Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Family, Infancy (1855–1889)
1881-1889 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE 11 June 1885 - Erzsébet Bartok, Béla Bartoks younger sister, later nicknamed “Elza”, is born in Nagyszentmiklós. March of 1886 - Béla Bartok Snr, a good cellist, plays Semiramis overture by Rossini with his chamber music partners. As a result on 25 March 1886, on his 5th birthday Béla Bartok begins his piano lessons with his mother upon his own request. 23 April 1886 - He plays a piece for four hands with his mother as nameday greetings for his father after just a month of piano studies. 17 July 1887 - He takes a trip to Radegund with his father and his fathers younger sister, Sarolta Bartok. Echoes of Radegund, one of his later childhood compositions, refers to this trip. His father s health is failing continually, so probably due to this on 13 January 1888 “the piano room got rearranged into dining room” wrote Bartok in his notes. His father s illness (Addisons disease) soon became fatal. 4 August 1888 - Béla Bartok Snr dies in Nagyszentmiklós at the age of 33. 6 August 1888 - He was buried in the “German” cemetery of Nagyszentmiklós, and a propitiatory sacred mass sacrifice was presented for his salvation on 7 August. The passing of the head of the household is a fatal blow to the Bartok family. The new headmaster of the agricultural school arrives in the autumn, so the Bartoks move to a so-called Bückling-type house. They are not yet entitled to a pension by right of the early departed father, so Mrs Bartok is looking for a teachers job which involves many difficulties. 25 January 1889 - Bartok writes, as Paula name-day greetings, still in Nagyszentmiklós, the following: 18
