Major examples of the instability of the world abound. As a result of the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided into five separate nations. In Russia in 1917, social unrest resulted in a coup and the take-over in power by the Marxist Bolsheviks. In 1922, Mussolini became the dictator of Italy. The Spanish Civil War also broke out later in this period, and resulted in the long-term dictatorship of General Fransisco Franco. And of course, the most regrettably memorable figure of this time, Hitler, came into power. (Hanning 162.) (From a musical perspective, a positive result of these circumstances is the isolation of these countries from one another, which facilitated divergent musical paths.)
Before the outbreak of the First World War, Bartók’s homeland, Hungary, was engulfed in problems of its own. Since the16th century, the Hapsburg Empire had treated Hungary like a colony. In the mid-1800’s revolts in other parts of Europe inspired a movement in favor of Hungary’s right to be self-governing. The people of the Hungarian territory approached the Hapsburg ruler, Ferdinand V with a list of demands. Ultimately, Austria denied the proposal. Under the leadership of Lajos Kossuth, Hungary declared itself a republic and the “Hungarian Liberation Fight of 1849” followed.
The fight was going well for the revolutionaries until the Hapsburgs sought help from Russia. Russia, which feared the spread of democracy, helped defeat the revolutionaries. In the end, the Hungarian armies were defeated and repression followed. Finally in 1867 a compromise was struck. Some of the Hungary’s demands were met and it became a partner in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
The matter was never completely settled, however. In 1917, when Bartók was in his mid thirties, there was a debate as to whether Charles, the current Hapsburg ruler, was the rightful king of Hungary. The “Hapsburg question erupted” and Hungary once again tried to overthrow the Hapsburg monarchy. The result was the Treaty of Trianon, which divided the empire into the independent states of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Romania, which consequently all came under oppressive authoritarian rule. The people of Hungary resented the treaty. It left three million Magyars (ethnic Hungarians) outside the borders of Hungary. This eventually led to an unfortunate alliance with Nazi Germany in an attempt to regain lost territory.
During the period of a year and a half before the treaty, nationalists like Bartók finally began to see their dreams come to fruition. The interim government supported Bartók’s “progressive efforts.” He, Dohnanyi and Kodály became the directors of the Academy of Music. Together they attempted to improve the standards in music education and proposed and museum for music. However after the Treaty of Trianon was signed, the new oppressive government suspended their jobs. Once again, literature and art in Hungary were neglected.
However, the consequences of Treaty of Trianon were more far-reaching than just the arts. Ironically, not one of the many towns which Bartók had spent his youth was still a part of Hungary after the Treaty of Trianon. One of Bartók’s friends recalls in the book “Bartók Remembered,” that for Bartók “whose profoundly nationalistic spirit had been nurtured by his research in Hungarian and related cultures, the dismemberment of his native country came as a deep, personal tragedy” (Gillies 3.)
This was an extremely difficult period for Hungary and surrounding countries. The four years of war resulted in heavy casualties, two revolutions and a “predatory occupation” by Romanian marauders. An group of anti-revolutionists, called the “White Terrorists” indiscriminately practiced vengeance against innocent people. Industrial unemployment and inflation were extremely high. During the war, there was a labor shortage and important machinery was neglected and fell into disrepair. Agricultural production suffered as a result. Many people who had invested their savings in war loans became destitute. Additionally, Hungarians who had fled or were expelled were in dire straits as well (Macartney NP).
Furthermore, the Hungarian government unwisely turned against the representatives of the laborers—the Trade Unions and Social Democrats. Thousands of people suspected of being affiliated with them were imprisoned or interned. Consequently, the Social Democrats withdrew from government involvement. Thus, the labor class was unrepresented in Parliament. This helped set the stage in Hungary for the instability that triggered World War I, when the air to the throne of Hungary was murdered.
It is obvious that Bartók lived in Hungary during a period of great civil and political unrest. He was born during the quiet before the storm, in 1881 in the thriving town of Nagyszentmiklós. It was populated by individual settlements of Hungarians, Germans, Serbs and Romanians who lived peacefully together. Nagyszentmiklós was located at an important crossroads and was visited by people from all over. This coupled with his parents’ musical involvement planted the seeds for Bartók’s interest in ethnomusicology. Eventually, after many years of private study with notable teachers he went to study at the conservatory in Budapest.
