagyszőlős (present-day

Vynohradiv Vynohradiv ( uk, Виноградів, hu, Nagyszőlős, ro, Seleușu Mare, sk, Vinohradov) is a city in western Ukraine, in Zakarpattia Oblast. It was the center of Vynohradiv Raion and since 2020 it has been incorporated into Berehove Raio ...

, Ukraine) and then in Pressburg (''Pozsony'', present-day Bratislava, Slovakia). Béla gave his first public recital aged 11 in Nagyszőlős, to positive 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". Shortly thereafter, László Erkel accepted him as a pupil.

Early musical career (1899–1908)

From 1899 to 1903, Bartók studied piano under

István Thomán István Thomán (; 4 November 186222 September 1940) was a Hungarian piano virtuoso and music educator. He was a notable piano teacher, with students including Béla Bartók, Ernő Dohnányi, Paul de Marky who later taught Oscar Peterson in Quebe ...

, a former student of Franz Liszt, and composition under

János Koessler Hans von Koessler (1 January 1853 – 23 May 1926) was a German composer, conductor and music teacher. In Hungary, where he worked for 26 years, he was known as János Koessler. Biography Koessler, a cousin of Max Reger, was born in Waldeck, Fic ...

at the

Royal Academy of Music in Budapest Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

. There he met

Zoltán Kodály Zoltán Kodály (; hu, Kodály Zoltán, ; 16 December 1882 – 6 March 1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is well known internationally as the creator of the Kodály method of music edu ...

, who made a strong impression on him and became a lifelong friend and colleague. In 1903, Bartók wrote his first major orchestral work, ''Kossuth'', a symphonic poem which honored Lajos Kossuth, hero of the

Hungarian Revolution of 1848 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 or fully Hungarian Civic Revolution and War of Independence of 1848–1849 () was one of many European Revolutions of 1848 and was closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas. Although t ...

. The music of Richard Strauss, whom he met in 1902 at the

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

premiere of ''

Also sprach Zarathustra ', Op. 30 (, ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' or ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'') is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical 1883–1885 novel ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra''.Kibéd in Transylvania, sing folk songs to the children in her care. This sparked his lifelong dedication to folk music. From 1907, he also began to be influenced by the French composer Claude Debussy, whose compositions Kodály had brought back from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. Bartók's large-scale orchestral works were still in the style of Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss, but he wrote a number of small piano pieces which showed his growing interest in

. The first piece to show clear signs of this new interest is the String Quartet No. 1 in A minor (1908), which contains folk-like elements. He began teaching as a piano professor at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. This position freed him from touring Europe as a pianist and enabled him to work in Hungary. Among his notable students were

Fritz Reiner Frederick Martin "Fritz" Reiner (December 19, 1888 – November 15, 1963) was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. Hungarian born and trained, he emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to ...

Sir Georg Solti Sir Georg Solti ( , ; born György Stern; 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997) was a Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor, known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-servin ...

György Sándor György Sándor (; 21 September 1912 – 9 December 2005) was a Hungarian pianist and writer. Early years Sándor was born in Budapest. He studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest under Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and debuted as ...

Ernő Balogh Ernő Balogh (4 April 1897, Budapest – died 2 June 1989, Mitchellville, Maryland) was a United States-based Hungarian-born pianist, composer, editor, and teacher. Biography Balogh attended the Budapest Conservatory from 1905 to 1917. His teac ...

, Gisela Selden-Goth, and

Lili Kraus Lili Kraus (3 April 19036 November 1986) was a Hungarian-born pianist. Biography Lili Kraus was born in Budapest in 1903. Her father was from Czech Lands, and her mother from an assimilated Jewish Hungarian family. She enrolled at the Franz ...

. After Bartók moved to the United States, he taught Jack Beeson and

Violet Archer Violet Louise Archer (24 April 191321 February 2000) was a Canadian composer, teacher, pianist, organist, and percussionist. Born Violet Balestreri in Montreal, Quebec, in 1913, her family changed their name to Archer in 1940. She died in Ottawa o ...

