1907–1913
1907
1 January – He sends New Year good wishes to his sister in Szilad.
Afterwards the widowed Mrs Béla Bartók travels to Szilad to her daughter’s who is expecting her second child. Bartók sends his reports of his Academy pupils there.
9 January – He writes “3 pupils came altogether”, 3 were absent, so his lessons only last from 8:45 to 10 a.m. He also accepted private pupils for an average fee of 15 K (crowns).
According to his next letter “all backfisches, adolescents full of pimples, acne riddled parched faces, obese or rattling bones!... yet there is one pretty Jewish girl and a Christian at least fresh-faced”. He would nominally have 15 lessons per week, but there are many absences.
He begins to settle down; his piano acquired in Vienna hasn’t yet arrived due to the delaying strike of the Viennese workers. For this reason
on 14 January he rents a Bösendorfer piano, No. 4819.
15 January – He sends birthday and name-day good wishes to his mother in Szilad.
16 January – The Emil Oláh Tóths’ daughter, Magdolna is born. Bartók commemorates it in his letter to his mother, besides he gives an account of his private pupils. “Many of them are Jewish. – In case of many more applying I will raise the fee to 20 K… whether my lesson is worth it or not; those who are foolish enough to educate their talentless family with such expenses, should spend that money. … I don’t give lessons in my flat.” He also writes about buying many dictionaries and collection-like books.
18 January – The official paper announces that the Prime Minister appointed pianist Béla Bartók regular professor of the faculty of major piano at the Music Academy. (Temporarily for the time being, his position was finalised only nearly 2 years later.) This fact changes Bartók’s earlier life fundamentally. He settles down in or around Budapest permanently.
He arranges a household of his own, therefore his mother and aunt leave Pozsony to move in and keep house for him until his marriage.
He buys furniture or orders part of it from carpenters met during his trips in Transylvania. Due to his engagement at the Music Academy, he needs to organize his schedule, he goes to concerts less and less frequently, and spends more and more time with folk songs. He can go on collecting tours only during school vacations, but then he does it on every occasion, the folk song plays an important role even in his activity as composer. – He complements his teacher’s salary by giving private lessons, and practically suspends giving concerts. Between 7 November 1906 and 28 February 1910 he gives only two concerts in 1907 and two in 1909 altogether.
He also takes French language lessons from his landlady in his flat at Vörösmarty Street, for 1 crown per hour; the temperature in his room is 16–17°C.
Around 20 January he writes his mother that he is looking for a flat in Rákospalota, where even the sun shines warmer, there are real peasant houses with true village life, and he would be glad if they could already
live there together. – He attended János Koessler’s jubilee, the banquet of 2 forints; he met Dohnányi who liked Hungarian Folk Songs very much, and offered to try to arrange their publication with his German publishers. When meeting at Mrs Gruber’s, Dohnányi offered to also publish a few songs himself, upon which Mrs Gruber declared that she would be very glad to see the names of her 3 people (Dohnányi, Bartók, Kodály) on the same front page. – Bartók also mentions in his letter how sorry he is for Thomán, he keeps on visiting him just like before, but the world has a different viewpoint.
21 January – He is already negotiating about a flat in Rákospalota.
25 January – He writes a postcard to his sister in Szilad.
4 February – He falls ill.
6 February – He writes Thomán that he would already go to the Music Academy the following day.
9 February – He visits Thomán, bringing him Hungarian folk songs and songs by Debussy and Reger.
18 February – He is sending get well wishes to his sister on a postcard in the company of the Grubers, Ernő Dohnányi, and Viktor Herzfeld. He had received a complimentary ticket for this day’s event, the Hubay-Popper String Quartet’s first evening, and the party presumably gathered afterwards.
20 March – He redeems his half-fare train pass.
The building of the new Music Academy at Liszt Ferenc Square is completed at around this time, and Bartók mentions proudly in his letter to his mother that he will be the first to play the piano in the great hall of the new building on the occasion of the inauguration festivities.
He spends Easter holidays at Emil Oláh Tóth’s other brother-in-law, Lajos Huber’s, who is overseer of Felsőireg-Csehipuszta in Tolna county.
24 March (Palm Sunday) – From Felsőireg he writes his mother in Szilad, that he restarted his collecting work. “I rejoice infinitely at
having escaped that prison – Budapest.” He can hardly wait to live in Rákospalota with his mother.
27-30 March – He is staying at an inn in Felsőireg.