In Bartók’s last years as a student at the school, he and his close friend Kodály were “swept up in the nationalistic movement pervading Hungarian literature and politics” (Austin 224). School outings became occasions for students to display the “Magyar feeling” (Moreux 37). During this time there was a renewed interest in things Hungarian: “scholars were devoting themselves to the revivification of the older Hungarian culture, to the republication of early Hungarian writers, to the resurrection of the patriotic songs.” Often Bartók engaged in political discussions with his teacher Dohnányi. This only strengthened his convictions. Bartók took his commitment to the nationalist movement very seriously (Lesznai 33). He began wearing the traditional Hungarian garb and took every opportunity to evangelize on his contention that Hungarian, not German, should be the official language of Hungary (Stevens 16). It was during this period that Bartók said: “I will devote every part of my life, always and in every way, to one good: the good of the Hungarian nation and of the Hungarian fatherland” (Lesznai 33).
It was also during this time that Bartók wrote “Kossuth,” an obvious declaration of his support of liberation from Austria and the Hapsburgs. However, the Austrians in the Philharmonic refused to play the work because it parodied a patriotic Austrian tune and for its apparent anti-Austrian message. It is said that the conductor was so distressed by the scene during rehearsal that he had to leave. In the end, five of the Austrians produced “doctor’s notes” which excused them from the performance (Lesznai 36-7). Such examples of Bartók’s steadfast support of an independent Hungary abound.
Following his studies at the conservatory, it was quite natural that Bartók’s interest in his culture and music would culminate in the composition of nationalist music and studies of folk music. But not even Bartók could have foreseen the degree to which his ethnomusilogical studies would have engulfed and permeated every aspect of his life and compositional style. In 1905, when he was 24, Bartók made his first journey into the vast countryside of Hungary in search of folk music (Ewen-1 35). He made many, many more journeys in search of the same. With time, Bartók’s interest in folk music extended beyond that of Hungary. He actually studied Romanian music more than any other, even Hungarian. In a span of eight years, Bartók and Kodály cataloged over 6,000 Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, Arabian, Turkish, and Serbo-Croatian folk-tunes. It was Bartók’s firm belief that in order to understand Hungarian music, one must understand that of the neighboring areas of Hungary, too (Austin 225). Lesznai writes that: It is more than symbolic significance that during the First World War Bartók wrote a large number of Rumanian folk song arrangements. It was no accident that at the very time when chauvinism was at its height he busied himself more than ever with the music of the minorities living in Hungary, and then submitted his work to the public. He hated the war above everything and it was more than fortunate for him that he never had to serve as a soldier. When he learned that Hungary rushed into a war to protest the interests of other countries he said to his family: ‘We shall have to pay dearly for this’ (94).
Often Bartók did pay for it. Bartók’s outspoken resistance to his country’s involvement in external affairs got him a lot of bad publicity. In 1920, after Bartók, Dohnanyi and Kodály were dismissed from their positions as directors of the Academy of Music, Bartók refused to associated with a commission of musicians which did not include his friends and colleagues. Because Bartók refused to sell-out his friends and his beliefs and ally himself with the politics of his country, a newspaper campaign to defame him ensued. Bartók allowed his detractors to accuse him of being unpatriotic, among other things. After the accusers has sufficiently illustrated they were without evidence and made themselves look foolish, he published a rebuttal calling the allegations a “malicious misrepresentation” and quickly ended the ordeal (Lesznai 109-112). Because of the situation in Hungary and Bartók’s refusal to compromise his beliefs, he was more successful throughout Europe than he was in his own country. Machlis says “Bartók was out of sympathy with the Horthy regime and did nothing to ingratiate himself with those who might have furthered his career. The alliance between the Horthy regime and Nazi Germany confronted the composer with issues that he faced without flinching”(185).
When the Nazis took over as the owners and editors of AKM, a musical organization to which Bartók and Kodály belonged, they received questionnaires about their allegiance and ancestry. Such questions such as “Are you of German blood, related race, or non-Aryan?” simply prompted Bartók to scoff at the ridiculousness of the questionnaire and the men refused to respond (Stevens 85). As a result, however, Bartók had break his copyright and publishing rights with Vienna and was forced to send all of his valuable manuscripts to the United States so they would not fall into Nazi hands (Gillies xxv). Additionally, Bartók was resolute that his music not be played “where it might be heard in Italy or Germany… keeping his music free from political associations was of primary importance (Stevens 82).
Although Bartók’s public façade indicated that he was stoically enduring the war and it did not have an emotional impact on him, the opposite was true. Lesznai observes that “every manifestation of the war affected Bartók deeply” (94). Bartók recognized that the war could completely decimate his hopes of completing his ethnographical research. He was correct, of course, and by 1919 he was forced to restrict his expeditions. Bartók’s letters and memoirs indicate that during this time he was experiencing “growing depression due to political, military and civil strife” (Gillies xxi).
