Opening Address

Abstract

On the occasion of Béla Bartók's 125th birthday a meeting of Bartók scholars from all over the world in the Budapest Bartók Archives is an exclusive event. Bartók's name in a way serves as a world passport, it demonstrates the great achievements of a small nation, a phenomenon that politicians abuse. Bartók was an exceptional man whose spirit radiates for those who come in contact with his art and life, with legacy, the manuscripts of his compositions and his ethnomusicological work. The international conferences dedicated to Béla Bartók's oeuvre and world do influence Bartók studies considerably. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences or directly the Bartók Archives have organized several conferences in the past forty-five years. For the 125th anniversary a call for papers on the internet was enough to set dozens of musicologists, including many ambitious young scholars form twenty countries in motion. This is a surprising experience even if if we acknowledge that the perspectives and the rank of Bartók studies considerably improved in the past decade.