Relating to Bartok

 

When I met Tomoko in 1983, the first question she asked me was: “Who is your favorite composer?” I answered “Béla Bartók.” Tomoko was impressed because he is usually not mentioned among the Big Bs (Bach, Beethoven and Brahms). Bartók has a way to connecting people, and there are many pieces of evidence that link Tomoko and her family to him.

One of the first connections between Bartók and Tomoko was Bartók’s country of birth: Hungary. Tomoko’s husband Desi was a Hungarian refugee. Like Desi, Bartók had to leave his country; when his father died, Bartók (age seven) and his sister were taken by mother first to the Ukraine and then to Slovakia. Indeed, when World War II started, Bartók immigrated to America; Desi immigrated because of the Hungarian Revolution. Tomoko also immigrated to the US as an adult.

Like Tomoko, Bartók started piano lessons as a young boy. Unlike Tomoko, Bartók wrote his first piano composition at age nine, and performed at his first public piano recital at age 11.

Also like Tomoko, Bartók was influenced by the music of Richard Strauss, Debussy, and Brahms.

Both Tomoko and Bartók appreciate folk music. Interestingly, Bartók started his interest in folk music when he heard an nanny singing folk songs to the little children she took care of. Tomoko routinely sang Japanese nursery songs to her daughter Beata when she was a baby, and how both of them sing those same traditional songs to Beata’s son Kai.

Both Tomoko and Bartók are nature lovers. Nature inspired Bartók in his Night music, which evoked sounds of nature. Another example is his Out of Doors sonata.

Moreover, both Bartók and Tomoko recorded their performances, and both were music teachers. Among Tomoko’s CD recording are pieces by Bartók, making a full circle in their relationship.

 

Music and Politics

Music is an expressive window to people’s beliefs and values. Although Tomoko does not dwell on politics, but she is proud to be an American citizen. Her musicianship even helped her gain that status; her immigration interviewer loved music and said, “I am a member of the Marin Symphony,” so it was an easy process.

Usually people associate musicians with modern-day politics in terms of protest songs, folk songs such as Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” and the blues such as Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.”

Certainly classical music included patriotic anthems. However, classical composers also expressed a political voice counter to the establishment. For instance, Beethoven’s third symphony was initially called “Bonaparte,” but when Napoleon crowned himself emperor, the symphony was renamed “Heroic Symphony composed to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man.” Verdi’s opera “Nabucco” symbolized resistance to domination by other countries. Wagner’s majestic music was co-opted by Hitler. In contrast, Shostakovich was denounced by the Communists because his music did not embrace Stalinist ideology.

One wonders what music will emerge out of the politics of 2020. Let us look for compositions of hope.

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