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

School Years (1890–1903)

SCHOOL YEARS (1 890-1 903)

1893

together with his younger sister, to his Uncle Albert Voit,

already

from Nagyszöllős.

1 May

- In Nagyszöllős,

the

civic school gives a charity concert in the main hall of the County Hall. This is Bartoks first public appearance. His programme is: Spanisches

Ständchen by

A.

Grünfeld,

Impromptu

by J. Raff, Allegro of Beethovens Sonata Waldstein

op.

53, and his own piece entitled The Flow of the Danube.

Afterwards they soon move to Pozsony,

where

he repeats year 2 in the Royal Catholic Principal Grammar School, and he continues his piano studies with László

Erkel.

In the usual end of year statistics he notes only four compositions of 1892: Ländler

No.

Ill written in Nagyvárad,

Spring

Song, and then Piece ofSzöllős

written

in Nagyszöllős;

The

Flow of the Danube, played at the concert, dedicated to his mother, appears dated 1890-1894 with places of origin Nagyszentmiklós

(!),

Nagyszöllős,

and

Pozsony.

1893

17 May

- He takes part in the first May Day activities of his life with his school, and he enjoys himself very much.

29 July - He gets his year 2 final report in Pozsony:

2

excellent (religious education, geography), 5 good, and satisfactory for gymnastics. Number of missed lessons 53. Mrs Bartok didn’t manage to get a job in the vicinity of Pozsony;

in

September she is transferred to Beszterce

(Beszterce-Naszód county),

thus a new move follows. Béla

Bartok

enrolls in year 3 of the German speaking grammar school of Beszterce.

(There was no Hungarian grammar school at the county seat.)

19 October - Márta

Kornélia Wanda

Ziegler, Bartoks first wife is born in Nagyszeben

(Szeben

county). Her parents are the Lutheran (of Confessio Augustana) Captain

Károly

E

Ziegler and the Protestant

25