. In 1908, he and Kodály traveled into the countryside to collect and research old Magyar folk melodies. Their growing interest in folk music coincided with a contemporary social interest in traditional national culture. Magyar folk music had previously been categorised as

Gypsy The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sign ...

music. The classic example is Franz Liszt's ''

Hungarian Rhapsodies The Hungarian Rhapsodies, S.244, R.106 (french: Rhapsodies hongroises, german: Ungarische Rhapsodien, hu, Magyar rapszódiák), is a set of 19 piano pieces based on Hungarian folk themes, composed by Franz Liszt during 1846–1853, and late ...

'' for piano, which he based on popular art songs performed by

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

bands of the time. In contrast, Bartók and Kodály discovered that the old Magyar folk melodies were based on

pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many an ...

s, similar to those in Asian folk traditions, such as those of Central Asia, Anatolia and Siberia. Bartók and Kodály set about incorporating elements of such Magyar peasant music into their compositions. They both frequently quoted folk song melodies ''verbatim'' and wrote pieces derived entirely from authentic songs. An example is his two volumes entitled ''

For Children ''For Children'' (Hungarian: ) is a cycle of short piano pieces composed by Béla Bartók. The collection was originally started in 1908 and completed in 1909, and comprised 85 pieces which were issued in four volumes. Each piece is based on a f ...

'' for solo piano, containing 80 folk tunes to which he wrote accompaniment. Bartók's style in his art music compositions was a synthesis of folk music, classicism, and modernism. His melodic and harmonic sense was influenced by the folk music of Hungary, Romania, and other nations. He was especially fond of the asymmetrical dance rhythms and pungent harmonies found in Bulgarian music. Most of his early compositions offer a blend of nationalist and late Romanticism elements.

Middle years and career (1909–39)

Personal life

In 1909, at the age of 28, Bartók married Márta Ziegler (1893–1967), aged 16. Their son, Béla Bartók III, was born the next year. After nearly 15 years together, Bartók divorced Márta in June 1923. Two months after his divorce, he married Ditta Pásztory (1903–1982), a piano student, ten days after proposing to her. She was aged 19, he 42. Their son, Péter, was born in 1924. Raised as a

, by his early adulthood Bartók had become an atheist. He later became attracted to

Unitarianism Unitarianism (from Latin ''unitas'' "unity, oneness", from ''unus'' "one") is a nontrinitarian branch of Christian theology. Most other branches of Christianity and the major Churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity which states that there i ...

and publicly converted to the Unitarian faith in 1916. Although Bartók was not conventionally religious, according to his son Béla Bartók III, "he was a nature lover: he always mentioned the miraculous order of nature with great reverence." As an adult, Béla III later became lay president of the Hungarian Unitarian Church.

Opera

In 1911, Bartók wrote what was to be his only opera, ''

Bluebeard's Castle ''Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' ( hu, A kékszakállú herceg vára, link=no, or ''The Blue-Bearded Duke's Castle'') is a one-act expressionist opera by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The libretto was written by Béla Balázs, a poet and friend of t ...

'', dedicated to Márta. He entered it for a prize by the Hungarian Fine Arts Commission, but they rejected his work as not fit for the stage. In 1917 Bartók revised the score for the 1918 première, and rewrote the ending. Following the 1919 revolution in which he actively participated, he was pressured by the Horthy regime to remove the name of librettist

Béla Balázs Béla Balázs (; 4 August 1884 in Szeged – 17 May 1949 in Budapest), born Herbert Béla Bauer, was a Hungarian film critic, aesthetician, writer and poet of Jewish heritage. He was a proponent of formalist film theory. Career Balázs was th ...

from the opera, as Balázs was of Jewish origin, was blacklisted, and had left the country for Vienna. ''Bluebeard's Castle'' received only one revival, in 1936, before Bartók emigrated. For the remainder of his life, although devoted to Hungary, its people and its culture, he never felt much loyalty to the government or its official establishments.

Folk music and composition

After his disappointment over the Fine Arts Commission competition, Bartók wrote little for two or three years, preferring to concentrate on collecting and arranging folk music. He found the phonograph an essential tool for collecting folk music for its accuracy, objectivity, and manipulability. He collected first in the

Carpathian Basin The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large Sedimentary basin, basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The Geomorphology, geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewh ...

