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October 2013 Issue [Folio]

Bartok's Monster

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Stalking the dead composer through Transylvania
by Jay Kirk,

More than anything he looked like a man grimly in need of a
transfusion. Bela Bartok had the pallor of a garlic clove. A wan,
sometimes acrid personality to match. As obsessed as he was with
tempo, you could have spent half an afternoon frisking his skinny
little frame before you found a pulse. One of his closest friends
would describe his voice as "gray and monotonous," though he didn't
really have friends. His colleagues at the Academy of Music, in
Budapest, found him bland: one of those almost offensively mild
persons. He was sullen, puritanical, anemic, timid, like...

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Jay Kirk is the author, most recently, of Kingdom Under Glass
(Picador). His last article for Harper's Magazine, "The Shining
Path," appeared in the June 2013 issue.

Tags

Behavior Bela Bartok Cylinder recordings Equipment and supplies
Family Folk music Friends and associates Gypsies History Homes and
haunts Insects Jay Kirk Journeys Klezmer music P*linka Peasants
Phonograph Pictorial works Recording and reproducing Romania Social
life and customs Sound Transylvania Transylvania (Romania)
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