The Life of Béla Bartók

Abstract

I was born on March 25th, 1881, in a small place, called Nagyszentmiklós, which now, together with the whole county of Torontál, belongs to Roumania. My mother gave me my first piano lessons when I was 6 years old. My father, who was the head of an agricultural school, was gifted musically and active in many directions. He played the piano, organized an amateur orchestra, learned the 'cello in order to play that instrument in his orchestra, and composed some dance music. I was 8 years old when I lost him. After his death my mother had to work as a school mistress and struggle hard for our daily bread. We first went to live at Nagyszöllös (at present Czechoslovak territory), then to Beszterce in Transylvania (at present Roumanian territory) and in 1893 to Pozsony (Bratislava, at present Czechoslovak territory). I began writing piano music when I was nine years old and made my first public appearance as a “composer” and pianist at Nagyszöllös in 1891; it was therefore a matter of some importance for us to settle at last in a biggish town. Among Hungarian country towns at that time it was Pozsony that had the most vigorous musical life, and by moving there I was given the possibility of having lessons in piano and composition with László Erkel (Ferenc Erkel's son) and also of hearing a few operas, more or less well performed, and orchestral concerts. I had the opportunity, too, of playing chamber-music, and before I was eighteen I had acquired a fairly thorough knowledge of music from Bach to Brahms (though in Wagner's work I did not get further than Tannhäuser). All this time I was also busy composing and was under the strong influence of Brahms and Dohnányi (who was 4 years my senior). Especially Dohnányi's youthful Opus No. 1 influenced me deeply.