(then the

), where he notated Hungarian, Slovak,

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

, and

Bulgarian Bulgarian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria * Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group * Bulgarian language, a Slavic language * Bulgarian alphabet * A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria * Bul ...

folk music. The developmental breakthrough for Bartok arrived when he collaboratively collected folk music with

through the medium of an Edison machine on which they would study classification possibilities (for individual folk songs) and record hundreds of cylinders. Bartok's compositional command of folk elements is expressed in such an authentic and undiluted a manner because of the scales, sounds, and rhythms that were so much a part of his native Hungary that he automatically saw music in these terms. He also collected in

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and for ...

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...

, and (in 1913)

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

. The outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

forced him to stop the expeditions, but he returned to composing with a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

called ''

The Wooden Prince ''The Wooden Prince'' ( hu, A fából faragott királyfi), Op. 13, Sz. 60, is a one-act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók in 1914–1916 (orchestrated 1916–1917) to a scenario by Béla Balázs. It was first performed at the Budapest O ...

'' (1914–16) and the String Quartet No. 2 in (1915–17), both influenced by

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

. Bartók's '' libretto'' for ''

The Miraculous Mandarin ''The Miraculous Mandarin'' ( hu, A csodálatos mandarin, translit= ˈt͡ʃodaːlɒtoʃ}, ; german: Der wunderbare Mandarin) Op. 19, Sz. 73 (BB 82), is a one act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók between 1918 and 1924, and based on the ...

'', another ballet, was influenced by Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg and Richard Strauss. Though started in 1918, the story's sexual content kept it from being performed until 1926. He next wrote his two

violin sonata A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple baroque form with no fixed fo ...

s (written in 1921 and 1922, respectively), which are among his most harmonically and structurally complex pieces. In March 1927, he visited

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

and performed the ''Rhapsody for piano'' Sz.26 with the Orquestra Pau Casals at the

Gran Teatre del Liceu Gran may refer to: People *Grandmother, affectionately known as "gran" * Gran (name) Places * Gran, the historical German name for Esztergom, a city and the primatial metropolitan see of Hungary * Gran, Norway, a municipality in Innlandet cou ...

. During the same stay, he attended a concert by the Cobla Barcelona at the

Palau de la Música Catalana Palau de la Música Catalana (, en, Palace of Catalan Music) is a concert hall in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Designed in the Catalan '' modernista'' style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it was built between 1905 and 1908 for ...

. According to the critic Joan Llongueras, “he was very interested in the sardanas, above all, the freshness, spontaneity and life of our music ..he wanted to know the mechanism of the tenoras and the tibles, and requested data on the composition of the

cobla The cobla (, plural ''cobles'') is a traditional music ensemble of Catalonia, and in Northern Catalonia in France. It is generally used to accompany the Sardana, a traditional Catalan folk dance, danced in a circle. Structure The modern Cobla no ...

and extension and characteristics of each instrument ”. In 1927–28, Bartók wrote his

Third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

and Fourth String Quartets, after which his compositions demonstrated his mature style. Notable examples of this period are ''

Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta ''Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta'', Sz. 106, BB 114 is one of the best-known compositions by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Commissioned by Paul Sacher to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the chamber orchestra '' Basler Kammer ...

'' (1936) and Divertimento for String Orchestra (1939). The Fifth String Quartet was composed in 1934, and the Sixth String Quartet (his last) in 1939. In 1936 he travelled to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

to collect and study

Turkish folk music Turkish folk music (''Türk Halk Müziği'') is the traditional music of Turkish people living in Turkey influenced by the cultures of Anatolia and former territories in Europe and Asia. Its unique structure includes regional differences under ...

. He worked in collaboration with Turkish composer

Ahmet Adnan Saygun Ahmet Adnan Saygun (; 7 September 1907 – 6 January 1991) was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. One of a group of composers known as the Turkish Five who pioneered western classical music in Turkey, his works show a master ...

mostly around

Adana Adana (; ; ) is a major city in southern Turkey. It is situated on the Seyhan River, inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The administrative seat of Adana province, it has a population of 2.26 million. Adana lies in the heart of Cilicia, wh ...

World War II and final years (1940–45)

In 1940, as the European political situation worsened after the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Bartók was increasingly tempted to flee Hungary. He strongly opposed the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

and Hungary's alliance with Germany and the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

under the

Tripartite Pact The Tripartite Pact, also known as the Berlin Pact, was an agreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Galeazzo Ciano and Saburō Kurusu. It was a defensive milit ...

. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Bartók refused to give concerts in Germany and broke away from his publisher there. His anti-fascist political views caused him a great deal of trouble with the establishment in Hungary. Having first sent his manuscripts out of the country, Bartók reluctantly emigrated to the U.S. with his wife, Ditta Pásztory, in October 1940. They settled in New York City after arriving on the night of 29–30 October via a steamer from Lisbon. After joining them in 1942, their younger son, Péter Bartók, enlisted in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

where he served in the Pacific during the remainder of the war and later settled in Florida where he became a recording and sound engineer. His elder son, by his first marriage, Béla Bartók III, remained in Hungary and later worked as a railroad official until his retirement in the early 1980s. Although he became an American citizen in 1945, shortly before his death, Bartók never felt fully at home in the United States. He initially found it difficult to compose. Although he was well known in America as a pianist, ethnomusicologist and teacher, he was not well known as a composer. There was little American interest in his music during his final years. He and his wife Ditta gave some concerts, although demand for them was low. Bartók, who had made some recordings in Hungary, also recorded for Columbia Records after he came to the US; many of these recordings (some with Bartók's own spoken introductions) were later issued on LP and CD. Supported by a research fellowship from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, for several years, Bartók and Ditta worked on a large collection of Serbian and Croatian folk songs in Columbia's libraries. Bartók's economic difficulties during his first years in America were mitigated by publication royalties, teaching and performance tours. While his finances were always precarious, he did not live and die in poverty as was the common myth. He had enough friends and supporters to ensure that there was sufficient money and work available for him to live on. Bartók was a proud man and did not easily accept charity. Despite being short on cash at times, he often refused money that his friends offered him out of their own pockets. Although he was not a member of the ASCAP, the society paid for any medical care he needed during his last two years, to which Bartók reluctantly agreed. The first symptoms of his health problems began late in 1940, when his right shoulder began to show signs of stiffening. In 1942, symptoms increased and he started having bouts of fever. Bartók's illness was at first thought to be a recurrence of the tuberculosis he had experienced as a young man, and one of his doctors in New York was Edgar Mayer, director of Will Rogers Memorial Hospital in Saranac Lake but medical examinations found no underlying disease. Finally, in April 1944,

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

was diagnosed, but by this time, little could be done. As his body slowly failed, Bartók found more creative energy, and he produced a final set of masterpieces, partly thanks to the violinist

Joseph Szigeti Joseph Szigeti ( hu">Szigeti József, ; 5 September 189219 February 1973) was a Hungarian violinist. Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on ...

and the conductor

(Reiner had been Bartók's friend and champion since his days as Bartók's student at the Royal Academy). Bartók's last work might well have been the String Quartet No. 6 but for Serge Koussevitzky's commission for the Concerto for Orchestra. Koussevitsky's Boston Symphony Orchestra premièred the work in December 1944 to highly positive reviews. The Concerto for Orchestra quickly became Bartók's most popular work, although he did not live to see its full impact. In 1944, he was also commissioned by

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...

to write a Sonata for Solo Violin. In 1945, Bartók composed his Piano Concerto No. 3, a graceful and almost neo-classical work, as a surprise 42nd birthday present for Ditta, but he died just over a month before her birthday, with the scoring not quite finished. He had also sketched his

Viola Concerto A viola concerto is a concerto contrasting a viola with another body of musical instruments such as an orchestra or chamber music ensemble. Early examples of viola concertos include Telemann's concerto in G major and several concertos by Carl St ...

, but had barely started the scoring at his death, leaving completed only the viola part and sketches of the orchestral part. HUF 1000 1983 obverse

Béla Bartók died at age 64 in a hospital in New York City from complications of

(specifically, of secondary

polycythemia Polycythemia (also known as polycythaemia) is a laboratory finding in which the hematocrit (the volume percentage of red blood cells in the blood) and/or hemoglobin concentration are increased in the blood. Polycythemia is sometimes called eryth ...

