source file: m1483.txt
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 08:13:30 -0400

Subject: Re: Bartok research

From: Dr_Orient <jma9183@garnet.acns.fsu.edu>

>  Aline Surman wrote:
>
> Just listening to Bartok this morning, and got to thinking...he did a
> lot of research into Hungarian, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern folk
> music, cataloging thousands of tunes...are the results of this research
> published? Is it available for purchase? Did he talk about the tunings in
> any depth? Of course, he used "microtones" occasionally, so he was
> obviously hip to the concept...I would like to know more about this area
> of his life, so if anyone has any info, let me know...also, the forum CD
> master DAT is done, I'll pick it up real soon...Hstick

Professor Hahn's list is good, but there's more: Bartok wrote multi-volume analyses
of Serbo-Croatian music in Yugoslavia, and also some little-known studies of Egyptian
music. I'm surprised that the list didn't mention the really huge (something like
seven-volume!) collection of Hungarian folk melodies that Bartok and Kodaly jointly
produced. I know this stuff because a) the materials are in the Florida State
University library (where I studied), b) I happen to be an ethnomusicologist and
pianist (and love Bartok's music), and c) my piano teacher, Edward Kilenyi, knew
Bartok personally. By the way, Bartok's extremely meticulous notations are not so
easy to read; he was very precise in how he heard and wrote down everything, and his
system of symbols for microtones (and other "non-standard" musical phenomena) seems
quite arcane, until you get used to it.All The Best,
Dr_Orient