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

World War II. Second and Third American Tour (1939–1945)

1 945

CHRONICLES OF BÉLA

BARTOK'S

LIFE

28 July

- He writes music publisher Shilkret.

- Foreign citizens having served or serving in the American Navy or Air Force get American citizenship, Péter

Bartok

also among them. In Hungary the legal age was 24, whereas in the United States it was 21. Bartok congratulates his son on his age of majority which he will reach in three days on 31 July.

3 August

- He writes Péter

again,

and acknowledges with pleasure that he would be discharged. (He has got resin poisoning during his military service.)

4 August

(mistakenly dated 4 July) - He lets Pál

Kecskeméti know

of his younger sons discharge, asking him at the same time to procure his son Bêlas

address

through Dr. Sugár.

He

mentions that nothing will come of the Shilkret

matter.

5 August

- From Saranac Lake he writes William Primrose about his plan of writing a concerto for viola.

7 August

- He gives Pál

Kecskeméti the

news that he got an invitation from Kansas City with an annual obligation of 45 weeks’ teaching, which he would not undertake even if he were healthy.

11 August

- He writes the Pál

Kecskemétis, alluding

to the nuclear strikes of 6 and 8 August, after reaching the end of news from home: “... what trifles these problems are compared to the nuclear thing (I read about the U. 235 in 1940 for the first time, then they still had only a few grams of it at Columb. Univ.)-”. He sends a message to his son Péter who

is travelling to New York: “Our hut is on a rise behind the main house: there are narrow steep stairs leading up. We are waiting for you eagerly”.

His health status is worsening rapidly, his wife is also in poor health.

30 August

- They return to New York together with their son. Bartok writes from here to Dorothy Parrish in Huntingdon: “I started to write a few pieces in Saranac, but unfortunately I couldn’t finish them, and I don’t know if I can carry on with this work in N.Y.” One of these pieces is Piano Concerto No. 3, the other one is Viola Concerto.

504