Béla Viktor János Bartók
(March 25, 1881–September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer and pianist considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of ethnomusicology.

Bartók's music reflects two trends that dramatically changed the sound of music in the 20th century: the breakdown of the diatonic system of harmony that had served composers for the previous two hundred years (Griffiths, 7); and the revival of nationalism as a source for musical inspiration, a trend that began with Mikhail Glinka Antonín Dvořák in the last half of the 19th century (Einstein, 332). In his search for new forms of tonality, Bartók turned to Hungarian folk music, as well as to other folk music of the Carpathian Basin and even of Algeria and Turkey; and in so doing he became influential in that stream of modernism which exploited indigenous music and techniques.
 

One characteristic style of music is his Night music, which he used mostly in slow movements of multi-movement ensemble or orchestral compositions in his mature period. It is characterized by "eerie dissonances providing a backdrop to sounds of nature and lonely melodies" (Schneider 2006, 84). An example is the third movement Adagio of his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.


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