Bela Bartok

Béla Bartók, (born March 25, 1881, Nagyszentmiklós, Austria-Hungary — died Sept. 26, 1945, New York, United States of America), was a composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is noted for his set of pieces 'Mikrokosmos', a set of 153 pieces for piano ranging from simple, basic piano pieces to advanced and technical pieces.

Life
His mother taught him to play the piano and by the age of nine he was composing simple pieces. He studied at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music, and upon completion of his studies in 1903 he and Zoltan Kodaly went on a trip investigating folk music from the remotest areas of Hungary. He immigrated to the USA in 1940 after a tour there. His last years wereruined by leukaemia and he died in 1945, a few months after the completion of WWII.

The nature of his works
His works range from cantatas to piano pieces to his single opera, Duke Bluebeard's castle. He is noted for his set of pieces 'Mikrokosmos', a set of 153 pieces for piano ranging from simple, basic piano pieces to advanced and technical pieces.