Up until 1939, Bartók had denied his intention of emigrating from Hungary, but he was extremely upset about Hitler’s presence in Austria. He failed to comprehend why neither the communist countries nor the Axis powers were helping the situation. Bartók’s humanist values also prevented him from accepting it. He said “the real keynote in my life… is the concept of the brotherhood of peoples—brotherhood in spite of every war, every dissension” (Lezsani 57). But Bartók was powerless to prevent the catastrophe he foresaw on the horizon (Lesznai 150).
As the war dragged on, Bartók realized could no longer endure the situation. The country he had devoted himself to so fully had turned her back on him. He felt the situation was hopeless and he was crushed. At this point his mother, whom he worshipped, was his sole tie to Hungary. Previously, Bartók had refused to leave her, even if it meant staying under Nazi influence (Moreux 41). Upon her death, he acknowledged it was time to leave Hungary. During this heart-breaking period, “Bartók wrote, ‘the civilized Christian folk are almost entirely devoted to the Nazi system. I am really ashamed that I come from this class.” “He who stays on when he could leave may be said to acquiesce tacitly in everything that is happening here’” (Machlis 186). He moved to the United States, wrenching himself from his homeland not knowing he would never return.
Bartók is a shining example of a dedicated nationalist. His devotion was so strong that it paradoxically drove him from his fatherland. Bartók was a product of his environment, man of honor and conviction. It was probably this devotion and his separation from his native soil that destroyed him and broke his will to live. After leaving Hungary, Bartók was ill for the remainder of his life. Only in death was Bartók’s resolute determination defeated, for “power, love, money or social status could not corrupt him. For 40 years, for example, he devoted himself to ethnomusicology… without serious prospect of financial reward, academic recognition… even publication.” (Gillies ix).
Bartók did not leave to realize the impact he made on 20th century music. Botstien comments that “in his music,” Bartók “engaged in the politics of national identity and attempted a novel representation of a distinctive ethnicity, which he connected to the great European tradition of the early 20th century avant-garde” (Laki 5). Furthermore, Laki says, “Bartók’s work contributes to the continuity and solidarity of the world’s multifarious musical culture” (223). Certainly much more could be said about how the socio-political environment of the ethnically diverse country of Hungary and the world contributed to Bartók’s style. Yet, there is something to be said for that intangible thing, the “essence” of Bartók. Bartók best summarizes the how he amalgamated his culture and his music, which was in essence, the purest expression of himself: I wanted to do two things: to bring back the spirit of folksong, and to harmonize the melodies in modern style. I tried to make them easy to play on the piano, and although I made use of modern means of expression, not to take away their natural flavor. It was presenting the past in the mode of expression of the present, like a Hamlet in contemporary costume (Lesznai 51).
Sean—This is an afterward of sorts. I felt it necessary to include an excerpt, which perfectly summarizes and clarifies what I may or may not have clearly articulated. I did not was to isolate these passages because as a unit they are very precise. Again from the immortally wise book by Lajos Lesznai: Bartók was born in a country of several nationalities, and became a patriot; proud of his Hungarian birthright he strove to bring fame to the land of his fathers, and he remained true to his aim. From the start his patriotism distinguished itself from the narrower kinds, since he was inspired by a true humanism. The best proof of this is through his involvement with the music of the minorities living, often under oppression, in Hungary, as well as that of small nations in general. To publish the folk-music of the minorities, especially at the time of the First World War, was an act of political criticism, and also of courage.
Hungarian folksong, for Bartók, was not merely a matter of patriotism, but also symbolic of the struggle of the peasantry for recognition. When he went on his research expeditions, he saw the people of the countryside not merely as objects for scrutiny, but as men and women who had their own distinctive contribution to make to the world’s culture. Bartók based his own creative work on the foundation of the songs of the peasantry, which in consequence became widely known.
For a long time, most of all in Hungary, he was decried as an ‘iconoclast’. People noticed only what was new in his music, without recognizing that it had developed logically from what was traditional. Many of his contemporaries failed to take into account the real basis of his musical style—his concern for the problems of the day… At this distance of time it is easy to forget that he lived through the most agonizing period of European history. It is easy to forget that his music was the result of the conflicts that engulfed him and all around him…
Bartók left Hungary unwillingly. Had he not done so—so Zoltan Kodály said—his outspokenness would have led to his suppression, possibly to his martyrdom. But his voice could not be silenced. All that he had to say was contained in his music (171-3).
Disclaimer:
I in no way, shape or form claim to be an expert on this topic. This essay was written for a college musical styles class.
I apologize, I have misplaced my works cited data. I will post it if I ever find it. The works referenced in this essay were found in the library at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ.
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