Béla Bartók

Hungarian composer and pianist (1881–1945)

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Lived 1881–1945, aged 64

MusiciansSinger / Musician

Wikipedia
87 languages
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Era
1881–1945
Aged 64
Known for
Cantata
1963

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He took the peasant melodies no conservatory cared about and made them into a modernist language that didn't need Schoenberg's system. Bartók proved folk music and the avant-garde could fuse without one colonizing the other.

Biography

About

Béla Viktor János Bartók was born 25 March 1881 in Hungary, trained as a pianist and composer, but spent years in villages recording farmers' songs on wax cylinders — work that made him a founder of comparative musicology, later called ethnomusicology. He didn't just collect; he analyzed, then wove those scales and rhythms into pieces like the opera Bluebeard's Castle, the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, the Concerto for Orchestra, and six string quartets. Where Schoenberg shattered tonality, Bartók built an amalgam: tonal anchors, unorthodox scales,…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

saidOct 1928

Our peasant music, naturally, is invariably tonal, if not always in the sense that the inflexible major and minor system is tonal.

— "The Folk Songs of Hungary" in Pro Musica VII (October 1928)

Béla Bartók

saidundated

In art there are only fast or slow developments. Essentially it is a matter of evolution, not revolution.

— As quoted in The Enjoyment of Music : An Introduction to Perceptive Listening‎ (1955) by Joseph Machlis; also The Vintage Guide to

Béla Bartók

saidundated

Competitions are for horses, not artists.

— As quoted in Piano Competitions: Talent Hunt or Sport?‎ by Carl Battaglia in The Saturday Review (1962).

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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Albums

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String Quartet no. 6 / Piano Quintet
1989
String Quartets 3, 4 & 5
1989
Bartók: Contrasts / Berg: Adagio / Stravinsky: L'Histoire du soldat / Amy: En trio
1989
Sonatas for Violin and Piano
1988
Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1 / Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2
1988
String Quartets 1 & 2
1988
Bartók: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta / Hindemith: Sinfonie „Mathis der Maler“
1988
Œuvres pour la main gauche
1988
The Three Piano Concertos
1988
44 Duos for Two Violins (1931)
1988