Béla Bartók

Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist

Per Wikipedia, Bartók and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hungary's greatest composers, and Bartók is considered one of the 20th century's most important composers.^[1]

Last updated 2026-09-30 from the source article.

Quick Facts

Born: 25 March 1881
Birthplace: Nagyszentmiklós, Kingdom of Hungary
Died: 26 September 1945 (aged 64)
Place of death: New York City, U.S.
Occupation: Composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Bartók was born in Nagyszentmiklós, Kingdom of Hungary, on 25 March 1881.^[2] Bartók married Márta Ziegler in 1909 and divorced her in June 1923.^[2] He died on 26 September 1945 in New York City from complications of leukemia.^[3] At the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest from 1899 to 1903, Bartók studied piano with István Thomán and composition with Hans Kossler.^[2]

The symphonic poem Kossuth, honoring Lajos Kossuth, was Bartók's first major orchestral work, written in 1903.^[2]

What the cited sources add

The Bachtrack article states that Bartók's "true guiding principle" was "the ideal of the brotherhood of peoples, despite war and all conflict".^[4] Musicologist David Cooper is quoted in Bachtrack noting "the essence of Bartók's music its precarious tightrope balance between urban art music and rural popular music".^[4] The Bruzz article reports that Bartók developed a "growing, almost pathological hatred" for city life.^[5]

References

Wikipedia, "Béla Bartók" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gillies 2001 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
"Béla Bartók (1881–1945)", Mahlerfoundation.org, 16 October 2015. facts only, no text reused. mahlerfoundation.org
Wikipedia, "Béla Bartók" (CC BY-SA 4.0) en.wikipedia.org
"Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra: a journey from darkness to light", Bachtrack.com. facts only, no text reused. bachtrack.com
"Béla Bartók in Boedapest: Avant-garde en het platteland", Bruzz.be. facts only, no text reused. bruzz.be

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Béla Bartók (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.