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

War Years (1914–1919)

WAR YEARS (1914-1919)

1918

VKM decree No. 65785/III./1918, but got withdrawn in 1920.

7 September

- The widowed Mrs Béla

Bartok

writes her daughter: “

Béla is

expecting Márta

home

on the 9th, many things needing her attention. Márta is

really the best wife for Béla,

she

understands him, and being so smart she can help him a lot”.

10 September

- The Budapest Philharmonics perform Two Pictures in Berlin. - Bartok was also invited to Berlin for a composers evening, which he couldn’t undertake.

14 September

- He thanks Margit Egri

for

the souvenir sent from Rákoskeresztúr at

the end of the year. He writes a longish letter to János Bu§i|ia

in Belényes

about

his Szászberek

collecting,

about his plans for a November collecting tour (which didn’t come true, of course), and about Brody not having sent a libretto, so he started to put music to The Miraculous Mandarin.

18 September

- Another Budapest performance of the Bluebeard.

After long discussions, the contract with Universal Edition came into existence.

22 September

- Bartok asks Ernő

Murányi, the

lawyer in this case for his bill.

7 October

- In Budapest Two Pictures are performed very badly at the first Philharmonical concert of the season, Bartok being present.

The epidemic of influenza is spreading countrywide with increasing speed, becoming extremely grave under the name “Spanish flu”.

8 October

- Bartok goes down with the illness.

10 and

11 October - While his wife writes a comforting letter to her mother-in-law (“a normal, civil flu”), Bartok also gets otitis media, on 13 October a doctor is brought out from Budapest to treat it, who punctures the ear-drum, and reassures him that his hearing is not endangered.

The Music Academy is closed for 14 days due to the epidemic.

14 October

- Bartok has no fever, but talking is very difficult for him, so he 179