Bela Bartok

(March 25, 1881 - September 26, 1945)

Bela Bartok is a famous Hungarian composer and an important composer of the 20th century. He started playing piano at a young age.

He became very interested in "folk music" from his own country and other countries. He would travel with Zoltan Kodaly and listen to these folk tunes and make recordings and later incorporate these sounds into his own compositions.

Some of his music has some very different sounding harmonies and rhythms that many audiences did not quite get when they first hear it.

Here is a short biography about Bela Bartok:

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I have memories of my University days studying a piece of music by Bartok. When I heard it all I could think was "This is so creepy, it sounds like a horror movie!". Well many years later I was watching Steven King's "The Shining" and there it was, that music, I knew it was perfect for a horror movie! Take a listen:

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Let's look at some other examples of Bela Bartok's music

"Bear Dance"

"The Miraculous Mandarin" and "My little Pony"

Lost in Budapest

(this is an animated musical short film based on Bartok's piano music)

Fox Song

(what do you think the fox is doing in this short little piece of music?)