The Life and Music of Bela Bartok

by Halsey Stevens

First published in 1953, Halsey Stevens's The Life and Music of Bela Bartok was hailed as a triumph of musicology and quickly established itself as the classic text. Stevens combined an authoritiative, balanced account of the Hungarian composer's life with candid insightful analyses of his numerous works. To Stevens, the high point of Bartok's genius was the chamber music, which he assessed was of a quality unrivalled by any other composer of the early twentieth century. But he evaluated Bartok's entire output with mastery, picking out the composer's strengths and weaknesses and conveying the essence of his compositional techniques. Stevens's views have greatly influenced the study of Bartok and Hungarian music over the last four decades. Issued in a revised edition in 1964, Stevens's work now appears in a third edition, prepared by the Bartok scholar, Malcolm Gillies. A comprehensive chronological list of works is added, together with a select bibliography and discography. Minor revisions to the text are suggested in a new Introduction, and the text is enhanced by eight pages of photgraphs, some of them little known.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

364 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1953

Reviews

[Clarice Stasz]

This provides a quick overview of Bartok's life, along with some helpful musical analysis. It is far from comprehensive, yet it spurred me to continue my study of this major 20th century composer. I came away inspired by Bartok's focused commitment, his determination to create a genuinely Hungarian Classical music that would inspire his people while pushing new boundaries in composition. With his friend Zoltan Kodaly he traveled widely through peasant areas of Central Europe to transcribe folk music before it vanished under modernity. As such he became a key figure in the development of ethnomusicology. In fact, this scientific project was his first love.

I was surprised to learn he was also a noted concert pianist, joined by his second wife on two-piano pieces in later years. During his studies, he found composition more appealing and dropped performing for a long period. When Hitler's expansion began, he struggled with how his leaving Hungary would impact his admirers, but eventually fled to the United States, where he died.

Being a musician, I found the analysis of key pieces interesting, though lacking in depth. The writer illustrates his points with transcriptions that can be played at the piano or played in one's mind. The discussion spurred me to listen to the full works afterward. Now I'm playing Bartok and enjoying his fusion of folk tunes with modern harmonies. Overall, this small book achieves its aim of motivating the reader to explore further.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was first published in 1953, lest than 10 years after Bartok's death. It provides a very good examination of his life and music. Halsey is very clear-eyed and insightful about the composer and his work, although the lack of the perspective time brings is often evident. The biographical section is straightfoward and has just about the right amount of detail, even if I did occasionally feel the lack of additional information or reflection. The chapters on Bartok's music were arranged by genre, and then covered the pieces chronologically within each section. I think Halsey might have done better to approach the music through the lens of different aspects of Bartok's compositional technique and development, which would have averted some of the drier play by play portions.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice to learn about the man, and about his music.

[Mini Mags [Margaret] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I have to respect this book since it is the first serious and comprehensive study of the life and works of Béla Bartók.

General info: Only a third of the book is dedicated to biographical study, its primary concern is critical analysis of Bartók’s music.

Representation of works: I found there was too much emphasis on vocal music, not enough on more important works, e.g. Mikrokosmos (less than a page -- whaat!!).

Musical analysis: there is no attempt to define Bartók’s concept of tonality, no general analysis of his melodic and harmonic language. For being such a comprehensive book, I find that a bit strange -- especially in the 2nd edition.

Big, huge disappointment: Very little mention of Bartók’s life long friendship and work with Kodály.