Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
A Hungarian pianist, composer and ethnomusicologist, Bartók built a modern language on the peasant music of Central Europe and wrote a major body of teaching pieces.
Born in 1881 in a small town of the Kingdom of Hungary, Béla Bartók studied at the Budapest Academy of Music, where he later taught piano for many years.
From around 1905 he toured the countryside with Zoltán Kodály, recording thousands of Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak and other peasant songs on the phonograph. This music, with its old modes and irregular rhythms, transformed his style.
His major works include the opera Bluebeard’s Castle, six string quartets, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, three piano concertos and the Concerto for Orchestra. Opposed to Nazism, he emigrated to the United States in 1940 and died in New York in 1945.
He wrote a great deal for students: For Children, on folk melodies, and Mikrokosmos, 153 progressive pieces. Pianists learn modes, asymmetric rhythms, hand independence and a touch that is by turns percussive and singing.
Piano sheet music (1)
- Romanian Folk Dance No. 2 “Brâul” · level 3