New Grove Modern Masters

Three seminal figures in 20th-century music are considered in this volume. First, the life and works of Béla Bartók, the Hungarian composer who drew deeply on the folklore of his homeland to bring a fresh vitality into 20th-century music, are treated by László Somfai and Vera Lampert, working with resources of the Budapest Bartók Archive. Second, Igor Stravinsky, whose life—from his upbringing in prerevolutionary Russia, through the intellectual crucible that was the Paris of the 1920s, to his final years in Los Angeles and New York—is charted by Eric Walter White, while his works are tellingly set in context by Jeremy Noble. Third, Paul Hindemith, the craftsman/composer par excellence, is considered by Ian Kemp. Taken together, these articles brilliantly illuminate the forces bearing on Western music in the early to mid-20th century.