Bela-Bartok-No1-Fan

2005-05-26T18:36:00.000+10:00

Bartok and Kodaly. Both are sitting

2005-05-26T18:33:00.000+10:00

Bartok as a young man. As I continue to add pictures note the changes in fashion and dress

A Bartok Update

2005-05-25T21:48:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone, Just a very short post tonight. If you are interested in obtaining Bartok recordings at a reasonable price, try shopping at eBay. It is a great way of obtaining CD's, LP's, Audio Cassettes, Books and other Bartok Materials. Just go to the ebay site, register as a user and you are in business. As I live in Australia I go to the local eBay site. I also purchase my Bartok recordings from overseas sellers who are prepared to post worldwide. Do remember though about exchange rates as it will affect how much you are prepared to pay for an item. The general eBay internet address is http://www.ebay.com/

I am adding another photo of Bela Bartok now into his adult years. This will be added after this message.
Christine

2005-03-31T21:41:00.000+10:00

Bela Bartok setting out on his folk music collecting trip to Transylvania

2005-03-31T21:37:00.000+10:00

Bartok as a young man 3

2005-03-31T21:36:00.000+10:00

Bartok as a young man 2

2005-03-31T21:34:00.000+10:00

Bartok as a young man 1

2005-03-31T21:29:00.000+10:00

Bela Bartok about 10 years of age

2005-03-31T21:25:00.000+10:00

This is me and Thomas my husband receiving an award for our work in establishing the Friends of Vinegar Hill

A very belated happy new year

2005-03-31T20:36:00.000+10:00

Hello everyone,

I have not written anything for a while as I have been busy with other matters.

As you may know, this year 2005 is the 60th anniversary of Bela Bartok's death. I do not know what the local classic FM radio will have in stall for commemorating this anniversary which is on 26th September 2005. After Bartok's death, 'The New York Times' published an obituary. I will obtain that from the net and reproduce it here in my blog.

Also welcome to the Bela Bartok Yahoo Group members who may be reading this blog for the first time. A query was recently raised within the the group about 'What is a Blog'. Well here is my blog dedicated to the memory of Bela Bartok.

I have changed my mind about showing photos of Bela Bartok. I now have quite a collection so I will publish them in my blog from now on. I will start with Bartok as a child to his late 20's. After that, some of my photos may be out of sequence as I do not know when some of them were taken.
If any one has a photo of Marta Ziegler, Bela Bartok's first wife, could you please let me know through the Yahoo Group. I have not been able to find one on the net.

I am also updating photos of myself as the old portrait photo is now 7 years old. It was part of a set taken when I commenced employment with Sydney Hospital back in 1998. I hope you will like my new photos.

I will write more when I next become inspired to do so.

More about Bela Bartok and the Folk Connection

2004-11-17T16:09:00.000+11:00

Hello again,

Adding to yesterday's post, I now have the link from the Muzsikas Website about Bela Bartok and his folk music collecting and how the Muzsikas group become involved in the folk music revival in Hungary.

The link is http://www.muzsikas.com/pages/Bartok.html

More postings about the other aspects of Bela Bartok's music later.

Christine Gleeson

Update

2004-11-16T13:43:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone,

I do not have much to report but my love of Bela Bartok's music has not waivered.

I will recommend some CD's of Bela's music and the allied folk music.

The Hungarian/Transylvanian music group "Muzsikas" have two CD'S devoted to folk music that would have been heard when Bela went on his folk music collecting in the Carpathian mountain regions of Hungary/Transylvania/Romania in the 1900's. Both CD's are called 'The Bartok Album' and were produced within about 4 years of each other. There are some orginal tracks of singers that Bela collected plus the comparsions between some of the violin music placed in the villages and the pieces that Bartok adapted (ie some of the 44 violin duos). Details about these albums can be found on Amazon Music at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/artist/glance/-/36367/ref=pd_ap_sr/002-3428901-8107208

Also you may be lucky enough to find their CD'S for sale on eBay. I receive email alerts through eBay when items I am searching for come up for sale. You will need to bid for the items, but you can be very lucky in that you will only pay a fraction of the price that the CD'S were first sold.
I have had to import the CDs from the US and England but sometimes you can find CD's available in Australia. I recently purchased Bartok's 3 Piano Concertos from an Australian seller.

Also, I will recommend two Australian music groups that play authenic Hungarian/Transylvanian music. The first group The Transylvaniacs do giggs on a regular basis in the Inner Sydney and South coast areas of NSW. Th group also attend various folk festivals in Australia. I actually saw them perform at The Side on Cafe in Annandale. I was sitting up close to them and felt and heard the music. It was a fantastic night. Their Website is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/~castopic/

The other group is Vardos, who are based in Melbourne. So far I have only heard snippets of their 2 CD's. What I have heard is absolutely wonderful. They have captured the authenic sounds of Hungary, Romania and Transylvania. Their webste is at
http://www.vardos.com.au/

This is all for today. I hope to add more as time goes by.

Hello, Below are some photos of myself

2004-05-24T17:30:00.000+10:00

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

2004-05-24T17:28:00.000+10:00

Top Picture: Christine and Editha

2004-05-24T17:26:00.000+10:00

Christine

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

2004-05-16T16:51:00.000+10:00

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!