Béla Bartók

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Béla Bartók (March 25, 1881 - September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer. Bartók's unique style was inspired by folk music from his native country, but later in life he was also inspired by folk music from other parts of the world. He traveled throughout Eastern Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa to collect traditional folk music on wax cylinder recordings. Though he wasn't the first composer to be inspired by traditional peasant music, nobody but Bartók absorbed the raw, primitive power of these melodies and rhythms so brutally in his own compositions.

At the start of the Second World War Bartok fled to the U.S.A., where he died in 1945.

Zappa and Bartók

One of Zappa's favorite musical pieces was Bartók's Third Piano Concerto. He named it one of his favorite musical albums in the "My Favorite Records" article in Hit Parader (1967) and selected the Third Piano Concerto (1945) , on Castaway's Choice. Later Zappa would quote the track on Make A Jazz Noise Here