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

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

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CHRONICLES OF BÉLA

BARTOK'S

LIFE

problems.

24 and

26 June - He writes a letter to his wife in Riverton: “And just what will come of this? Dzsugasvili [Stalin] expiates rather soon and bitterly [of the separate peace treaty of 1939]. Hungary is in luck: it will stay out of this brawl, too!” (He gets disillusioned shortly; 27 June is the day of the Hungarian declaration of war.)

29 June - He works at the Columbia even on Sunday, then has dinner at the György

Herzogs;

here he gets acquainted with Balkan folk song researcher Jacobson with whom he has a conversation about his work.

30 June, 3 and 5 July - He writes his wife, partly about the difficulties of being a grass widower. He mentions the holiday of independence of 4 July: “There was a hell of an uproar in the whole city; they will feel less like it next year”. (As if he saw the future.)

6 July

- He goes to the movies (hadn’t done it for decades), watches an interesting film about wild animals.

7 July

- His wife returns from Riverton.

19 July

- He writes his son Béla

that

he will send letters less frequently because there are not many noteworthy events happening. He is complaining about the oppressive summer weather and of his “misbehaving” gall-bladder, that made him decide on a thorough medical examination; talking about the flat he writes that its annual rent is 840 dollars, about equivalent to Hungarian prices. - He attached, as usual, a few lines for Irma Voit,

however,

she no longer received these. On 22 July she peacefully departed at the age of 92.

University of Washington (Seattle) invites Bartok for the school year 1942/43 with a salary of 3,600 dollars, this time officially. (In the end, after repeated delays he was no longer able to take on this assignment.) 23 July - He writes Boosey and Hawkes.

24 July - He travels to Riverton with his wife, to Agatha Fassett s summer house.

28 July - From here he asks Frigyes

Reiner

to get him two guarantors for 470