) on 26 September 1945. His funeral was attended by only ten people. Aside from his widow and their son, other attendees included

. Bartók's body was initially interred in

Ferncliff Cemetery Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum is located at 280 Secor Road in the hamlet of Hartsdale, town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, United States, about north of Midtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1902, and is non-sectarian. Fernc ...

in Hartsdale, New York. During the final year of communist Hungary in the late 1980s, the Hungarian government, along with his two sons, Béla III and Péter, requested that his remains be exhumed and transferred back to

for burial, where Hungary arranged a state funeral for him on 7 July 1988. He was re-interred at Budapest's

Farkasréti Cemetery Farkasréti Cemetery or Farkasrét Cemetery ( hu, Farkasréti temető) is one of the most famous cemeteries in Budapest. It opened in 1894 and is noted for its extensive views of the city (several people wanted it more to be a resort area than a c ...

, next to the remains of Ditta, who died in 1982, one year after what would have been Béla Bartók's 100th birthday. The two unfinished works were later completed by his pupil

Tibor Serly Tibor Serly (; Losonc, Kingdom of Hungary, 25 November 1901 – London, 8 October 1978) was a Hungarian violist, violinist, and composer. Serly was the son of Lajos Serly, a pupil of Franz Liszt and a composer of songs and operettas in the ...

. György Sándor was the soloist in the first performance of the Third Piano Concerto on 8 February 1946. Ditta Pásztory-Bartók later played and recorded it. The Viola Concerto was revised and published in the 1990s by Bartók's son; this version may be closer to what Bartók intended. Concurrently, Peter Bartók, in association with Argentinian musician Nelson Dellamaggiore, worked to reprint and revise past editions of the Third Piano Concerto.

Music

Bartók'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; and the revival of nationalism as a source for musical inspiration, a trend that began with Mikhail Glinka and Antonín Dvořák in the last half of the 19th century. In his search for new forms of tonality, Bartók turned to Hungarian folk music, as well as to other folk music of the

and even of Algeria and Turkey; in so doing he became influential in that stream of modernism which used indigenous music and techniques. 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". 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.

Early years (1890–1902)

The works of Bartók's youth were written in a classical and early romantic style touched with influences of popular and

romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

music. Between 1890 and 1894 (nine to 13 years of age) he wrote 31 piano pieces with corresponding opus numbers. Although most of these were simple dance pieces, in these early works Bartók began to tackle some more advanced forms, as in his ten-part programmatic ''A Duna folyása'' ("The Course of the Danube", 1890–94), which he played in his first public recital in 1892. In Catholic grammar school Bartók took to studying the scores of composers "from

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

", his compositions then advancing in style and taking on similarities to

Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

and

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

. Following his matriculation into the Budapest Academy in 1890 he composed very little, though he began to work on exercises in orchestration and familiarized himself thoroughly with the operas of Wagner. In 1902 his creative energies were revitalized by the discovery of the music of Richard Strauss, whose tone poem ''Also sprach Zarathustra'', according to Bartók, "stimulated the greatest enthusiasm in me; at last I saw the way that lay before me." Bartók also owned the score to ''A Hero's Life'', which he transcribed for the piano and committed to memory.

New influences (1903–11)

Under the influence of Strauss, Bartók composed in 1903 ''Kossuth'', a symphonic poem in ten tableaux on the subject of the 1848 Hungarian war of independence, reflecting the composers growing interest in musical nationalism. A year later he renewed his opus numbers with the ''Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra'' serving as Opus 1. Driven by nationalistic fervor and a desire to transcend the influence of prior composers, Bartók began a lifelong devotion to folk music which was sparked by his overhearing nanny Lidi Dósa's singing of Transylvanian folk songs at a Hungarian resort in 1904. Bartók began to collect Magyar peasant melodies, later extending to the folk music of other peoples of the Carpathian Basin, Slovaks, Romanians, Rusyns, Serbs and Croatians. His compositional output would gradually prune away romantic elements in favour of an idiom that embodied folk music as intrinsic and essential to its style. Later in life he would have this to say on the incorporation of folk and art music:

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.

Bartók became first acquainted with Debussy's music in 1907 and regarded his music highly. In an interview in 1939 Bartók 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?

Debussy's influence is present in the Fourteen Bagatelles (1908). These made Ferruccio Busoni exclaim "At last something truly new!". Until 1911, Bartók 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.

