A Context for Bela Bartok on the Eve of World War II: The Violin ...

epercussions Spring-Fall 1996
of the nation rooted in its peasantry, he tended to remain
aloof from them as he did from all movements originating
in a generation younger than his own. 29 Still, because the
New Spiritual Front supported the Folk Writers, and because
in the eyes of the government Bart6k fit into their program,
the composer gradually began to reap benefits from it
as well.
As mentioned above, Bart6k's transfer to the Academy
of Sciences in the fall of 1934 already reflected an increased
governmental interest in peasant culture, but, under
Gombos, support of Bart6k also gradually expanded beyond
the exclusively peasant/folk sphere. The first sign of
this was the Opera's 1935 revival of The Wooden Prince following
sixteen years of conspicuous neglect. This production,
with choreography in<strong>for</strong>med by Hungarian
peasant dances, served as an in<strong>for</strong>mal transition between
Hungarian institutional support of Bart6k the folklorist and
Bart6k the composer.30 The following season a longoverdue
revival of Bluebeard's Castle joined continued per<strong>for</strong>mances
of The Wooden Prince. 31
Still, the balm of these first encouraging signs was slow
to start healing the deep wounds inflicted earlier in the
29. Most notably Bart6k refused to collaborate with the great poet Attila
J6zsef (1905-1937) who wanted Bart6k to set his poetry and planned a
biography of the composer. J6zsef tried to contact Bart6k through his psychiatrist,
who also treated Bart6k's wife Ditta Pasztory. I am thankful to
Laszl6 Somfai <strong>for</strong> this in<strong>for</strong>mation.
30. By the mid-1930s peasant dances had begun to influence some of the
choreography at the Hungarian Opera, whose dancers were learning the
style in part from the newly-<strong>for</strong>med folk ensembles known as the Pearly
Bouquet (Gyongyos bokreta), another beneficiary of Gombos's governmental
subventions. For documentation of the choreography of the Hungarian
Opera's 1935 production of The Wooden Prince see Aladar T6th, "A
Jabal Jaragott kiralyfi: Bart6k tancjateka az Operahazban" (The Wooden
Prince: Bart6k's pantomime at the Opera),Pesti Napla, 31 January 1935; reprinted
in Demeny, "Bart6k <strong>Bela</strong> paIyaja deleI6jen," 496-97.
31. Bluebeard's Castle had not been per<strong>for</strong>med in Hungary since January
1919.
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