![]() ![]() When the Hungarian government began introducing ‘Jewish laws’ in 1938 which mirrored the Nazis’ Nuremberg Laws, Bartók joined a group of non-Jewish intellectuals who protested. Ralph Hawkes planned to approach Jewish composers and others who might be at risk, and flew to Hungary to meet with Bartók and Kodály to arrange for Boosey & Hawkes to become their new publisher. Meanwhile in London, the music publishers Boosey & Hawkes had become Universal Edition’s UK agent and were subsequently aware of the situation in Europe. The publishing house was taken over and ‘Nazified’, as were AKM, who were due to merge with their German counterparts, STAGMA. When Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, Bartók was in a contract with music publishers Universal Edition who were based in Vienna. In 1934 Bartók’s Vienna-based performers’ rights association, AKM, asked its members to provide documentation proving their ethnicity and Bartók was asked to dispel rumours that he was Jewish (he refused). A number of concerts and lectures by Bartók were scheduled in the Reich, all of which, for various reasons, did not take place. However, there were more than 40 performances of Bartók’s work in Nazi Germany between 1933-1942, because the Reich encouraged the performance of works by composers from countries that supported the regime. He had performed in Germany from 1903 until Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 his refusal to perform there after this date caused some suspicion from the Hungarian government. Whilst his use of harmony is not usually described as atonal, Bartók experimented with harmonic language, sometimes using folk harmonies such as pentatonic and mixolydian scales, often moving away from Western harmonic centres altogether.ĭuring the 1930s Bartók became increasingly disenchanted with the Hungarian government’s cooperation with the Nazis. Bartók’s other early influences include Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Arnold Schoenberg. 1 in A minor (1908) and the cycle of piano pieces For Children (1908-9) are based on Hungarian, Slovakian, Romanian and Bulgarian folk melodies. Much of Bartók’s compositional output is influenced by folk music, and his early compositions, such as his String Quartet No. In Budapest he met fellow composer Zoltán Kodály, who shared an interest in folk-songs and in 1908 the young composers collected Magyar (ethnic Hungarian) folk melodies. After his father died the family moved to Budapest and Bartók studied at the Royal Academy of Music with István Thomán (a former student of Liszt). He learned the piano from the age of five and gave his first public recital aged eleven. His mother was German and his father’s family were Hungarian nobility. Bartók left for America after Hungary joined the Axis Powers in November 1940.īartók was born in Nayszentmiklós, Austria-Hungary (now part of Romania). He also performed as a pianist and researched Eastern-European folk music, a passion which has led to him being called the ‘father of ethnomusicology.’ Although he had supported Hungarian nationalism in his youth, Bartók disapproved of the Hungarian government’s relationship with Nazi Germany, and protested against Hungary’s antisemitic laws. Bartók composed chamber works, string quartets and piano music, as well as orchestral and stage works. ![]() He is regarded as one of Hungary’s greatest composers, along with Franz Liszt. Béla Bartók is one of the most celebrated composers of the twentieth century.
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