Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
For me personally, Béla Bartók is the greatest composer of the first half of this century. I think that none of his contemporaries has so creatively enriched the three basic elements of music: harmony, melody, and rhythm, all three in balance, without neglect of any. And his range of expression extends all the way from gentle lyricism to violent, atavistic outbursts.
1 Bartók, Béla, ‘Influence de la musique paysanne sur la musique savante contemporaine’ (1931). Corvina Press, Budapest, 1968 Google Scholar.
2 ‘Béla Bartók—L'homme et l'oeuvre’, La Revue musicale, Paris, No. 224 (1955)Google Scholar.