Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist, widely regarded as a defining musical figure of the 20th century. Alongside Franz Liszt, he is often cited as one of Hungary’s greatest composers. Bartók is notable for two linked aspects of his career: his major modernist concert works, which are original in harmony, rhythm, and form, and his pioneering fieldwork collecting and analysing folk music. Some of his most performed works include Bluebeard’s Castle (opera), The Miraculous Mandarin (ballet), and Concerto for Orchestra (1943). Born in Nagyszentmiklós, he showed remarkable musical ability as a child and studied in Budapest. A turning point came when he began systematically collecting peasant songs, travelling widely with Zoltán Kodály to record Hungarian and neighbouring traditions. Bartók’s mature style synthesised folk idioms and modernism, absorbing scales and rhythms into an original style. He emigrated to the United States in 1940, producing masterpieces despite health issues, and was later reburied in Budapest after his death in 1945.