Béla Bartók
German Classicism and Romanticism, and especially the art of
Brahms played a decisive role in the development of his style. In
collaboration with Zoltán Kodály, he dealt extensively with Hungarian Folk
music.
In 1940, in the face of the horrors of Worl War II, he moved to The United States of America for a long time and gave lectures about Hungarian music at
Harvard University. Despite his intentions, he could not return home.
In 1899 he was admitted to the Pest of Academy of Music, and from 1901 he
studied piano and composition at the Academy of Music. From 1905 he devoted more
and more time to collecting folk music and taking advantage of the techniques
of that time. He traveled the village with a phonograph and processed these
collections with ever-increasing scientific details.
In January 1907, he became a piano teacher at the Academy of Music, succeeding
his former teacher while in 1908 his first more breath-taking works were
published.
From 1911-1920 he lived and worked in Rákoshegy and nowadays this is the
residence that houses the Bartók Music House of Rákoshegy.