Bartók for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist who lived from 1881 to 1945. He traveled from village to village recording folk songs, and he built his own music from their rhythms and scales. He also wrote hundreds of short piano pieces for children. The best first piece for a child is the Romanian Folk Dances, six tiny dances that last about six minutes in all.

Quick facts

• Born: 1881, in Nagyszentmiklós, then in Hungary and now in Romania
• Died: 1945, in New York City
• Era: Modern
• Played: piano
• Known for: Romanian Folk Dances, Mikrokosmos, For Children, and the Concerto for Orchestra

The life in short

Bartók’s mother was a teacher, and she gave him his first piano lessons. His father died when Béla was seven. His mother supported the family by teaching, and they moved from town to town.

He studied piano and composition at the music academy in Budapest. Later he taught piano there for more than 25 years.

In his early twenties, he heard a young woman sing a folk song he had never heard before. He wanted to hear more. With his friend Zoltán Kodály, he set out to collect the real songs of country people before they were lost.

He carried a machine that recorded sound on wax cylinders. He asked farmers, shepherds, and grandmothers to sing into its horn. Over the years, he collected and wrote down thousands of tunes from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and as far away as Turkey and North Africa.

Bartók loved nature. He collected insects, plants, and stones, and he liked to walk in the mountains.

In 1940, as war spread across Europe, he and his wife moved to the United States. He was ill and short of money in his last years. He still wrote some of his finest music there, including the Concerto for Orchestra.

What the music sounds like

Bartók’s music has strong, uneven rhythms. Some of his pieces count in fives or sevens, as village dances do. His tunes use scales that are neither major nor minor.

He treated the piano like a drum as well as a singing instrument. He also wrote quiet “night music” filled with the sounds of insects, frogs, and birds.

Four pieces to play first

Romanian Folk Dances. Six dances from villages in Transylvania. The first is a stick dance. The last two are fast and wild. Play the version for violin and piano or the one for small orchestra.

“Evening in the Village.” A slow, singing tune takes turns with a quick, piping dance, like a shepherd’s flute at dusk.

“From the Diary of a Fly,” from Mikrokosmos. The two hands buzz close together on the keys. In the middle, the fly gets caught in a web.

Concerto for Orchestra, second movement. It is called “Game of Pairs.” Two bassoons play, then two oboes, two clarinets, two flutes, and two trumpets. A small drum starts and ends it.

For piano students

Bartók wrote two sets that piano teachers still use.

For Children has 79 short pieces based on Hungarian and Slovak folk tunes.

Mikrokosmos has 153 pieces in six books. They run from the simplest five-finger tunes to concert pieces. He began it for his son Péter.

Pieces from both sets appear on many exam lists.

Things to do together

Count the pairs. Play “Game of Pairs.” Hold up two fingers each time a new pair of instruments begins, and name them.

Stick dance. Play the first Romanian Folk Dance. Tap two sticks or wooden spoons on the strong beats.

Buzz like a fly. Play “From the Diary of a Fly.” Ask your child to show with their hands when the fly is free and when it is stuck.

Collect a song. Ask a grandparent or an older neighbor to sing a song from childhood. Record it, as Bartók did.

Bartók and Kodály

The two friends collected songs together and changed how music is taught in Hungary. Kodály built a way of teaching children through folk songs. Read the Kodály method explained and folk song study for homeschool.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Bartók. For other composers of his century, see modern classical music for kids.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.