Hello, Below are some photos of myself

I have posted some photos of myself.

Regarding photos of Bela Bartok, I think it is best if you look up the various Bela Bartok sites through Google Search to look at photos of Bela as I do not want to be seen as infringing copyright by publishing photos on this site even thought this site is about Bartok the person and his music.

Here is a posting that I sent to the Bela Bartok Yahoo Group re copyright issues concerning Bela Bartok's musical works.

"Hello from Christine in Australia,

My most favourite Bartok Work is the ballet, The
Wooden Prince followed by the 44 Violin Duos, The
Violin Concertos and the Viola Concerto.

Re copyright, one of our Australian Musicians was
recently involved in a copyright altercation with
Peter Bartok re the performance of Bartok's String
Quartet No 4 in the United States of America because
Bela Bartok's Music is still in Copyright in the USA
under the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
1998. This means that Bela Bartok's music will not
reach the Public Domain untill 2015 in the USA which
is 70 years after the death of Bela Bartok who died in
1945. In Australia Bela Bartok works are in the Public
Domain but when the US and Australian Free Trade
Agreement is passed by the US Congress, Australia will
be forced to agree to the US Copyright Laws. This may
mean that Bela Bartok's works may be lost to our
Public Domain in Australia until 2015.

Here is what the musician Richard Tognetti, leader and
Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra
had to say about being refused permission to perform a
variation of Bartok's String Quartet No. 4

"I'm very very frustrated that I'll be old by the time
I can play it in the States and Europe. I'm upset
because I do believe that we have done his
(Peter)father's music justice and the composer had
begun an arrangement himself, planning to call it
Symphony for Strings. This estate is getting in the
way of performances of the music. Bartok's music isn't
as widely known as it ought to be and furthermore,
this serves to expand the very limited string
orchestra repertoire." (Sue Williams, 'Family Pain',
Australian Financial Review, 6th November 2003, p28)

I am personally sad that I may not be able to see
Bela's music performed in Australia until 2015 when I
will be 70 years of age. I was born in 1945, 25 days
before Bela died in New York. I had the privilege to
meet Bela's oldest son Bela Junior at a Unitarian
Church in Hungary in January 1986. I will never forget
this meeting for as long as I live. It is hoped that
common sense will prevail and that all of us will hear
more and more of Bela's music as time goes on.

By the way another favourite work by Bela Bartok is
his Solo Violin Sonata, played by Nigel Kennedy,
Britain's Famous modern day violinist, also well known
for his playing of Vivaldi's 4 Seasons Suite.

Sorry for the long message, but I feel that the
copyright issue needed to be aired by a very devoted
Bela Bartok fan."

If you want to join the BelaBartok Club which is a Yahoo Group, you may go to http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/belabartokclub/
There is a photo of Bela Bartok on the home page.

The rights to Bela's works (including his photos) are jealously guarded by The Bartok Family Estate and I will have to respect that position. All I can do is to give my personal take on Bela's life and music. I have been a long term fan of Bela Bartok but it has been very recently that I have taken a keen interest in his music. It will take me a while to listen to the works that I can access and I hope to hear more as time goes by.

Goodbye for now. There will be more reflections in my next post.

Christine O'Gliasain

Top Picture: Christine and Editha 

Christine 

Hello from Bela Bartok's No.1 Fan in Australia

This is the first time I have had a special interest page all for my self and to share with the world. As I write this I am listening to the Romanian Folk Dances by Bela Bartok, perhaps the most well known of his works today. But Bela was a most prolific writer and collector of Eastern European and North African Folk Music which he used in his classical works. You need to hear the original folk music to find out what Bela's music is all about.

This is short and sweet but I will add more of my reflections about Bartok and other folk music collectors and composers such as Percy Grainger, an Australian composer and folk music collector in the British Isles round about the time that Bela was collecting his music. I often wonder if the two of them ever met!