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Illness and artistic creativity (on the 70th anniversary of the death of Béla Bartók, composer, ethnomusicologist and leukemia patient)

Leukemia volume 29, pages 2417–2418 (2015)Cite this article

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The 26 September 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the death of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, one of the most important composers of the 20th century, who became famous not only for his ethnomusicological studies recording the folk music of the Hungarian people, but also for his physical suffering due to several illnesses which, ultimately, caused his premature death.

Béla Bartók was born in Hungary in 1881 and received first musical training on the piano from his mother. His musical talent was so remarkable that he was already composing at age 8 and he gave his first public appearance at age 10. He studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest from 1899 until 1903, and was inspired by many, but his music was genuinely Hungarian in style.

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References

  1. Bartók B Jr . Béla Bartók's Diseases. In: Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, T. 23, Fasc. 1/4 Akadémiai Kiado Press:: Centenario Belae Bartók Sacrum, 2001; pp 427–441.

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  1. Georg-Speyer-Haus, Institute for Tumor Biology and Experimental Therapy, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    D S Krause

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  1. D S Krause
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Correspondence to D S Krause.

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Krause, D. Illness and artistic creativity (on the 70th anniversary of the death of Béla Bartók, composer, ethnomusicologist and leukemia patient). Leukemia 29, 2417–2418 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2015.221

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