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Bartók as Man of Letters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Benjamin Suchoff
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Extract

Bartok's literary efforts range from books and monographs to shorter essays. According to recent findings, there were no less than 119 extant works. Some of them were written in collaboration with Zoltán Kodály or Sandor Reschofsky; others were originally drafted as lectures which were for the most part given on the radio or at educational institutions.

Bartók's first essay apparently appeared in print in Budapest in 1904. It is interesting to note that except in 1907 and 1915, at least one of his writings was published each year of his life, in a considerable number of languages, and frequently in widely-known journals. His essays may be divided, according to their topics, into eight basic categories (although there is some overlapping): I. The Investigation of Musical Folklore; II, National Folk Music; III, Comparative Musical Folklore; IV, Book Reviews and Polemics; V, Musical Instruments; VI, The Relation Between Folk Music and Art Music; VII, The Life and Music of Béla Bartók; and VIII, Bartok On Music and Musicians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 102 , September 1972 , pp. 10 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

NOTES

1. According to the Bibliography in Béla Bartók Essays (compiled and edited by Benjamin Suchoff), to be published by Faber & Faber (London) and St. Martin's Press (New York) in 1973. Hungarian readers will find a listing in Bartók Béla összegyüjtött irásai (edited by András Szőllősy), Zenemükiadó vállalat, Budapest, 1966, pp. 929 – 937. Another reference work, in English, appears in Halsey Stevens's well-known biography, The Life and Music of Bála Bartók (revised edition), Oxford University Press, New York, 1964, pp. 337–343.Google Scholar

2. The interested reader should refer to the sources listed above in Note 1, since it has been deemed impractical to cite other than the more important essays discussed in this paper.

3. ‘Kossuth. Szinfónai költemány,’ Zeneközlöny (Budapest).

4. A magyar népdal (1924)Google Scholar, Slowakische Volkslieder (1959, 1970)Google Scholar, Die Volksmusik der Rumänen von Maramures (1923)Google Scholar and Die Melodien der rumänischen Colinde (Weihnachtslieder, 1935).Google Scholar

5. ‘Wegierska muzyka ludowa,’ Muzyka (Warsaw).

6. See Note 5.

6. ‘Folk Song Research in Eastern Europe’, Musical America (New York). This title appears on the MS. draft; the printed version is ‘Bartók Views Folk-music Wealth of Hungary.’

8. Published by Columbia University Press in 1951.

9. This essay is printed on the dust cover of the three volumes comprising Bartok's Rumanian Folk Music study (see note 14 below).

10. Published in Szimfónia (Budapest) and, in an extended revision, in Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft (Leipzig).

11. ‘Zum Kongress für Arabische Musik—Cairo, 1932’, Zeitschrift für vaghichende Musikwissenschaft (Berlin), 1933.Google Scholar

12. Published in Enekszó (Budapest) in 1938.Google Scholar

13. Rávai Nagy Lexikona, Budapest, Vol. 21.Google Scholar

14. Edited by Benjamin Suchoff and published by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1967.

15. This work, in revised form under the title [Rumanian] Carols and Christmas Songs (Colinde), will soon appear as Vol. IV of Rumanian Folk Music (ibid.); the revised Maramureş County study as Vol V.

16. Published in Uj Elet, Budapest.

17. Musikblätter des Anbruch, Vienna.

18. In three Budapest publications: Zenei Szemle, Ethnografia, and Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Kiadása.

19. In Zeitschrift füt Musikwissenschaft (Leipzig, 1931)Google Scholar and Ungarische Jahrbücher (Berlin, 1932).Google Scholar

20. ‘The Relation of Folk Song to the Development of the Art Music of Our Time,’ The Sackbut (London).

21. ‘Onéletrajz,’ published in the Budapesti Ujságirók Egyesülete Almanachja, and ‘My Activities During the War’, which appeared in Belgium under the title ‘I Salute the Valiant Belgian People.’

22. Letter from Bartók to Hubert Foss (Oxford University Press, London), dated 20 May 1931, published in Bála Bartók Letters (edited by János Demény), Faber and Faber, London, 1971, p. 209.Google Scholar