A product of Hungary's political ferment at the start of the twentieth century, Bela Bartok's works combine determination to participate in Western art movements coupled with an enthusiasm for the folk traditions of a disappearing world. In this introduction to Bartok's stage works, Julian Grant describes the score for Duke Bluebeard's Castle, a symbolist version of the Bluebeard myth. Included in this volume are also his ballet scenarios and discussions of the choreographic potential and musical qualities of the scores. Ferenc Bonis indicates the appeal for Bartok of the natural world, against the cataclysm of the First World War. Together, these works give an insight into issues of sexuality, humanity and creativity.Contents: Works contained in this volume: Duke Bluebeard's Castle, The Wooden Prince, The Miraculous Mandarin; Images the Self: 'Duke Bluebeard's Castle', Paul Banks; Bartok and 'World Music', Simon Broughton; Annie Miller, Keith Bosley and Peter Sherwood; A Foot in Bluebeard's Door, Julian Grant; Around the Bluebeard Myth, Mike Ashman; A kekszakallu herceg vara: Libretto by Bela Balazs; Duke Bluebeard's Castle: English translation by John Lloyd Davies; 'The Wooden Prince': A Tale for Adults, Ferenc Bonis; A fabol faragott kiralyfi: Scenario by Bela Balazs; The Wooden Prince: English translation by lstvan Farkas; 'The Miraculous Mandarin': The Birth and Vicissitudes of a Masterpiece, Ferenc Bonis; A csodalatos mandarin: Scenario by Menyhert Lengyel; The Miraculous Mandarin: English Translation by lstvan Farkas

This research guide is an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources and catalogue of Bartók’s compositions. Since the publication of the second edition, a wealth of information has been proliferating in the field of Bartók research. The third edition of this research guide provides an update in this field and represents the multidisciplinary research areas in the growing Bartók literature.

This text grounds Bartok's art in turn-of-the-century Hungary and its modernist movement. It argues that Hungarian modernism and Bartok's aesthetic should be understood in terms of a collective search for wholeness in life and art.

This Companion is an accessible guide to Bartók's music and is an ideal introduction to the composer for students, performers and concert-goers. Part I of the book sets out the cultural, social and political background in Hungary at the beginning of the twentieth century, and considers Bartók's interest in and research into folk music. Part II surveys his compositional output in all genres, relating changes in style to broad aesthetic issues, his folk music studies, and his activities as a pianist, music editor and teacher. The final part reveals the wide variety of responses to Bartók's music in Europe and the United States, both during and after his lifetime. It includes a comparison of analytical approaches to his music and an evaluation of performances including those of the composer himself. The book is written by a team of specialists, who represent more recent thinking on the composer and his music.

"This deeply researched biography of Béla Bartók (1881–1945) provides a more comprehensive view of the innovative Hungarian musician than ever before. David Cooper traces Bartók’s international career as an ardent ethno-musicologist and composer, teacher, and pianist, while also providing a detailed discussion of most of his works. Further, the author explores how Europe’s political and cultural tumult affected Bartók’s work, travel, and reluctant emigration to the safety of America in his final years. Cooper illuminates Bartók’s personal life and relationships, while also expanding what is known about the influence of other musicians—Richard Strauss, Zoltán Kodály, and Yehudi Menuhin, among many others. The author also looks closely at some of the composer’s actions and behaviors which may have been manifestations of Asperger syndrome. The book, in short, is a consummate biography of an internationally admired musician."

Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartók explores the means by which two early 20th century operas - Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902) and Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) - transformed the harmonic structures of the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language. It also looks at how this language reflects the psychodramatic symbolism of the Franco-Belgian poet, Maurice Maeterlinck, and his Hungarian disciple, Béla Balázs. These two operas represent the first significant attempts to establish more profound correspondences between the symbolist dramatic conception and the new musical language. Duke Bluebeard's Castle is based almost exclusively on interactions between pentatonic/diatonic folk modalities and their more abstract symmetrical transformations (including whole-tone, octatonic, and other pitch constructions derived from the system of the interval cycles). The opposition of these two harmonic extremes serve as the basis for dramatic polarity between the characters as real-life beings and as instruments of fate. The book also explores the new musico-dramatic relations within their larger historical, social psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts.