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Bla Viktor Jnos Bartk (March 25, 1881 September 26, 1945) was a Hungariancomposerandpianist. He is considered to be one of the greatestcomposers of the 20th century and is regarded, alongwith Liszt, as his country's greatest composer (Gillies

2001). Through his collection and analytical study offolk music, he was one of the founders of ethnomusicology.

Childhood and Early YearsBla Bartk was born in the small Banatian

town of Nagyszentmikls in Austria-Hungary (nowSnnicolau Mare, Romania) on March 25, 1881. By the age of four, he was able to play40 pieces on the piano and his mother began formally teaching him the next year.Among the pieces he played was his own first composition, written two years previously:a short piece called "The Course of the Danube" (de Toth 1999). Shortly thereafter

Lszl Erkel accepted him as a pupil.

Middle years and career (19091939)In 1909, Bartk married Mrta Ziegler. Their son, Bla II, was born in 1910. In

1911, Bartk wrote what was to be his only opera, Bluebeard's Castle, dedicated toMrta. He collected first in the Carpathian Basin (the then Kingdom of Hungary), wherehe notated Hungarian, Slovakian, Romanian and Bulgarian folk music. He also collectedin Moldavia, Wallachia and in 1913 in Algeria. However, the outbreak of World War Iforced him to stop these expeditions, and he returned to composing, writing the balletThe Wooden Prince in 191416 and the String Quartet No. 2 in 191517, bothinfluenced by Debussy.

He subsequently worked on another ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin influencedby Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, as well as Richard StraussHe wrote his third and fourth string quartets in 192728, after which his

compositions demonstrate his mature style. Notable examples of this period areDivertimento for String Orchestra BB 118 (1939) and Music for Strings, Percussion andCelesta (1936). The String Quartet No. 5 (1934) is written in somewhat more traditionalstyle.

World War II and last years (19401945)In 1940, as the European political situation worsened after the outbreak of World

War II, Bartk was increasingly tempted to flee Hungary. He was strongly opposed tothe Nazis and Hungarys siding with Germany. Therefore, they settled in New York City.

The first symptoms of his leukemia began in 1940, when his right shoulder beganto show signs of stiffening. Bartk's last work might well have been the String QuartetNo. 6 but for Serge Koussevitsky's commission for the Concerto for Orchestra.Koussevitsky's Boston Symphony Orchestra premired the work in December 1944 tohighly positive reviews. Concerto for Orchestra quickly became Bartk's most popularwork

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pianisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Liszthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomusicologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A2nnicolau_Marehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungaryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A2nnicolau_Marehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaniahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pianisthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Liszthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomusicologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banathttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A2nnicolau_Marehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungaryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A2nnicolau_Marehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania

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Bartk died in New York from leukemia (specifically, of secondary polycythemia)on September 26, 1945 at age 64.

Franz Liszt (October 22, 1811 July 31, 1886) was a

Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher. He was also

the father-in-law of Richard Wagner. In 1865 he became an abbotin the Roman Catholic Church.

Childhood and Early Years

Franz Liszt was born to an Austrian mother Marie Anna

Lager and a Hungarian father Adam Liszt on October 22, 1811, in

the village of Raiding (Hungarian: Doborjn) in Sopron County,

Kingdom of Hungary, (today the village is in Austria).

At age six, Franz Liszt began listening attentively to his

father's piano playing as well as to show an interest in both sacred

and gypsy music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age

seven, and Franz Liszt began composing in an elementary manner

when he was eight. He appeared in concerts at Sopron and

Pozsony (present day Bratislava) in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the

concerts, a group of wealthy Hungarians offered to finance Franz's musical education

abroad.

Middle years and career

In 1833, Liszt began his relationship with the Countess Marie d'Agoult. In addition

to this, at the end of April 1834 he made the acquaintance of Felicit de Lamennais.Under the influence of both, Liszt's creative output exploded. In 1834 Liszt debuted as a

mature and original composer with his piano compositions Harmonies poetiques et

religieuses and the set of three Apparitions.

In 1835 the countess left her husband and family to join Liszt in Geneva; their

daughter Blandine was born there on December 18. Liszt taught at the newly founded

Geneva Conservatory, wrote a manual of piano technique (later lost) and contributed

essays for the Paris Revue et gazette musicale. In spring 1844 the couple finally

separated.

At some occasions, Liszt took part in Rome's musical life. On March 26, 1863, at

a concert at the Palazzo Altieri, he directed a programme of sacred music. The"Seligkeiten" of his "Christus-Oratorio" and his "Cantico del Sol di Francesco d'Assisi",

as well as Haydn's "Die Schpfung" and works by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Jornelli,

Mendelssohn and Palestrina were performed. On January 4, 1866, Liszt directed the

"Stabat mater" of his "Christus-Oratorio", and on February 26, 1866, his "Dante

Symphony".

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Last Years

He died in Bayreuth, Germany, on July 31, 1886, at age 74, officially as a result

of pneumonia which he may have contracted during the Bayreuth Festival hosted by his

daughter Cosima. Questions have been posed as to whether medical malpractice

played a direct part in Liszt's demise.

Guillaume de Machaut, sometimes

spelled Machault (c. 1300 April 1377), was a

Medieval French poet and composer. Machaut

was "the last great poet who was also a

composer," in the words of the scholar Daniel

Leech-Wilkinson.

Life

Machaut was born c. 1300 and educatedin the region around Rheims. He was employed

as secretary to John I, Count of Luxemburg and King of Bohemia, from 1323 to 1346; in

addition he became a priest sometime during this period. Most likely he accompanied

King John on his various trips, many of them military expeditions, around Europe

(including Prague). He was named as the canon of Verdun in 1330, Arras in 1332 and

Rheims in 1337. By 1340 Machaut was living in Rheims, having relinquished his other

canonic posts at the request of Pope Benedict XII. In 1346, King John was killed fighting

at the Battle of Crcy, and Machaut, who was famous and much in demand, entered the

service of various other aristocrats and rulers including King John's daughter Bonne

(who died of the Black Death in 1349), her sons Jean de Berry and Charles (laterCharles V), Duke of Normandy, and others such as Charles II of Navarre.

Machaut survived the Black Death which devastated Europe, and spent his later

years living in Rheims composing and supervising the creation of his complete-works

manuscripts. His poem Le voir dit (probably 1361-1365) is said by some to be

autobiographical, recounting a late love affair with a 19-year-old girl, Pronne

d'Armentires, although this is contested. When he died in 1377, other composers such

as Franois Andrieu wrote elegies lamenting his death.

Principal works

1. Le remde de fortune (The Cure of Ill Fortune) (c. 1340s, before 1357)

2. Jugement du roy de Behainge (Judgement of the King of Bohemia) (before 1346)

3. Dit du Lyon (Story of the Lion) (1342)

4. Dit de l'Alrion aka Dit des quatre oiseaux (Story of the 4 Birds) (before 1349)

5. Jugement du roy de Navarre (Judgement of the King of Navarre) (1349)

6. Confort d'ami (1357)

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7. Dit de la fontaine amoureuse aka Livre de Morpheus (Story of the Amorous

Fountain) (1361)

8. Le voir dit (A True Story) (c. 1362-5)

9. Prologue (c. 1372)

10.Prise d'Alexandrie (The Capture of Alexandria) (after 1369)