29 March – He writes his mother that he is having nice results with his collecting; at the same time he asks her to bring along his sister’s French dictionary to Budapest when they intend to look at the Rákospalota flat. – He returns to the Hubers for Easter.
31 March (Easter Sunday) – He sends a postcard to Etelka Freund: “From the circle of my dear peasants”.
1 April (Easter Monday) – He writes a joint postcard with the Hubers to his sister in Szilad.
4 April – He returns to Budapest, expecting his mother there.
5 April – They go together to Rákospalota for an inspection of flats.
For 7 April – He receives a ticket for the stage rehearsal of the Philharmonics.
22 April – He explains a railway technological peculiarity to his sister on a picture postcard.
27 April – In Budapest he is looking for furniture with his mother, and they have lunch at the Thománs’.
From 1 May – Their home is: 15 Mária Street, Rákospalota.
12 May – The inauguration of the new building of the National Hungarian Royal Music Academy, with festive speeches.
13 May – Festive concert in memory of the “glorified” masters, the late professors (Liszt, Erkel, Volkmann) of the Music Academy. The 4th item of the programme, Volkmann’s Concerto in C major is performed by Béla Bartók, the orchestra is conducted by István Kerner. This is the first piano piece performed publicly in the great hall of the building.
According to Bartók “A thankless mission, but it’s worthwhile for
‘being first’ indisputably”.
15 May – Introduction of past distinguished pupils of the Music Academy, with the participation of Ernő Dohnányi, Stefi Geyer, Ferenc Vecsey, Mihály Takács. Bartók’s Suite No. 1. is performed.
24 May – He caught a cold, and is ill for 3 days.
28 May – He writes a postcard to Thomán.
29 May – In the morning he goes to the Music Academy, afterwards gives a lesson to Gizella Schlesinger [Selden-Goth], then he is preparing to go to the Thománs’.
9 June – From Rákospalota he sends birthday good wishes to his sister in Szilad.
17 June – Kodály asks in a letter from Paris (still in the formal manner):
“What did you find in the phonograph? Will there be enough material in front of you? I interpret your silence concerning the folk songs meaning that you don’t consider the couple of songs that I sent publishable”.
As soon as the school year is finished Bartók sets out on a collecting tour.
28 June – His first trip takes him to Jászberény where he is guest of Stefi Geyer’s parents. He finds few songs.
1 July – He sends home his dispensable packages, and sets out in the evening on his first trip to Transylvania. In Körösfő in the vicinity of Kalotaszeg (Kolozs county) he orders his carved desk from György Péntek-Gyugyi.
5 July – He gives his mother an enthusiastic account of Bánffyhunyad (Kolozs county), the surroundings, and local folk costumes.
6 July – He takes a car in Brasov to see the sights of the beautiful city, he visits the nearby Csango people of Hétfalu, and walks up to the Árpád memorial on the Cenk mountain.
The Rákospalota flat occupied with such high hopes proved to be bad, small and noisy, so they are already looking for another one: “If there is no suitable flat in Buda … then only near the music academy”
– he writes his mother.
Then he departs on his nearly 2-month long collecting tour in Seklerland, more precisely Csík county, where his route can be followed only roughly. He goes to Gyergyószentmiklós to collect
his mail every 4 days as a rule, but also indicates other communities (Csíkrákos, Csíkmadaras) for poste restante purposes.
30 July – He writes Etelka Freund from Csíkkarcfalva.
In his collection of folk songs Csíkrákos and Csíkjenőfalva are dated July, Csíkszentmihály, Csíkszenttamás, Gyergyóújfalu, Csíkkarcfalva, Kilyénfalva, and Csíkvacsárcsi year 1907 in general, Gyergyótekerőpatak and Gyergyócsomafalva August.
7 August – He writes from Gyergyótekerőpatak to piano manufacturer Sándor Keresztély regarding his son’s entrance to the Music Academy.
9 August – From Gyergyóújfalu he writes his mother that they need to rent a 4-room flat.
16 August – He writes Stefi Geyer still from Gyergyó, elaborating at length the difficulties of folk song collecting in way of a funny dialogue.
17 August – He writes Etelka Freund: “I found the Sekler melody types, which I had thought nonexistent”. – The orchestration of the 4th movement of Suite No. 2 is also in progress.
20 August – He dates a photo of his from Gyergyószentmiklós.
He travels home from Gyergyó, then soon to Szilad to see his sister.
6 September – From there he replies to Stefi Geyer in a long letter about philosophical and theological matters.
7 September – He sets out for Budapest at 6 in the morning.
From 10 September he is sitting in at entrance examinations of the Music Academy for several days.
