BARTOK Bela (Bartok Bela)

(1881-1945)
Born March 25, 1881 in Nadsentmikloshe (now Synnikolaul-Mare, Romania). The initial musical education was his mother and already in the age of ten to come out publicly as a pianist and composer. In 1899, Bartok entered the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest, where he studied piano with J. Toman and composition at G. Kesler. The first stand-alone works of Bartok, written shortly after his graduation from the Academy in 1903, differ bright national coloring. At the same time the composer began to collect and study folklore of the peoples of Central Europe and soon became a great expert in these matters. He issued composed of collections of folk songs and constant use of found melodies and tunes in his own compositions, by the end of his life the composer's folk collection of over 6000 samples.

In 1907 a Bartok became professor of piano class of the Hungarian Academy of Music. Since that time, he begins to write much for the piano (the piano part of the larger legacy of the composer are children's plays), and his music has attracted worldwide attention unusual harmonic and rhythmic warehouse. Then followed the works of theater and chamber instrumental genres, two of them, performed after 1918, one-act opera Bluebeard's Castle and the Second String Quartet, soon brought Bartok's European fame. He became one of the leaders of the International Society for Contemporary Music, played with a lot of concerts as a pianist and composer, including several times in the U.S. (the first tour in 1927) and in the Soviet Union (1929).

In 1940 BartцЁk emigrated to the United States, where he settled in New York, most of the time was devoted to transcripts from the collection of Yugoslav folk M. Parry (commissioned by Columbia University). Despite serious illness, he continued to compose and almost finished his Third Piano Concerto. Bartok died in New York on September 26, 1945. The last 17 bars of the Third Concerto and graduated orchestrated by his pupil Tibor Shirley. As a composer Bartok's legacy can allocate 6 string quartets, 2 sonatas for violin and piano, 3 piano concerto, violin concerto, a secular Cantata (Cantata profana) for soloists, chorus and orchestra. An interesting series of contrasts for piano, violin and clarinet BartцЁk was created in 1938 to perform with his friends - the violinist Joseph Szigeti and clarinetist Benny Goodman. Most clearly represent the style of Bartok his numerous piano works: a play for children, suites, dances, sonatas and important collection of piano miniatures for students in 6 notebooks Microcosmos (1926, 1932-1939). Bartok's style is characterized by brief melodic construction, unconventional thinking and active harmonic rhythm, texture is often terse and transparent, with strict cost savings achieved by deep and powerful expressiveness.