Inspiration and experimentation (1916–21)

His pessimistic attitude towards composing was lifted by the stormy and inspiring contact with Klára Gombossy in the summer of 1915. This interesting episode in Bartók's life remained hidden until it was researched by Denijs Dille between 1979 and 1989. Bartók started composing again, including the Suite for piano opus 14 (1916), and ''The Miraculous Mandarin'' (1918) and he completed ''The Wooden Prince'' (1917). Bartók felt the result of World War I as a personal tragedy. Many regions he loved were severed from

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

, the

(where he was born), and Pozsony where his mother had lived. Additionally, the political relations between Hungary and other successor states to the Austro-Hungarian empire prohibited his folk music research outside of Hungary. Bartók 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" (1926–45)

In 1926, Bartók needed a significant piece for piano and orchestra with which he could tour in Europe and America. He was particularly inspired by American composer Henry Cowell's controversial use of intense tone clusters on the piano while touring western Europe. Bartók happened to be present at one of these concerts, and would later request Cowell's permission to use his technique without causing offence; which Cowell granted. In the preparation for writing his first Piano Concerto, he wrote his Sonata, '' Out of Doors'', and ''Nine Little Pieces'', all for solo piano, and all of which prominently utilize clusters. He increasingly found his own voice in his maturity. The style of his last period—named "Synthesis of East and West"—is hard to define let alone to put under one term. In his mature period, Bartók 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 Bartók's most important works are the six

string quartets The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinist ...

(1909, 1917, 1927, 1928, 1934, and 1939), the ''

Cantata Profana ''Cantata Profana'' (subtitled ''A kilenc csodaszarvas'' 'The Nine Enchanted Stags'' Sz 94) is a work for tenor, baritone, double mixed chorus and orchestra by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Completed on 8 September 1930, it received it ...

'' (1930), which Bartók declared was the work he felt and professed to be his most personal "credo", the ''Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta'' (1936), the Concerto for Orchestra (1943) and the Third Piano Concerto (1945). He made a lasting contribution to the literature for younger students: for his son Péter's music lessons, he composed '' Mikrokosmos'', a six-volume collection of graded piano pieces.

Musical analysis

Paul Wilson lists as the most prominent characteristics of Bartók's music from late 1920s onwards the influence of the

Carpathian basin The Pannonian Basin, or Carpathian Basin, is a large Sedimentary basin, basin situated in south-east Central Europe. The Geomorphology, geomorphological term Pannonian Plain is more widely used for roughly the same region though with a somewh ...

and European art music, and his changing attitude toward (and use of) tonality, but without the use of the traditional

harmonic functions In mathematics, mathematical physics and the theory of stochastic processes, a harmonic function is a twice continuously differentiable function f: U \to \mathbb R, where is an open subset of that satisfies Laplace's equation, that is, : \fr ...

associated with major and minor scales. Although Bartók claimed in his writings that his music was always tonal, he rarely uses the chords or scales of tonality, and so the descriptive resources of tonal theory are of limited use.

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

and Elliott focus on alternative methods of signaling tonal centers, via axes of inversional symmetry. Others view Bartók's axes of symmetry in terms of atonal analytic protocols.

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stro ...

argues that

inversional symmetry In music theory, an inversion is a type of change to intervals, chords, voices (in counterpoint), and melodies. In each of these cases, "inversion" has a distinct but related meaning. The concept of inversion also plays an important role in mu ...

is often a byproduct of another atonal procedure, the formation of chords from transpositionally related dyads. Atonal pitch-class theory also furnishes the resources for exploring

polymodal chromaticism In music, polymodal chromaticism is the use of any and all musical modes sharing the same tonic simultaneously or in succession and thus creating a texture involving all twelve notes of the chromatic scale ( total chromatic). Alternately it is th ...

, projected sets, privileged patterns, and large set types used as source sets such as the equal tempered twelve tone aggregate,

octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight- note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetric ...

(and

alpha chord An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetrical ...

