Bela Bartok
1881-1945 · Hungarian (Nagyszentmiklos/New York) · Modernism
Known for: Ethnomusicologist and composer who fused Central European folk music with modernism
Bartok collected over 10,000 folk melodies from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and North Africa using early recording equipment, then fused this material with modernist techniques. His Concerto for Orchestra and six string quartets rival Beethoven's in depth.
He was fiercely anti-fascist, refused to perform in Nazi Germany, and emigrated to America in 1940 where he lived in poverty and obscurity. He died of leukemia unaware his Concerto for Orchestra would become a masterpiece.
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