Bartok's compositions were not fully appreciated during his own lifetime but he is now considered one of the most prolific composers in 20th Century classical music. His music is important in part because of its distinct Hungarian feel which he drew from his extensive knowledge of Hungarian folk music, having travelled around Hungary recording it. His music represents the emergence of Hungary as one of Europe's great musical nations.
Bartók acknowledged his musical debt to the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt and the French composer Claude Debussy, and his tone poem Kossuth (1904) shows the influence of the German composer Richard Strauss. About 1905 Bartók realised that what generally passed as Hungarian folk music was actually gypsy music arranged according to conventional Central European standards. With his friend the Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály, Bartók systematically collected and analysed Hungarian and other folk music, a collaboration that resulted in 12 volumes of folk songs.
Bartók rarely incorporated folk songs into his compositions; rather, he assimilated into a powerful personal style the scales and melodic contours and the driving, often asymmetrical rhythms of Balkan and Hungarian folk music. His music always has a tonal centre, but this is usually established in personal, only partially traditional ways.
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