), the diatonic and ''heptatonia secunda'' seven-note scales, and less often the whole tone scale and the primary pentatonic collection. He rarely used the simple aggregate actively to shape musical structure, though there are notable examples such as the second theme from the first movement of his Second Violin Concerto, commenting that he "wanted to show Schoenberg that one can use all twelve tones and still remain tonal". More thoroughly, in the first eight measures of the last movement of his Second Quartet, all notes gradually gather with the twelfth (G) sounding for the first time on the last beat of measure 8, marking the end of the first section. The aggregate is partitioned in the opening of the Third String Quartet with C–D–D–E in the accompaniment (strings) while the remaining pitch classes are used in the melody (violin 1) and more often as 7–35 (diatonic or "white-key" collection) and 5–35 (pentatonic or "black-key" collection) such as in no. 6 of the ''Eight Improvisations''. There, the primary theme is on the black keys in the left hand, while the right accompanies with triads from the white keys. In measures 50–51 in the third movement of the Fourth Quartet, the first violin and cello play black-key chords, while the second violin and viola play stepwise diatonic lines. On the other hand, from as early as the Suite for piano, Op. 14 (1914), he occasionally employed a form of serialism based on compound interval cycles, some of which are maximally distributed, multi-aggregate cycles.

Ernő Lendvai __NOTOC__ Ernő Lendvai (6 February 1925 – 31 January 1993) was one of the first music theorists to write on the appearance of the golden section and Fibonacci series and how these are implemented in Bartók's music. He also formulated the a ...

analyses Bartók's works as being based on two opposing tonal systems, that of the

acoustic scale In music, the acoustic scale, overtone scale, Lydian dominant scale, Lydian 7 scale, or the Pontikonisian Scale is a seven-note synthetic scale. : This differs from the major scale in having an augmented fourth and a minor seventh scale deg ...

and the axis system, as well as using the

golden section In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0, where the Greek letter phi ...

as a structural principle. Milton Babbitt, in his 1949 critique of Bartók's string quartets, criticized Bartók for using tonality and non-tonal methods unique to each piece. Babbitt noted that "Bartók's solution was a specific one, it cannot be duplicated". Bartók's use of "two organizational principles"—tonality for large scale relationships and the piece-specific method for moment to moment thematic elements—was a problem for Babbitt, who worried that the "highly attenuated tonality" requires extreme non-harmonic methods to create a feeling of closure.

Catalogues

The cataloguing of Bartók's works is somewhat complex. Bartók assigned opus numbers to his works three times, the last of these series ending with the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1, Op. 21 in 1921. He ended this practice because of the difficulty of distinguishing between original works and ethnographic arrangements, and between major and minor works. Since his death, three attempts—two full and one partial—have been made at cataloguing. The first, and still most widely used, is András Szőllősy's chronological Sz. numbers, from 1 to 121. subsequently reorganised the juvenilia (Sz. 1–25) thematically, as DD numbers 1 to 77. The most recent catalogue is that of

László Somfai László Somfai (born 15 August 1934) is a Hungarian musicologist. He was born in 1934 in Jászladány. He first studied History of Music, graduating in 1959 with a dissertation on the classical string quartet idiom of Joseph Haydn. He went on ...

; this is a chronological index with works identified by BB numbers 1 to 129, incorporating corrections based on the Béla Bartók Thematic Catalogue. On 1 January 2016, Bartók's works entered the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

Discography

Together with his like-minded contemporary

, Bartók embarked on an extensive programme of field research to capture the folk and peasant melodies of Magyar, Slovak and

language territories. At first they would transcribe the melodies by hand, but later they began to use a wax cylinder recording machine invented by

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

. Compilations of Bartók's field recordings, interviews, and original piano playing have been released over the years, largely by the Hungarian record label

Hungaroton Hungaroton is the oldest record and music publisher company in Hungary. Hungaroton was founded in 1951, when its only competitors in the Hungarian music market were record labels like Melodiya, Supraphon and from other socialist countries. Prev ...

: * * * * * Bartók, Béla. 2003. ''Bartók Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion, Suite for 2 Pianos.'' Apex 0927-49569-2. CD recording. * * * A compilation of field recordings and transcriptions for two violas was also recently released by Tantara Records in 2014. On 18 March 2016

Decca Classics Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In ...

released ''Béla Bartók: The Complete Works'', the first ever complete compilation of all of Bartók's compositions, including new recordings of never-before-recorded early piano and vocal works. However, none of the composer's own performances are included in this 32-disc set.

Statues

* A statue of Bartók stands in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium, near the central train station in a public square, Spanjeplein-Place d'Espagne. * A statue stands outside Malvern Court, London, south of the

South Kensington tube station South Kensington is a London Underground station in the district of South Kensington, south west London. It is served by the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines. On the District and Circle lines it is between Gloucester Road and Sloane Squar ...

