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Product Description
Bela Bartok's (1881-1945) reputation as a key figure in twentieth-century music is well-established, but to understand the singular nature of his genius and the originality of his contribution, this biography is essential reading. The wide range of illustrations, showing contemporary photographs of people and events, help to bring the reculsive composer to life, and his story is set firmly into its social, cultural and historical contexts. Born into the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bartok worked through his youthful nationalism to a clearer understanding of his native culture, setting off with his friend Zoltan Kodaly to record the folklore of Hungary before it was destroyed by the march of progress. He ventured further into Romania and North Africa in pursuit of original cultures. These sounds and experiences helped him to find his voice as a composer.Despite his nationalism, however, Bartok was a humane and moderate man, whose distaste for authoritarian rule brought him into conflict with a crypto-Fascist government in Hungary and with the Germany of Adolf Hitler. While composing some of his outstanding works, he felt increasingly pressured and in 1940, after the death of his beloved mother, he tore himself away from Hungary and migrated to the United States. Homesick, short of money and stricken with leukaemia, he composed the magnificent Concerto for Orchestra and, on his deathbed in 1945, was completing a poignantly nostalgic Third Piano Concerto. He had never compromised his ideals, nor lost his innocence.
About the Author
Kenneth Chalmers is an author, translator and composer who has written on Bartok, Berg, Stravinsky, Verdi and Weill, and collaborated on Decca's 20-volume Mozart Almanac
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Chalmers gives us the surface facts of Bartok's life: places, people, dates and the circumstances of the works. It also portrays the shifting historical backdrop which Bartok sought so hard to avoid engagement with, after his youthful fraternisation with Hungarian Nationalism had burned out. But there is no psychological or musical depth to this book. I do not feel I understand the man any better for having read it. If anything I am now left with a more complex enigma. We are given the locations and dates of his ethno-musicological field trips, but very little indication of their impact on his musical thinking. As for the musical angle I learnt more from the Wikipedia article on Polymodal chromaticism than the meagre gleanings I got from the book. In the book's defence I would say that a strength is the large number of photographs that are included. The portraits of Bartok and his wives and associates arguably give more psychological insight into the man than the text. The pictures illustrating the political context of the Horthy years and the emergent alignment with Nazism are of definite historical interest.
I guess this book would be as good a place as any to start from for someone, like myself, whose interest in the man's music is moving out beyond the more obviously famous works. The book does give one a sense of the chronology of the works, and a sense of the more significant pieces that have yet to be embraced in the popular repertoire. But it does little to explain the origins and development of his hugely individual genius. Another, more expensive book in order then.
I guess this book would be as good a place as any to start from for someone, like myself, whose interest in the man's music is moving out beyond the more obviously famous works. The book does give one a sense of the chronology of the works, and a sense of the more significant pieces that have yet to be embraced in the popular repertoire. But it does little to explain the origins and development of his hugely individual genius. Another, more expensive book in order then.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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4 reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
An wonderful introduction to a complex composer
23 July 2000
Format:Paperback
This book is a fabulous introduction to the music of a man whose compositions are often a bit difficult to understand. Kenneth Chalmers eloquently takes the reader on a journey through Bartok's life and music. In spite of the fact that there are some musical details, Chalmers did not get bogged down in alot of the compositional jargon that might dissuade one to read this particular biography.
All in all, this book gets my highest praise and I enthusiastically encourage anyone who wants to learn a little more about Bartok, one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th Century, to read it.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Information, Poor Delivery
17 July 2004
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This publication offers excellent biographical information on the life of Béla Bartók. Chalmers eloquently describes the composer's most famous compositions, concentrating on the aspects of his personal life that influenced their genesis rather than their fastidious technical complexities. If you are interested in the theoretical aspects of Bartók's music, I instead recommend Elliott Antokoletz's "The Music of Béla Bartók: A Study of Tonality and Progression in Twentieth-Century Music." The most unfortunate element of the book reviewed here is the authors prose. The publication is littered with incomplete, run-on and just plain terrible sentence structure. Overall, this is a quaint and interesting book, but Chalmers' prose is incredibly difficult to comprehend. I, personally, do not enjoy having to read a simple sentence two and three times to understand a simple thought that could have been portrayed in a straight-forward form.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
A VALUABLE STUDY OF A GREAT MODERN COMPOSER
25 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) was a very important 20th century Hungarian composer; Chalmers has written the most extensive biography available of Bartok.
The book is filled with insights into Bartok's life and music; e.g., "In March 1906 Emma Gruber introduced him to the man who was to become his firmest friend and ally, Zoltan Kodaly."
Concerning his religious beliefs, "He expresses a faith in nature and science, and sees atheism as the natural successor to Christianity ('distorted into Catholicism'), which in turn ('with its splendid code of ethics') had taken over from the faiths of the ancient world." Nonetheless, "Bartok was still nominally Catholic, but when his son reached school age in 1917 he joined the Unitarian Church, to exempt the boy from Catholic religious instruction at school."
Concerning Bartok's famous invention of the "arch" form (i.e., of the form ABCBA), Chalmers states that this "characteristic Bartok structure was actually a late decision on the part of the composer." He notes that "after the Fourth Quartet, (it) was becoming Bartok's regular choice of construction."
Bartok's famous Mikrokosmos pieces for beginning pianists were actually written because he was "dissatisfied with the music his son Peter was being given to play at his lessons."
Bartok wrote his famous Concerto for Orchestra (which was "symphony-like"), although he felt that "the symphony was dead."
This book is an excellent reference for anyone interested in Bartok or his music.
The book is filled with insights into Bartok's life and music; e.g., "In March 1906 Emma Gruber introduced him to the man who was to become his firmest friend and ally, Zoltan Kodaly."
Concerning his religious beliefs, "He expresses a faith in nature and science, and sees atheism as the natural successor to Christianity ('distorted into Catholicism'), which in turn ('with its splendid code of ethics') had taken over from the faiths of the ancient world." Nonetheless, "Bartok was still nominally Catholic, but when his son reached school age in 1917 he joined the Unitarian Church, to exempt the boy from Catholic religious instruction at school."
Concerning Bartok's famous invention of the "arch" form (i.e., of the form ABCBA), Chalmers states that this "characteristic Bartok structure was actually a late decision on the part of the composer." He notes that "after the Fourth Quartet, (it) was becoming Bartok's regular choice of construction."
Bartok's famous Mikrokosmos pieces for beginning pianists were actually written because he was "dissatisfied with the music his son Peter was being given to play at his lessons."
Bartok wrote his famous Concerto for Orchestra (which was "symphony-like"), although he felt that "the symphony was dead."
This book is an excellent reference for anyone interested in Bartok or his music.
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