The Folk Element in the Piano Music of Béla Bartók,
Doctoral Document I

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the School of
Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree Doctor of Music
Indiana University [1965] 1967

Available at the Music Library, The Don Wright Faculty of Music, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

PART ONE - HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

1. HUNGARIAN FOLK MUSIC
2. BARTÓK AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
3. LISZT AND BARTÓK.

PART TWO - CHARACTER AND STYLE OF HUNGARIAN FOLK MUSIC AND THEIR APPLICATION IN THE PERFORMANCE OF BARTÓK'S WORKS 

1. VOCAL CHARACTER AND STYLE
2. INSTRUMENTAL CHARACTER AND STYLE
3. FOLK MUSIC STYLE IN BARTÓK'S NOTATION
4. ELEMENTS OF FOLK MUSIC IN INDIVIDUAL PIANO COMPOSITIONS BY BARTÓK
   A) TRANSCRIPTIONS
   B) IMAGINARY FOLKLORE
   C) SUBLIMATION OF FOLKLORE 

PART THREE - BARTÓK AND FOLK MUSIC, AN EVALUATION

LIST OF WORKS CITED

RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS

"… very interesting and of great value, a work informing the readers not only about Hungarian folk music researches summing up their results, but gaining also just in the summary part on Bartók some new and valuable conclusions. May I congratulate you for the carefulness, conception and execution of the work most sincerely. …"

Prof. B.[Bence] Szabolcsi [1967]
Director, Bartók Archivum
Magyar Tudományos Akadémia

"Miss Damjana Bratuz has produced a work of great value. It contains vital information, data, and analyses for the musicologist, instrumentalist, and provides absorbing reading for anyone who is concerned with or interested in the subject.

I must extend my highest compliment to Miss Bratuz for a significant contribution toward the understanding of Béla Bartók's music."

Janos Starker, Indiana University

"To play Bartók well does not require one to be Hungarian. But in order to interpret any composer we must be acquainted with the environment in which his work has been conceived. In my pedagogical experiences with students from other European nations and, more recently, with young people in America, I have found that the background from which Bartók's music was born, that is history, folk traditions, customs, and national atmosphere, is mostly unknown or misunderstood. The interpretations of Bartok's works thus become an abstraction, spiritually and idiomatically uprooted.

In my opinion the work by Damjana Bratuz, modestly entitled THE FOLK ELEMENT IN THE PIANO MUSIC OF BÉLA BARTÓK, contains in effect more than its title promises. By its approach to the question and by knowledge of the people to whom it is addressed, this book is at this moment a unique pedagogical help in the field. It makes accessible the musical material and it makes alive, as far as a book can, the musical 'humus' from which has germinated the work of Bartók. By analyzing the conections between folk music and the music of Bartók and by demonstrating at the same time some practical consequences in the performance, this essay is of great service to all interested."

György Sebök, Indiana University

"The work of Miss Damjana Bratuz on Bartók which grew out of a casual suggestion I made is, in my opinion, a contribution of fundamental importance to the study and understanding of this composer's music. I have derived the greatest benefit from the study of this essay and have assigned sections of it as required reading to graduate students in my courses (Piano Literature and Doctoral Seminar). I have no doubt that the publication of this work in print will be favorably received by the learned profession and put to use in teaching situations in American Colleges and Universities."

Walter Robert, Indiana Univesity