Béla Bartók was born on March 25, 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, ( then in Hungary, now in Romania). Early indications of his lifelong love for, and mastery over, the piano could be seen when his musical training began with that instrument when he was barely five years old. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1901, and his first mature works soon followed. Especially important is his symphonic poem Kossuth (1903). Bartók and the composer Zoltán Kodály, a compatriot, developed a strong interest in ethnomusicology. Traveling together all over Hungary and neighboring countries, they collected authentic folk songs – thousands of them, culminating in what proved to be a classic field study in the history of ethnomusicology. For several decades thereafter, Bartók was engrossed in this music; his own musical language was naturally influenced by the elaborateness and complexities, ranging from plangent modality to fiercely aggressive rhythms, which his studies revealed. Béla Bartók, who made outstanding contributions as a composer, educator, ethnomusicologist and performer, became one of the most prominent and influential musicians of the twentieth century. ... show more

Béla Bartók was born on March 25, 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, ( then in Hungary, now in Romania). Early indications of his lifelong love for, and mastery over, the piano could be seen when his musical training began with that instrument when he was barely five years old. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 1901, and his first mature works soon followed. Especially important is his symphonic poem Kossuth (1903). Bartók and the composer Zoltán Kodály, a compatriot, developed a strong interest in ethnomusicology. Traveling together all over Hungary and neighboring countries, they collected authentic folk songs – thousands of them, culminating in what proved to be a classic field study in the history of ethnomusicology. For several decades thereafter, Bartók was engrossed in this music; his own musical language was naturally influenced by the elaborateness and complexities, ranging from plangent modality to fiercely aggressive rhythms, which his studies revealed. Béla Bartók, who made outstanding contributions as a composer, educator, ethnomusicologist and performer, became one of the most prominent and influential musicians of the twentieth century.
Totally immersed in musical activities, Béla Bartók had a very busy schedule: apart from being a researcher of folk music, he was also a composer, teacher and performer of repute. In the 1920s, he was remarkably successful as a concert artist; but his success was tempered by the knowledge that the political atmosphere in Hungary had become unstable. As fascism tightened its hold over Europe in the 1930s, Bartók, a frank man, not only refused to play in Germany, but also forbade radio broadcasts of his music there and in Italy. Hungary, which had given the composer so much success and inspiration, and yet caused him so much grief, saw his farewell performance at a concert held in Budapest on October 8, 1940. A few days later Bartók and his wife left for the U.S.A. by ship.
Sadly, illness dogged Bartók in his final years. His dream of returning to Hungary remained unfulfilled because of the turmoil there after the Second World War. Though his health seemed to show some improvement, he died in New York of leukemia on September 26, 1945. Many important projects which he had planned could not be completed. One was a Seventh String Quartet. His student, Tibor Serly used his teacher’s in-progress scores and sketches to complete Viola Concerto and the Piano Concerto No. 3, both major works.
A highly accomplished pianist, Bartók had performed the music of great Masters like Beethoven Brahms, Chopin and Mozart. His own style drew inspiration from what he played and, in stages, developed uniquely; a style which, in the first half of the twentieth century, was acknowledged as one of the most influential musical idioms. His strength lay in his ability to absorb musical elements from sources as vastly different from each other as the Classical Masters, folk music and his own contemporaries like Debussy. Bartók's absorption and internalization of Richard Strauss’ multicolored orchestral textures is evident in his masterpieces, Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936) and the Concerto for Orchestra (1945), and in other works. The effect on his instrumental sense was both immediate and long-term. Bartók’s exploitation and refinement of devices based on the “golden section”, such as arches, palindromes, and proportions show his deep concern with form. More than anything else, however, the keen edge which Bartók's music has is attributed to his unique utilization of rhythm. In Allegro barbaro (1911) and the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937), we see the influence of the folk music which Bartók loved; this folk music imbued his work with rhythms which are asymmetrical, sometimes driving and often savage, giving these works their characteristic violent propulsion. But the outstanding representative of Bartók’s compositional skills is his piano collection Mikrokosmos (1926-1939), which he had designed for his son Peter as a progressive keyboard primer.
Consisting of six volumes, which include 153 pieces, Mikrokosmos is much more than an invaluable pedagogical tool; it is an authentic source to understand the composer’s exceptional musical personality, and his formal, harmonic, melodic and rhythmic techniques.
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