Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
Bartók was constantly aware of the intellectual tendencies of his age and viewed with keen interest every aspect of contemporary life and thought. Naturally, his ideas affected his music; and since he confided most sketches of technical detail and many definitive statements of his musical problems to the keyboard, an examination of his body of works for the piano will afford us insight into the development of his idiom—as well as helping us to understand the evolution of contemporary music.