Béla Bartók - Quiz
Béla Bartók
  • 1. How many piano pieces did Bartók write between the ages of 9 and 13?
A) 1902
B) 10
C) 14
D) 31
  • 2. What was the name of Bartók's ten-part programmatic work written between 1890 and 1894?
A) Fourteen Bagatelles
B) Kossuth
C) Bluebeard's Castle
D) The Course of the Danube
  • 3. Which composer's tone poem revitalized Bartók's creative energies in 1902?
A) Robert Schumann
B) Richard Strauss
C) Claude Debussy
D) Johannes Brahms
  • 4. Which specific work by Richard Strauss did Bartók transcribe for the piano?
A) Ein Heldenleben
B) Bluebeard's Castle
C) Kossuth
D) Also sprach Zarathustra
  • 5. What is the subject of Bartók's 1903 symphonic poem Kossuth?
A) The Danube River
B) Transylvanian folk legends
C) The 1848 Hungarian war of independence
D) The life of Bach
  • 6. What event in 1904 sparked Bartók's lifelong devotion to folk music?
A) A public recital in 1892
B) Overhearing his nanny singing Transylvanian folk songs
C) Meeting Ferruccio Busoni
D) Reading the scores of Wagner
  • 7. What was the name of the nanny who sang the folk songs that influenced Bartók?
A) Lidi Dósa
B) Carpathian singer
C) Magyar peasant
D) No name given
  • 8. In his writing about folk music, to which composer did Bartók compare his method of adding accompaniment to peasant melodies?
A) Debussy
B) Bach
C) Strauss
D) Wagner
  • 9. In what year did Bartók first become acquainted with the music of Debussy?
A) 1907
B) 1903
C) 1908
D) 1911
  • 10. According to Bartók in 1939, what was the 'great service' Debussy provided to music?
A) Creating a synthesis of folk music
B) Reawakening an awareness of harmony
C) Revealing the significance of counterpoint
D) Developing progressive forms
  • 11. Which work of Bartók's led Ferruccio Busoni to exclaim, 'At last something truly new!'?
A) Fourteen Bagatelles
B) Kossuth
C) Bluebeard's Castle
D) Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra
  • 12. What caused Bartók to focus on folk music research and abandon composition after 1911?
A) A lack of inspiration from Strauss
B) The start of the war
C) A desire to retire from music
D) The negative reception of his work
  • 13. Which composers' styles did Bartók's compositions resemble during his time in Catholic grammar school?
A) Schumann and Brahms
B) Liszt and Chopin
C) Bach and Wagner
D) Debussy and Strauss
  • 14. What did Bartók consider to be his 'musical mother tongue' regarding peasant music?
A) The imitation of a peasant melody
B) The unchanged peasant melody
C) The accompanying phrases
D) The completely absorbed idiom
  • 15. How old was Bartók when he married Márta Ziegler in 1909?
A) 28
B) 16
C) 19
D) 42
  • 16. Who was Bartók's second wife?
A) Márta Ziegler
B) Béla Balázs
C) Ahmet Adnan Saygun
D) Ditta Pásztory
  • 17. In what year did Bartók convert to Unitarianism?
A) 1916
B) 1923
C) 1936
D) 1909
  • 18. What was one of Bartók's main interests outside of music?
A) Politics
B) Insects
C) Mathematics
D) Painting
  • 19. What is the name of Bartók's only opera?
A) Bluebeard's Castle
B) The Miraculous Mandarin
C) Divertimento
D) The Wooden Prince
  • 20. Who did Bartók collaborate with to study folk song classification?
A) Charles Seeger
B) Zoltán Kodály
C) Ahmet Adnan Saygun
D) Joan Llongueras i Badia
  • 21. In which country did Bartók collect folk music in 1913?
A) Italy
B) Turkey
C) Algeria
D) Spain
  • 22. Which composer influenced Bartók's 'The Wooden Prince'?
A) Stravinsky
B) Debussy
C) Strauss
D) Schoenberg
  • 23. What delayed the performance of 'The Miraculous Mandarin' until 1926?
A) The lack of a theater
B) The story's sexual content
C) The librettist's blacklist
D) The outbreak of World War I
  • 24. In what city did Bartók perform his Rhapsody for piano in 1927?
A) Budapest
B) Barcelona
C) Adana
D) Vienna
  • 25. In 1936, where did Bartók travel to study folk music with Ahmet Adnan Saygun?
A) Hungary
B) Turkey
C) Romania
D) Bulgaria
  • 26. How many revivals did 'Bluebeard's Castle' receive before Bartók emigrated?
A) Three
B) Ten
C) None
D) One
  • 27. What tool did Bartók find essential for collecting folk music?
A) Printing press
B) Piano
C) Metronome
D) Phonograph
  • 28. What was Béla Bartók's profession besides being a composer and pianist?
A) Architect
B) Physicist
C) Ethnomusicologist
D) Diplomat
  • 29. Which other composer is regarded alongside Bartók as one of Hungary's greatest?
A) Richard Strauss
B) Claude Debussy
C) Franz Liszt
D) Johannes Brahms
  • 30. Bartók is considered one of the founders of which field?
