Customer Reviews

The Life and Music of Bela Bartok

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An excellent book on the great Twentieth-Century composer, being both a biography in the usual sense, but also providing definitive analyses of his major works. The detailed description of Bartok's six string quartets, leaves little more to be said of them -- unless you want to go to monographs like Prof. Leo Treitler's Ph.D dissertation on the Fourth Quartet alone. A must for any Bartok lover. [updated email address]

Well, I have to respect this book since it is the first serious and comprehensive study of the life and works of Béla Bartók. Overall, I give this 3.5 stars, with the hope that more books like this will surface with even more depth on this important composer.

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.