Béla Bartók

Bartók is a composer who is not easily classified and whose style cannot be described either briefly or by means of standard, generally accepted terms or ‘isms’. He propounded no systems as did Schönberg and Hindemith, established no clear-cut direction as did Stravinsky (neo-classicism) and founded no ‘school’. The direct influence of his music on younger composers, compared to that of the three just mentioned, has been correspondingly small. This may be partly due to his retiring nature and mode of life but even more to the fact that his music is in the last analysis incapable of being codified, hence incapable of being directly imitated. It is witness to the enormous creative imagination of its composer, whose natural musicianship may well exceed that of any other twentieth-century composer. Bartók was more concerned with writing music as he felt it than he was with questions of æsthetics and idiom. His lifelong preoccupation with folksong - a distinctly concrete and vital matter - and its relation to the composer constitute his only theoretical concern. That he was thoroughly capable of the most minute systernatisation is apparent from the pains he took in the classification of folk music. In composing, however, he was entirely unsystematic, following only the devices of his own fantasy.

Everett Helm, The Music of Béla Bartók, 1957
(Imagem: Bartók Béla arcképe, 1913, Olaj, vászon, 67 x 46 cm, Magántulajdon, New York)