The pure source in Béla Bartók’s pedagogy

Abstract

Béla Bartók was first and foremost a composer, a folk music researcher and a pianist- His music, which was written with a pedagogical purpose, is also outstanding. However, he was less successful as a music teacher and some of his memoirs bear witness to this. Others however, highlight the teacher’s personality and attitude as a very significant aspect of Bartók’s personality. Behind these opinions lies a multitude of elements which link these two poles of opinion beneath the surface. Therefore, I have focused the research on the values of the knowledge Bartók wanted to transmit, i.e. the human-ethical values typical for the age and Bartók. These work as a human, artistic and pedagogical essence. In Bartók’s words, this is the “pure source”. So far the pedagogy of Béla Bartók has been dealt with very little in the literature, and in Hungary and abroad only musicology has tried to explore it. In their analyses, they have tried to approach the subject mainly from musical, aesthetic and psychological perspectives by using instruments and methods. However, in a pedagogical study the possibility arises to investigate it from the perspective and with the instruments of educational science. The deeper one goes into the research on the subject, the more it becomes apparent that its examination and exploration using the instruments of educational science can provide many important, hidden contexts. The primary sources for this research are of Bartók’s reminiscences writings. The review has revealed that Béla Bartók’s pedagogy occupied a rather broad space in his life, which is worthy of further research. In defining the concepts and phenomena, it was mainly the formulation in pairs of opposites that provided the most support. Thus, Bartók’s role is to hold up a mirror, a mirror in its own right, which is in fact the opposite of an empty world.