Born: 25 March 1881, Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary
Died: 26 September 1945, New York, USA

Bartók, Béla

The list of the greatest and most influential composers of the 20th centuryshould undoubtedly include Béla Bartók. A national Hungarian composer, who, together with Kodaly, explored the roots of Hungarian folk songs, and those of all the nations in the region ( Turkey, Balkans, and North Africa), and recorded them, in order to preserve the popular music that fascinated him so much. The two published about 7,000 of these songs in a book and produced a series of important studies and arrangements of these songs. His work in this field deeply influenced his own style of composition, with lively rhythms , frequent use of pentatonic scale melodies and dissonant harmonies with tone clusters and rare chords.

Bartók studied piano and composition at the Budapest Academy of Music, where he was appointed professor of piano in 1907.

During the 1920s, Bartok gained success in Budapest with the short opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, the ballets 'The Wooden Prince' and 'The Miraculous Mandarin'. He also traveled all over Europe as a virtuoso pianist.

Other brilliant and known works were the 'Mikrokosmos' (1926-37) and the String Quartets No. 3-6 which many consider as a few of the best string quartets written in the 20th-century.

After moving to the United States in 1940, and although he lived frugally, he completed one of his most important works there - the Concerto for Orchestra.

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