Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Preface
CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE the pen even there. So in regard to this work we indicated mainly the municipalities visited during individual trips, beside the origins of the informants. Where we had train tickets, postal mail or other sure proof at our disposition, the accurate date is naturally included. We wrote names of administrative units - also in accordance with Bartoks suggestions to Ion Bianu on 24 April 1913 - mainly according to official Hungarian signing of locations of the time. We indicated place names abroad using the general Hungarian spelling of those times (Bées, Lemberg, Kalifornia), in lack of such, the official names used during Bartoks activities (Danzig, Königsberg, Strassburg before 1918, Strasbourg in 1933), in some instances noting even the later names. The reader can find domestic or present place names used by Bartok and also in our book - together with local popular names in square brackets, mentioned mainly regarding folk song collecting - in the Identification List of Place Names. While listing the compositions we were unable to show a complete picture due to the already mentioned inaccuracies; besides Bartok had several appearances of which the press did not publish the programme, very often not mentioning even the names of the conductor or participants. The reader probably expects maximum objectivity in such a book, based mainly on data. This was made very difficult by my strong binding to most of the people referred to, first of all to Béla Bartok himself. Seen that most of the data originates from family and refers to tiny manifestations of life, I mentioned many events insignificant in themselves. I strived to introduce Bartok the human being as well as possible, and to secure the most stable basis possible for further work of Bartok researchers. Budapest, December 1979 Béla Bartok Jnr. 14
