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Bela BartokBorn: March 25, 1881 in HungaryDied: September 26, 1945 in New York
He was a diminutive and feeble man, who never veered from the truth, even when it meant defying the Nazis and moving to a new home. He was always ready to defend his freedom and his music, having penned a letter to the Budapest Philharmonic Society in which he requested they never play another of his pieces again, their having played his First Suite in mutilated form in 1915. As a nationalist composer, most of his music had the feel of Hungarian 'melos' or melodies. He was one of the most informed ethnomusicologists, having international acclaim for his research in folk music. And what he wrote was not the westernized version of folk music, but rather the deep-down raw material...the basics of ur-folk. 
Bela Bartok was exposed to folk music from the very beginning of his life; he was a reflective child who grew into an austere man, and although he was frail, he appeared powerful. He lost his father at the age of seven, and his mother, who was a piano teacher, moved him around the country allowing for many occasions to hear the several different types of folk music of Hungary. He began studying piano at the age of five, and it was soon discovered that he had perfect pitch and extreme ability, and by the age of seven he was enjoying public performances! In 1899 he entered the Budapest Academy of Music where a pianist by the name of Erno von Dohnanyi was studying, who later became the czar of Hungarian music. Rivals, it was said that Bartok was the only student who might follow in Dohnanyi's footsteps.
He also began to compose music as a child. Despite bouts of ill-health, he continued to compose, sometimes with the German traditions of Strauss as an influence in those early years. He joined with Zoltan Kodaly in 1905 to collect folk music from around country, and published the collection in 1906. He also discovered that the only way to study "Peasant Music" was 'in the field' or at the source, and not in the museums. He said it was an odd idea that only simple harmonizations were appropriate for the folk melodies. He said, "It may sound odd, but I do not hesitate to say that the simpler the melody, the more complex and strange may be the harmonizations and accompaniments that go well with it." But to work with this idea, he needed to also work with the idea of tonality...and he and the Viennese atonalists disagreed. Schoenberg believed in atonality, and Bartok believed in tonality; Schoenberg and his followers believed in One Method and One Method only! "Far be it from me to maintain that the only way to salvation for a composer in our day is for him to base his music on folk music," said Bartok, "But I wish that our opponents had an equally liberal opinion of the significance of folk music." These ideas worked for Bartok. But the Viennese atonalists were very unimpressed and uninterested! The atonalists won as it turns out, and after World War II, his music was having very little influence on the musicians of the day, even though his music remained fashionable. 
In 1906 his composing changed gradually, and took on a hint of the music of Liszt, Debussy and the Russian music of Stravinsky. He did not have many performances, however his music made quite an impact on the European people. His music was atonal and dissonant; his music did not gain much popularity until 1920 when he wrote the Dance Suite, as his style gained maturity. He then wrote many pieces which had much personality and energy and discordant patriotism...more so than Stravinsky, Prokofiev, or the French school were composing; it was absolutely Bartokian
He was a sensitive man, whom the whole idea of the Nazi occupation terrified; soon he was forced to leave his country. He was supporting his mother and wife and family; in 1939, his mother died. He left Hungary the next year and moved to the United States where he spent the rest of his life. He had enough to get by while in the U.S., having a position at Columbia University and working on his folk songs. He also did some concerts, but soon ill-health beset him once again. His last public appearance was in New York on January 21, 1943 with his wife Ditta as they played his Two-Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Fritz Reiner. He had Leukemia, and there was no cure. He had constant fever, and he weighed a gaunt 87 pounds. The American Society of Composers, authors and Publishers (ASCAP) gave funds to help him through this terrible time. Serge Koussevitzky commissioned Bartok for a thousand dollars to do some orchestral work, The Concerto for Orchestra, which turned out to be his most popular orchestral work! He composed Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin for Yehudi Menuhin and things were going quite well with royalties rolling in, and new agreements promising more. But at this time, he grew weaker, and working on the Viola concerto, he failed to complete it, and died in New York in 1945. On his deathbed, he said, "The trouble is that I have to go with so much still to say." Shortly after his death, Bela Bartok had become one of the most-played composers of all present-day composers!
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