Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)

Settling In Budapest. Systematic Collection of Folk Songs (1907–1913)

SETTLING IN BUDAPEST. SYSTEMATIC

COLLECTION OF FOLK SONGS ( 1 907-1 91 3)

1909

17 July

- From Vésztő

he

travels to Belényes.

Along

the way, he has to wait in Nagyvárad

between

9 a.m. and 5 p.m. During this time he rambles through the city, looks up his childhood lodging; he writes a postcard to his mother in St. Ruprecht an der

Raab

(Styria) and to Etelka Freund

in Budapest. He mentions her that the Rózsavölgyi

&

Co. firm sold 40 copies of Rhapsody abroad which encouraged them to publish String Quartet No. 1, promising it for the autumn. (It got published eventually in 1911.)

19 July

- From Belényes

he

writes a postcard to his mother, then starts his collecting in the villages around Belényes,

in

the valley of the Black- Körös.

27 July - He writes his sister: “I keep on returning to Belényes,

where

meals are good”. - According to his account, he has been collecting here for 3 weeks, but - as he writes in his letter of 31 August - he actually spent 14 days in Belényes.

In

the communities of Belényes,

Gyalány, Lehecsény, Határ, Biharmező, and Telek the

songs are dated July, in Bondoraszó,

Kereszély, Biharkristyór, Dragánfalva, Lelesd, Belényesszentmárton, Körössebes, and

Vaskohszeleste,

besides

again

in Lehecsény and Biharmező, the

dates are August. According to his compilation he collected 25 Hungarian, 20 Slovakian, and 320 Romanian songs during the summer, the first two being collections of Vésztő

(the

Slovakian songs originated from harvesters of the highlands).

Around 7 August - He falls ill, and travels to his sister in Szilad.

14 August - There he is getting better, sends his thanks to the Bu§i|ias for their hospitality and indicates his wish to visit them again for a few days in the summer. (He goes to the Mezőség

region

instead.) He found 20-25 melodies in the collection of Bihar where he believed to have traced a Hungarian interaction, and he apologises to the Romanian Bu§i|ia for having specified these as material “taken over from the Hungarians in olden times”.

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