In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Bela Bartok

Born: 1881. Died: 1945. Lived in: Hungary

Bela Viktor Janos Bartok was a Hungarian composer, pianist and collector of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. Bartok is considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. He was one of the founders of the field of ethnomusicology, the study and ethnography of folk music.

Bela Bartok began lessons with his mother, who brought up the family after his father's death in 1888. In 1894 they settled in Bratislava, where he attended the Gymnasium (Dohnanyi was an elder schoolfellow), studied the piano with Laszlo Erkel and Anton Hyrtl, and composed sonatas and quartets. In 1898 he was accepted by the Vienna Conservatory, but following Dohnanyi he went to the Budapest Academy (1899-1903), where he studied the piano with Franz Liszt's pupil Istvan Thoman and composition with Janos Koessler. There he deepened his acquaintance with Wagner, though it was the music of Strauss, which he met at the Budapest premiere of Also sprach Zarathustra in 1902, that had most influence. He wrote a symphonic poem, Kossuth (1903), using Strauss's methods with Hungarian elements in F. Liszt's manner.

Arrangements | Recordings

Recordings and DVDs

Cantemus Children's Choir : Bartok Choral Works

Bartok's two- and three-part choruses for children's and female voices, his best-known choral cycle worldwide, appears at first sight to be distinct from the rest of his oeuvre. It is a textually inspired composition, whose arrival might seem unexpected in the period when he composed large instrumental works in the consolidated classical style, such as the String Quartet No. 5 (1934), the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936), and the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion (1937). Yet it sits easily in relation to his oeuvre as a whole.

Songlist: Tavasz, Ne Hagyj Itt, Joszag-igezo, Level az Otthoniakhoz, Jatek, Leanynezo, Hejja, Hejja, Karahejja, Ne Menj El, Van Egy Gyurum, Karica, Senkim a Vilagon, Ciposutes, Huszarnota, Resteknek Notaja, Bolyongas, Lanycsufolo, Legenycsufolo, Mihalynapi Koszonto, Leanykero, Keserves, Madardal, Csujogato, Banat, Ne Lattalak Volna!, Elment a Madarka, Parnas Tancdal, Kanon, Isten Veled!