A) Medieval history
B) Classical philosophy
C) Modern linguistics
D) Comparative musicology
  • 31. In what year was Béla Bartók born?
A) 1881
B) 1901
C) 1891
D) 1871
  • 32. Where was Bartók born?
A) Paris
B) Bratislava
C) Budapest
D) Nagyszentmiklós
  • 33. What was the name of Bartók's mother?
A) Maria
B) Erzsébet
C) Lidi
D) Paula
  • 34. At what age could Bartók play 40 pieces on the piano?
A) Eight
B) Ten
C) Four
D) Six
  • 35. Who was Bartók's composition teacher at the Royal Academy of Music?
A) László Erkel
B) István Thomán
C) Franz Liszt
D) János Koessler
  • 36. Which of these individuals was a student of Bartók?
A) István Thomán
B) Sir Georg Solti
C) János Koessler
D) László Erkel
  • 37. What scale did Bartók and Kodály discover was the basis for old Hungarian folk melodies?
A) Chromatic
B) Pentatonic
C) Whole-tone
D) Diatonic
  • 38. What title was given to Bartók's two volumes containing 80 folk tunes?
A) Hungarian Rhapsodies
B) Peasant Songs
C) For Children
D) Folk Melodies
  • 39. Bartók was especially fond of the asymmetrical dance rhythms found in the music of which nation?
A) Hungary
B) Romania
C) Slovakia
D) Bulgaria
  • 40. In what year did Béla Bartók emigrate to the United States?
A) 1933
B) 1942
C) 1940
D) 1945
  • 41. What political group did Bartók strongly oppose?
A) The Hungarian Communist Party
B) The Nazi Party
C) The American Socialist Party
D) The Allied Powers
  • 42. Where did Bartók and his wife settle after arriving in the United States?
A) Chicago
B) Florida
C) Boston
D) New York City
  • 43. What health condition was Bartók eventually diagnosed with in 1944?
A) Polycythemia
B) Stiffening of the shoulder
C) Tuberculosis
D) Leukemia
  • 44. Who commissioned Bartók to write a Sonata for Solo Violin in 1944?
A) Joseph Szigeti
B) Yehudi Menuhin
C) Serge Koussevitzky
D) Fritz Reiner
  • 45. In what year did Bartók become a United States citizen?
A) 1945
B) 1988
C) 1940
D) 1942
  • 46. Where was Bartók initially interred after his death?
A) Will Rogers Memorial Hospital
B) Farkasréti Cemetery
C) Ferncliff Cemetery
D) Columbia University
  • 47. Who completed the two unfinished works Bartók left behind?
A) Péter Bartók
B) Tibor Serly
C) Nelson Dellamaggiore
D) György Sándor
  • 48. Which institution provided Bartók with a research fellowship?
A) Boston Symphony Orchestra
B) Will Rogers Memorial Hospital
C) Columbia University
D) The United States Navy
  • 49. When were Bartók's remains transferred to Budapest?
A) 1990
B) 1982
C) 1988
D) 1945
  • 50. What is the characteristic style described as 'eerie dissonances providing a backdrop to sounds of nature'?
A) Night music
B) Diatonic suite
C) Modernist symphony
D) Folk rhapsody
  • 51. In which movements of compositions did Bartók mostly use his 'night music' style?
A) Finale movements
B) Opening movements
C) Dance interludes
D) Slow movements
  • 52. What movement of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is cited as an example of night music?
A) First movement (Andante)
B) Second movement (Allegro)
C) Third movement (Adagio)
D) Fourth movement (Finale)
  • 53. What did the diatonic system of harmony serve composers for prior to the 20th century?
A) 100 years
B) 50 years
C) 500 years
D) 200 years
  • 54. Who provided Bartók with stormy and inspiring contact during the summer of 1915?
A) Klára Gombossy
B) Béla Bartók
C) Zoltán Kodály
D) Denijs Dille
  • 55. Who researched the hidden episode between Bartók and Klára Gombossy between 1979 and 1989?
A) Klára Gombossy
B) Denijs Dille
C) Béla Bartók
D) Franz Liszt
  • 56. Which composition did Bartók complete in 1917?
A) The Wooden Prince
B) The Miraculous Mandarin
C) Dance Suite
D) Suite for piano opus 14
  • 57. In what year did Bartók compose The Miraculous Mandarin?
A) 1920
B) 1916
C) 1923
D) 1919
  • 58. How did Bartók perceive the outcome of World War I?
A) As an inspiration for war music
B) As a personal tragedy
C) With complete indifference
D) As a political victory
  • 59. Where was Béla Bartók born?
A) Transylvania
B) Budapest
C) Bratislava
D) The Banat
  • 60. In what year did Bartók marry for the second time?
A) 1915
B) 1920
C) 1923
D) 1919
  • 61. Which city was the home of Bartók's mother, which was later severed from Hungary?
A) The Banat
B) Transylvania
C) Bratislava
D) Budapest
  • 62. What was the title of the work Bartók wrote in 1923?