, and just north of Sydney Place. An

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

blue plaque, unveiled in 1997, now commemorates Bartók at 7 Sydney Place, where he stayed when performing in London. * A statue of him was installed in front of the house in which Bartók spent his last eight years in Hungary, at Csalán út 29, in the hills above Budapest. It is now operated as the Béla Bartók Memorial House (Bartók Béla Emlékház). Copies of this statue also stand in Makó (the closest Hungarian city to his birthplace, which is now in Romania), Paris, London and Toronto. * A bust and plaque located at his last residence, in New York City at 309 W. 57th Street, inscribed: "The Great Hungarian Composer / Béla Bartók / (1881–1945) / Made His Home In This House / During the Last Year of His Life". * A bust of him is located in the front yard of

Ankara State Conservatory The Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory ( tr, Hacettepe Üniversitesi Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı), the first conservatory to be founded in the Republic of Turkey, was established in 1936 by a directive of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. ...

, Ankara, Turkey, next to the bust of

. * A bronze statue of Bartók, sculpted by

Imre Varga Imre Varga (1 November 1923 – 9 December 2019) was a Hungarian sculptor, painter, designer and graphic artist. He was regarded as one of Hungary's most important living artists, and he has been called one of the "most skilled sculptors in H ...

in 2005, stands in the front lobby of

The Royal Conservatory of Music The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), branded as The Royal Conservatory, is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1886 by Edward Fisher as The Toronto Con ...

, 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. * A statue of Bartók, sculpted by Varga, stands near the river Seine in the public park at , 26 place de Brazzaville, in Paris, France. * Also to be noted, in the same park, a sculptural transcription of the composer's research on tonal harmony, the fountain/sculpture ''Cristaux'' designed by

Jean-Yves Lechevallier Jean-Yves Lechevallier, ʒɑ̃ iv ləʃəvæljeɪ born in 1946 in Rouen, Normandy, is a French sculptor painter, and laureate of the ''Flame of Europe'' art competition organized by the '' Robert Schuman association for Europe'' in 1977 to com ...

in 1980. * An expressionist sculpture by Hungarian sculptor András Beck in , Paris

16th arrondissement The 16th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''seizième''. The arrondissement includes part of the Arc de Tr ...

. * A statue of him also stands in the city centre of

Târgu Mureș Târgu Mureș (, ; hu, Marosvásárhely ) is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the 16th largest Romanian city, with 134,290 inhabitants as of the 2011 census. It lies on the Mureș River, the ...

, Romania.
Google Maps
Márton Izsák ) * A statue (seated) of Bartók is also situated in front of Nako Castle, in his hometown, Nagyszentmiklós.

References

Citations

Sources

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External links

*
Bartók Béla Memorial House, Budapest

The Belgian Bartók Archives, housed in the Brussels Royal Library and founded by Denijs Dille
*
Gallery of Bartók portraits

Finding aid to Béla Bartók manuscripts at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
*

* ttps://www.explorethescore.org/pgs/bartok/inside_the_score/inside_the_score_homepage.html Interactive scores of Bartók’s works for piano with Sir András Schiff. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bartok, Bela 1881 births 1945 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Hungarian musicians 20th-century Hungarian male musicians 20th-century musicologists Anton Rubinstein Competition prize-winners Ballet composers Burials at Farkasréti Cemetery Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery Columbia University faculty Composers for piano Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from leukemia Former Roman Catholics Franz Liszt Academy of Music alumni Franz Liszt Academy of Music faculty Columbia University people Hungarian atheists Hungarian classical composers Hungarian classical pianists Hungarian emigrants to the United States Hungarian ethnomusicologists Hungarian folk-song collectors Hungarian male classical composers Hungarian music educators Hungarian opera composers Hungarian people of Croatian descent Hungarian people of German descent Hungarian refugees Hungarian Roman Catholics Hungarian song collectors Hungarian Unitarians Male classical pianists Male opera composers Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Members of the Romanian Academy elected posthumously Modernist composers People from Sânnicolau Mare People from Saranac Lake, New York Pupils of Hans von Koessler Pupils of István Thomán String quartet composers Composers for viola