During this period he receives Stefi Geyer’s recent letter, which he replies to on 11 September in a pessimistic mood, in yet another longish letter.
12 September – He visits Stefi Geyer.
9 October – He sends 23 Sekler ballads to Gyula Sebestyén, President of the Hungarian Ethnographic Society.
From 1 November he rents flat No. 23 on floor 4 of 17 Teréz Boulevard (District 6) together with his mother. To take advantage of
All-Saints Day, Bartók travels to Nyitra county.
28 October – From Nyitra he sends a foldout card with no text or signature to his sister in Szilad.
He dated songs from the communities Zobordarázs, Kislapás, and Lapás November in his collection.
4 November – He places an order for an embroidered shirt, paying an advance of 2 K to István Borka in Kánya. (There was no community named Kánya, it was presumably Kányahegy.) Bartók’s mother – in his absence – arranges their move from Rákospalota to Teréz Boulevard, where renovations are in full swing until 18 November (electricity, wallpapers, etc.).
6 November – Bartók arrives home, and receives his pupils in the middle of the “dreadful situation”.
7 November – He orders a dinner jacket from gentleman’s tailor Manó Printz.
22 November – Violin recital of Mischa Elman; at the same time the first orchestral concert of the National Conservatoire with the appearance of Hubay’s pupil, Licco Amar. (25 years later in Frankfurt Bartók played with him his Rhapsody No. 2 and one movement of his Sonata No. 1.) Bartók presumably listens to the previously mentioned concert.
23 November – The first home concert of the Music Academy.
24 November – He writes Etelka Freund that he undertakes “the matter of the Kósa kid [György Kósa]” – meaning his teaching.
26 November – He writes his new address to his pupil, Ernő Keresztély.
30 November – He goes on a short visit with Stefi Geyer’s mother at 12:30, then writes a postcard to Etelka Freund concerning his visit planned for 2 December.
2 December – An afternoon visit at Etelka Freund’s. In the evening Ernő Dohnányi’s concert.
3 December – He writes a card to Etelka Freund, on 4 December he goes to see her at 7:15.
10 December – At the concert of the National Casino he plays an intermezzo by Brahms, Reger’s Aus meinem Tagebuche, and Chopin’s Scherzo in B flat minor.
1908
3 January – At Budapest he redeems his half-fare train pass.
8 January – He writes Etelka Freund on a postcard that nobody was admitted that day to the stage rehearsal of the Philharmonics (neither was he).
He sends the orchestral score of Suite No. 2 to conductor Volkmar Andreae in Zurich, and asks him in a letter of 12 January to take a look at it: he would be grateful if he performed it. (This didn’t happen.) 31 January – He writes Etelka Freund from Vienna: “Today I pocketed yet
another failure of my Suite No. 2”. On the other hand “the orchestral score of the violin concerto is practically ready”.
5 February – Ending date of Violin Concerto, having been started in 1907 in Jászberény and dedicated to Stefi Geyer.
8 February –He buys artistic copies of paintings in the value of 130.50 K (crowns) in the Artaria art gallery of Vienna, among them the Mona Lisa and a portrait of Beethoven, which then he frames and places in his flat.
10 February – He is in Budapest again, he settles his tailor’s bill.
18 February – He offers his condolences to Etelka Freund for the family’s bereavement.
1 March – He travels to Körösfő (Kolozs county) and continues folk song collecting there.
1 May – A detailed article of praise appears in the Nyugat by Géza Csáth about Bartók: “Béla Bartók’s music, especially his orchestral piece is throbbing with his whole remarkable temperament. … Béla Bartók
is quite a young man as yet, but already an accomplished personality, whose artistic best however is still in ferment. This art today belongs as yet mostly to the future … but even until we can get hold of his music scores, it needs to be established rather urgently that those preferring the refined, the individual, the unprecedented in music can expect from him sheets of music notes of great interest.”
He sends Violin Concerto to Henry Marteau.
19 May – He gets the response that Marteau has no time to look into the piece.
25 May – In Budapest he orders several sets of clothing from gentleman’s tailor Manó Printz.
10 June – He settles the tailor’s bill. Letter sent to Henry Marteau.
15 June – In his letter to Péter König in Szeged he requests details about the situation and financial possibilities of the local music school.
At the end of the school year he departs on a longish vacation, starting in Vienna where he stays at the Goldenes Lamm. He meets Busoni, to whom he shows his new work, the “14 Superior Piano Pieces” Op. 6 (later entitled 14 bagatells).
27 June – He writes his mother in Budapest, that Busoni liked the opus very much and wrote a really warm letter of recommendation to music publishers Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig advising the commendable act of publishing these pieces well in time. (They were finally first published by the Károly Rozsnyai and Son firm, under the title of Fourteen Piano Pieces; the Breitkopfs wrote that the pieces were too difficult and modern.) 28 June – He writes Etelka Freund from Baden bei Wien about the meeting
with Busoni.
29 June – He gets invited by Busoni to play all 14 pieces for his pupils’
edification.
30 June – From Vienna he travels to Switzerland where he spends most of July. He goes to Geneva, Luzern (where he doesn’t feel comfortable), Zurich.
6 July – From Leipzig he writes a picture postcard to his sister in Vésztő, with an erroneous June date.
20 July – It is from here that he asks Etelka Freund for advice concerning titles for the 2nd (Painful Struggle) and the 7th (Dawn) numbers of the freshly completed Ten Easy Piano Pieces and their German translation.
(Bartók lost the reply advising “Qualvolle” for the 2nd number, and asked for the translation again on 6 September.)
He wrote his mother that the publishers were not too keen on publishing his works.
21 July – In Geneva he receives his mother’s poste restante letter with this encouragement: “These publishers are very careful, they don’t risk publishing the work of a stranger, even less of a Hungarian. It is reassuring enough that two such outstanding artists valued your pieces. Main thing is to persevere and go on labouring, there will be a time when your works will be understood in a broader circle”.
22 July – From Geneva he proceeds to France, Veyrier in Upper Savoia. He also passes by Chamonix (he doesn’t like it).
27 July – He writes Etelka Freund with joy “from the peaceful calm sweet little Argentière”, “to where … swarms of English millionaires don’t come, thank God”.
28 July – From Dresden Kodály writes a poste restante letter to Bartók in Geneva (in the familiar form already), and invites him for a meeting in Dresden around 12-13 August, then on 2 August he modifies his suggestion, inviting him for a stay in Fiume, but neither one came true.
29 July – From Argentière Bartók writes a postcard to his mother.
31 July – He goes to Geneva for his poste restante letters. From here he writes Etelka Freund the contents of Breitkopf & Härtel’s letter of rejection, to István Thomán about having been in Argentière, and he also sends a card to his mother from the foot of the Mont Blanc. His journey continues to be variegated.
11 August – From Albertville (Savoia) he writes Etelka Freund that he gets good food for 5 forints (however, on the 18th he writes of not having had anything to eat for a week).
15 August – He sends a postcard to Etelka Freund from Val d’Isère (from the shore of the Lac des Tignes), on the 18th another one from Pralognan (Savoia).
19 August – From Pralognan he writes his sister that he is at the height of 2,527 meters, between snow and stone.
26 August – From Chambéry (Savoia) he notifies István Thomán that he received the Bach proof-sheets and found a lot of mistakes in the Hungarian text.
He takes an excursion from Chambéry to the Mediterranean: he goes to Avignon via Lyon-Vienne-Valence.
30 August – In Avignon he stays at Hotel de Cours for 2 days.
31 August – He leaves.
2 September – From the village of Les Saintes Maries (Gard) he writes Etelka Freund enthusiastically that he reached the non plus ultra of his desires, the sea, it was the first time that he bathed in the sea and saw a mirage. – He jots down the song about the bridge of Avignon – it was a novelty for him.
5 and 6 September – From Chambéry again, he writes postcards to Etelka Freund about leaving for home and about the Leipzig people having
“committed a splendid misprint”: for the 3rd number of the Ten Easy Piano Pieces they wrote “Tót lepények tánca” [Translator’s note: instead of “Slovak Young Men’s Dance” – legények – they wrote “Slovak Pies’
Dance” – lepények].
6 September – Still from Chambéry he sends a funny postcard to his nephew, Béla Tóth in Szilad.
9 September – Already in Budapest, he writes his pupil, Stefánia Szalay in Nagyvárad.
At this time Károly Ziegler, district commander of Pozsony gets
transferred to Budapest as national superintendent. He is allotted official residence at 2 Dísz Square. He wants his two daughters, Herma of 16 and Márta, one year her junior, to study music, and his choice
transferred to Budapest as national superintendent. He is allotted official residence at 2 Dísz Square. He wants his two daughters, Herma of 16 and Márta, one year her junior, to study music, and his choice