A) Dance Suite
B) Eight Improvisations
C) Suite for piano
D) The Wooden Prince
  • 63. In what year did Bartók seek a significant piece for piano and orchestra to tour with?
A) 1926
B) 1930
C) 1920
D) 1945
  • 64. Which American composer inspired Bartók's use of tone clusters?
A) Richard Cohn
B) Milton Babbitt
C) George Perle
D) Henry Cowell
  • 65. Which work did Bartók describe as his most personal credo?
A) Third Piano Concerto
B) Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
C) Cantata Profana
D) Concerto for Orchestra
  • 66. Who analyzed Bartók's work based on opposing tonal systems, the acoustic scale, and the axis system?
A) Milton Babbitt
B) Elliott Antokoletz
C) Richard Cohn
D) Ernő Lendvai
  • 67. In which work did Bartók want to show Schoenberg that one can use all twelve tones and still remain tonal?
A) Fourth Quartet
B) Third String Quartet
C) Second Quartet
D) Second Violin Concerto
  • 68. Which composer criticized Bartók for using tonality and non-tonal methods unique to each piece?
A) George Perle
B) Henry Cowell
C) Milton Babbitt
D) Richard Cohn
  • 69. What structural principle did Ernő Lendvai identify in Bartók's compositions?
A) Sonata-rondo form
B) Golden section
C) Strict twelve-tone rows
D) Strict imitation
  • 70. How many string quartets did Bartók compose?
A) Eight
B) Four
C) Ten
D) Six
  • 71. What is the primary theme of no. 6 of the Eight Improvisations composed of?
A) White keys
B) Tone clusters
C) Black keys
D) Diatonic triads
  • 72. In what year did Bartók stop assigning opus numbers?
A) 1994
B) 1929
C) 1941
D) 1921
  • 73. What does the DD cataloguing system cover?
A) Orchestral works
B) Operas
C) Juvenilia
D) Field recordings
  • 74. Who created the BB number catalogue?
A) László Somfai
B) András Szőllősy
C) Zoltán Kodály
D) Denijs Dille
  • 75. In what year did Bartók's works enter the public domain in the EU?
A) 2003
B) 2008
C) 2016
D) 2014
  • 76. What machine did Bartók use to record folk melodies?
A) Digital recorder
B) Phonomotor
C) Gramophone
D) Tape recorder
  • 77. Which record label has released many of Bartók's field recordings and piano performances?
A) Pearl
B) Hungaroton
C) Tantara Records
D) Decca Classics
  • 78. How many discs are in the Decca Classics 'Complete Works' set?
A) 6
B) 1
C) 32
D) 2
  • 79. What is the primary reason Bartók stopped using opus numbers?
A) He lost his notes
B) Difficulty distinguishing original works from arrangements
C) He switched to a thematic system
D) His publisher forbade it
  • 80. What company released a compilation of field recordings for two violas in 2014?
A) Tantara Records
B) Pearl
C) Decca Classics
D) Hungaroton
  • 81. Are Bartók's own performances included in the Decca Classics 'The Complete Works' set?
A) Only the piano concertos
B) Only the folk recordings
C) No
D) Yes, all of them
  • 82. In which city is the statue of Bartók located near the Spanjeplein-Place d'Espagne?
A) London
B) Brussels
C) Budapest
D) Paris
  • 83. When was the English Heritage blue plaque for Bartók unveiled at 7 Sydney Place?
A) 1999
B) 1980
C) 2005
D) 1997
  • 84. In which city is the bust of Bartók located next to a bust of Ahmet Adnan Saygun?
A) Toronto
B) Timișoara
C) Vienna
D) Ankara
  • 85. In what year was Bartók inducted into the American Classical Musical Hall of Fame?
A) 1997
B) 2005
C) 1980
D) 1999
  • 86. Who sculpted the bronze statue of Bartók at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto?
A) Ahmet Adnan Saygun
B) András Beck
C) Jean-Yves Lechevallier
D) Imre Varga
  • 87. What is the distance between Sânnicolau Mare and Timișoara?
A) 81 kilometres
B) 57 kilometres
C) 29 kilometres
D) 58 kilometres
  • 88. Which sculpture is found in the Square Béla-Bartók in Paris alongside the statue of Bartók?
A) The Walk of Fame Star
B) Nákó Castle
C) Cristaux
D) Sydney Place Plaque
  • 89. Which artist designed the fountain/sculpture Cristaux in Paris?
A) Jean-Yves Lechevallier
B) Imre Varga
C) András Beck
D) Béla Bartók
  • 90. In which city is the expressionist sculpture by András Beck located?
A) Toronto
B) Paris
C) New York City
D) London
  • 91. Where is Bartók's star on the Walk of Fame located?
A) Sydney Place, London
B) Karlsplatz-Passage, Vienna
C) W. 57th Street, New York City
D) The Royal Conservatory, Toronto
  • 92. At which address in New York City did Bartók spend the last year of his life?
A) Csalán út 29
B) Karlsplatz-Passage
C) 309 W. 57th Street
D) 7 Sydney Place
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