Bela Bartok

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Bela Bartok, [was] a Hungarian composer who is considered one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century. Bartok synthesized the Hungarian pattern of music and other folk music that he studied. Bartok realized what was being distributed as Hungarian music was actually music of Gypies or Roma. Bartok was determined to search high and low of his native country to collect Hungarian songs before they became extinct. Bartok synthesized the Hungarian pattern of music and other folk music throughout his career, to make his own individual style.
Bartok was born in Nagyszentmiklos Hungry, which is now Sinnicolau Mare Romania in 1881. Bartok’s music lessons began at a young age, taught by his mother, who was a pianist. Bartok’s father was headmaster of a local school and was also musically inclined. Bartok’s mother brought up his family alone after his father died in 1888 when Bartok was just seven years old. In 1894 Bartok’s family moved to Pressburg now known as Slovakia. There he studied with Laszlo Erkel, another Hungarian composer. In 1898 Bartok was accepted into Vienna Conservatory, but chose not to attend. Instead he chose to attend the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. At the Royal Academy Bartok studied piano and graduated in 1903. Bartok who had delivered his first public concert at age eleven was beginning to launch a fine reputation as a pianist, even further then Hungary.
Bartok’s teachers at the Royal academy were Janos Koessler, for composition and István Thoman for piano. At the academy Bartok met Zoltan Kodaly and together they collected folk music from the region in attempt to protect it. This was to have a major impact on his style. After discovering peasant folk song, which Bartok considered to be t...

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...ne of the most musically influential people in the twentieth century. A leader of modern piano, Bartok’s six string quartets have been considered the finest achievements of the twentieth century. He is one of the most remarkable rhythmic modernizers. Pushed by the love of his country’s folk music, and other musical influences to create a sound all his own.

Works Cited

. Béla Bartók. Boosey & Hawkes. Web. 31 Oct 2013. .
Forney, Kristine, and Joseph Machlis. The Enoyment Of Muis. 11. New York: Norton, 2011. Print.
Houghs, Peter. "BELA BARTOK: COMPOSER." BELA BARTOK: COMPOSER. Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.
"PBS." Educational Resources. ©Macmillan Publishers Ltd.. Web. 31 Oct 2013. .

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