Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
After World War I (1920–1921)
1920 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE The Waldbauer String Quartet issued a season ticket for the whole season, valid for 8 evenings. Although Bartok had a season ticket, its doubtful whether he attended all concerts. (Dates of the concerts: 28 October, 5 November, 18 November, 23 November, 8 December, 29 December of 1920, 23 February and 16 March of 1921; Bartok was also participating in the last one.) 14 November - His sister stays with them on her way home from Pozsony. On 15 November she is hospitalised for a minor surgery. Bartok visits her at once. - Mrs Bartok writes her mother-in-law that the article about Hungarian folk music is not yet ready, but now its only a question of days. 18 November - Bartok asks her mother, in a message sent to Pozsony, to copy for him the reviews sent last time. 22 November - The Music Academy informs him in a letter (No. 663/1920) that his recent application for a leave was denied by decree No. 133987/920-III of the Ministry of Religion and Public Education. 24 November - Bartok introduces himself in a longish letter to musicologist Philip A. Heseltine in London. He lists his published, and soon-to-be published, works, informs him about his opinion concerning Debussy, Stravinsky, Schönberg, and calls his attention to Zoltán Kodály and László Lajtha, beside whom “we’ve got no composer of merit”. 24 December - The Bartoks spend their first Budapest Christmas Eve at Gyopár Street. 28 December - In Turócszentmárton Matica Slovenská signs the contract drafted in October 1920 regarding the Slovakian folk songs. 30 December - Bartok writes János Kemény, a young amateur composer, that his compositions sent in are rudimentary. 31 December - The Bartoks spend New Year’s Eve in the company of the landlords, the Lukács family, in high spirits. Bartok even dances with József Lukács’s 10-year-old granddaughter, Editke Lukács-Lessner. 196
