Bela Bartok's integration of folk music and modernism

Bela Bartok was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist who drew heavily from the folk music traditions of Hungary, Romania, and other regions of Eastern Europe as well as Turkey. Due to political upheavals in Hungary, Bartok moved to the United States in 1940. His musical legacy had already become global at that point, as Bartok influenced composers throughout Europe and the Americas. Although he was initially trained as a pianist and initial Bartok compositions were heavily influenced by the late Romantic period, he broke new ground and helped to transform the character of 20th century music. Along with his contemporaries like Debussy, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky, Bartok became one of the 20th century's most influential composers and ethnomusicologists.

After meeting fellow Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist Zoltan Kodaly, Bartok engaged in field research, traveling to Transylvania and other regions to study traditional music (Schwartz). Frustrated by the conventions and lack of genuine innovations available to the Romantic composer, Bartok began exploring new styles, forms, and instrumentations. Bartok was innately drawn to the rich folk music traditions of Hungary, and started incorporating elements of Hungarian music sporadically at first, and then with more confidence. Especially after meeting Kodaly and then after engaging more seriously with the experimental compositions of Debussy, Bartok readily incorporated the minor tonalities, dissonance, and intensity of form from Hungarian folk music into his classical compositions. The influence of Hungarian and Transylvanian folk music is especially evident in Bartok's series of string quartets, including String Quartet No. 4. However, Bartok also incorporated the "Expressionist gigantism" trends that flourished after World War One, trends which were epitomized by Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." This would be Bartok's most fruitful period. Bartok's musical "language" combined abstraction, expressionism, and a panoply of scale constructions that were influenced by eclectic traditions (Antokoletz). Bartok may have resisted using language to speak about his music, but was certainly adept at using music as a language unto itself.

Bartok moved to the United States later in his life, and was soon diagnosed with leukemia. He also had trouble finding work in the United States, as his concerts were "not in demand," and he also went through a short dry spell of no compositions; but he also "refused to teach composition, insisting that it couldn't be taught," (Schwartz). As Somfai points out, Bartok had always been known, even in his native Hungary, for being reticent and reluctant to speak about his music. Whereas he would readily engage a discussion on folk music traditions, he found composition itself to be ineffable. Therefore, Bartok sought out teaching posts in ethnomusicology, and composed a few more concertos before he died in New York in 1945.

String Quartet No.4, Sz. 91: IV Allegretto pizzicato offers a snapshot of Bartok's music. The most notable sonic element of this movement is the use of pizzicato, but a particular form of pizzicato plucking the fingerboard that would become one of Bartok's signature elements. Plucking on the fingerboard imparts a percussive element, as the strong hits the wood. Bartok also takes the audience on a journey from the more lighthearted introduction to the contrasting darkness and suspense imparted by the pizzicato. When Bartok fused folk elements into his music, he did so without reverting to quaintness or sentimentality, and this is especially evident in pieces like String Quartet No. 4. In String Quartet No. 4, Bartok delivers "the most comprehensive and systematic interaction of symmetrical cells," and yet the piece reflects an underlying and compelling sense of contrast (Antokoletz 109). Although it has been "overanalyzed," it "reveals the importance of intuition and improvisation in his art," (Somfai 101). The piece feels experimental and traditional at the same time.