Bartok
Folk melody collector
Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist (1881–1945), one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century classical music.
He pioneered ethnomusicology by collecting folk songs across Eastern Europe, incorporating their scales and rhythms into modernist compositions: The Bartók pizzicato plucks the string so hard it snaps against the fingerboard.
His works include the opera *Bluebeard's Castle*, *Concerto for Orchestra*, and six string quartets regarded as landmarks of the form.
Hungarian capital city
- HungaryCentral European republic
- MagyarEthnic group of Hungary
- DanubeMajor Central European river
- CarpathianOf a European range
Solo-and-orchestra composition
- symphonyExtended composition for orchestra
- sonataMulti-movement instrumental composition
- operaTheatrical art combining song
- orchestraLarge instrumental ensemble
score · piano concerto · violin concerto · string quartet · harmony · melody · conductor · maestro
Concurrent musical key centers
- dissonanceLack of harmony
- chromaticismUse of non-scale tones
- golden ratioPhi, roughly 1.618
- FibonacciPisan mathematician, numeral importer
Research conducted on location
- transcriptionWritten version of speech
- phonographGrooved disc audio player
- folk songsInherited communal music
- collectingGathering items over time
oral tradition · pentatonic · authenticity · documentation · archive · Kodály method · rural traditions · cultural preservation
Innovative cultural pioneers
- expressionismDistorting reality for emotion
- neoclassicismMovement emulating antiquity's forms
- atonalityAbsence of key signature
- twentieth century1901 through 2000
Stravinsky · Schoenberg · Debussy · new music · experimentation · innovation · primitivism
Budapest
Hungarian capital city
Carpathian · Transylvania · Liszt · emigration · nationalism
concerto
Solo-and-orchestra composition
- symphonyExtended composition for orchestra
- sonataMulti-movement instrumental composition
- operaTheatrical art combining song
orchestra · score · piano concerto · violin concerto · string quartet · harmony · melody · conductor · maestro · philharmonic
polytonality
Concurrent musical key centers
- dissonanceLack of harmony
- chromaticismUse of non-scale tones
- golden ratioPhi, roughly 1.618
Fibonacci · percussion · ostinato · night music · counterpoint
fieldwork
Research conducted on location
- transcriptionWritten version of speech
- phonographGrooved disc audio player
- folk songsInherited communal music
collecting · oral tradition · pentatonic · authenticity · documentation · archive · Kodály method · rural traditions · cultural preservation
avant-garde
Innovative cultural pioneers
- expressionismDistorting reality for emotion
- neoclassicismMovement emulating antiquity's forms
- atonalityAbsence of key signature
twentieth century · Stravinsky · Schoenberg · Debussy · new music · experimentation · innovation · primitivism
- ComposersBach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Haydn
- Don BluthAn American Tail, Anastasia, Rock-a-Doodle, Thumbelina, Petrie
- Modern ClassicalStravinsky, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Copland
- ModernistsPicasso, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Stravinsky
- Hungarian MusicLiszt
- Nationalist MusicDvorak, Grieg, Sibelius, Rimsky-Korsakov, Finlandia
BartokRachmaninoff
Puccini · easy listening · muzak · Tchaikovsky · John Williams
- Saint BartholomewMartyred apostle, patron of tanners