Lydian was an Indo-European language spoken in the region of Lydia in western Anatolia (present-day Turkey). It belongs to the Anatolian group of the Indo-European language family.

Within the Anatolian group, however, Lydian occupies a unique and problematic position due, first, to the still very limited evidence and understanding of the language and, second, to a number of features not shared with any other Anatolian language.^[1] It is not presently known whether these represent peculiarly pre-Lydian developments in or the retention of archaic features lost in other Anatolian languages.^[2] Until more satisfactory knowledge becomes available, the status of Lydian within Anatolian remains a "special" one.

The Lydian language is attested in graffiti and in coin legends from the end of the 8th or the beginning of the 7th century BC down to the 3rd, but well-preserved inscriptions of significant length are presently limited to the 5th and 4th centuries BC, during the period of Persian domination. Lydian texts are thus effectively contemporaneous with those in Lycian.

Extant Lydian texts now number slightly over one hundred, all but a few having been found in or near the Lydian capital but fewer than thirty of the inscriptions consist of more than a few words and are reasonably complete. A majority of the inscriptions are on stone, and are sepulchral in content, but several are decrees of one sort or another and some half-dozen texts seem to be in verse, with a stress-based meter and vowel assonance at line end. Tomb inscriptions include many epitaphs, which typically begin with the words eś wãnaś ("this grave"), as well as short graffiti.

Strabo mentions that around his time (1st century BC), the Lydian language had become extinct in Lydia proper, but was still being spoken among the multicultural population of Kibyra (present-day Gölhisar) in south-west Anatolia by the descendants of the Lydian colonists who had founded the city.^[3]

Writing system[link]

The Lydian writing system, which is strictly alphabetic, is related to or derived from that of Greek and to its western Anatolian neighbors, the exact relationship still remaining unclear. The direction of writing in the older texts is either from left to right or right to left. Later texts show exclusively the latter. Use of word-dividers is variable.

Phonology[link]

Lydian has seven vowels: a, e, i, o, u with in addition two nasal vowels: ã, ẽ, the sound of a vowel before a nasal consonant. In the case of ã it is an. The difference between ã and ẽ is debatable; ẽ does not seem to have been a nasal [e]. e, o, ã, ẽ only occur accented. Y is used rarely to indicate an allophone of i or e, perhaps unstressed. Lydian is notable for its extensive consonant clusters, which resulted from the loss of word-final short vowels together with massive syncope; there may have been unwritten [ə] in such sequences.

/p t k/ were voiced before nasals and apparently before /r/.

Morphology[link]

Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms and occur in two genders, animate and inanimate. Only three cases are securely attested: nominative, accusative, and dative-locative. There may have been other cases that remain unknown due to the paucity of material.

Syntax[link]

The basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb, but constituents may be extraposed to the right of the verb. Lydian had at least one postposition. Modifiers of the noun normally precede the noun.

Sample text and vocabulary[link]

A notable inscription in Lydian–Aramaic, which was among the first thirty-four found in the beginning of the 20th century by American excavators, providing a limited equivalent of the Rosetta Stone and permitting a first penetration and solidifying understanding of the Lydian language.

The first line of the text was destroyed. The eight lines of the Lydian text are :

[o]raλ islλ bakillλ est mrud eśśk [wãnaś]

laqrisak qelak kudkit ist esλ wãn[aλ]

bλtarwod akad manelid kumlilid silukalid akit n[ãqis]

esλ mruλ buk esλ wãnaλ buk esνaν

laqirisaν bukit kud ist esλ wãnaλ bλtarwo[d]

aktin nãqis qelλk fẽnsλifid fakmλ artimuś

ibśimsis artimuk kulumsis aaraλ biraλk

kλidaλ kofuλk qiraλ qelλk bilλ wcbaqẽnt

Examples of words[link]

- Ora - Month

- Laqrisa - Wall

- - Bira - House

- Qira - Field, Ground, Immovable Property

Lydian words still in use[link]

A Lydian word which entered modern international terminology could be labrys, the double-axe, a non-Greek word unattested as yet in any Lydian inscription but on the subject of which Plutarch states: "the Lydians call the axe labrys".^[4]

Another loan word from Lydian now used internationally could be "tyrant" [1], first used in ancient Greek sources, without particular negative connotations, for the late 8th-early 7th century BC King Gyges of Lydia, founder of the Mermnad dynasty. The name possibly came from his native town, called Tyrhha in Classical antiquity and still as Tire presently .^[5]

Yet another could be the word molybdenum, adopted in international terminology through the Ancient Greek μόλυβδος mólybdos, meaning lead and this word itself was proposed, under the same meaning, as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages.^[6]

See also[link]

Ancient Near East portal

• Lydia
• Lydians
• Lydian script
• Neo-Hittite
• Craig Melchert

Footnotes[link]

Sources[link]

External links[link]

Coordinates: 50°42′00″N 2°26′00″W / 50.7°N 2.433333°W / 50.7; -2.433333

Dorchester
Dorchester  Dorchester shown within Dorset
Population	20,101
OS grid reference	SY690906
District	West Dorset
Shire county	Dorset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	DORCHESTER
Postcode district	DT1
Dialling code	01305
Police	Dorset
Fire	Dorset
Ambulance	South Western
EU Parliament	South West England
UK Parliament	West Dorset
Website	http://www.dorchester-tc.gov.uk
List of places: UK • England • Dorset

Dorchester ( /ˈdɔrtʃɛstər/ DOR-ches-tər) is the county town of Dorset, England. A historic market town, Dorchester lies on the banks of the River Frome, in the Frome Valley, just south of the Dorset Downs and north of the South Dorset Ridgeway, that separates the area from Weymouth, 8 miles (13 km) south.

Dorchester is noted as being home and inspiration to the author Thomas Hardy, whose novels Tess of the d'Urbervilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge were both based on the town.

In the 2001 Census the official population of Dorchester was 16,171, although by 2010 this was estimated to have risen to 18,280.^[1]

History[link]

Prehistory and Romano-British[link]

Dorchester's roots stem back to prehistoric times. Settlements were first based around Maiden Castle, a large Iron Age hill fort that was one of the most powerful settlements in pre-Roman Britain, with varying tribes having existed there since 4000 BC. The Durotriges were likely to have been there at the arrival of the Romans in 43 AD.

The Romans defeated the local tribes by 70 AD. After possibly being converted from a garrison to a town, the Romans named the settlement Durnovaria. This was a Brythonic name meaning 'place with fist-sized pebbles' and appears to have taken part of its name from the local Durotriges tribe who inhabited the area. Durnovaria was first recorded in the 4th century Antonine Itinerary and became a market centre for the surrounding countryside, and an important road junction and staging post,^[2] and eventually one of the twin capitals of the Celtic Durotriges tribe.^[3]

The Romans walled the town and the remains can still be seen today. The walls were largely replaced with walks that form a square inside modern Dorchester. Known as 'The Walks' a small segment of the original Roman wall still exists today near the Top 'o Town roundabout.

Roman town house ruins in Dorchester

The town still has some Roman features, including part of the town walls and the foundations of a Roman town house, which are freely accessible near the County Hall. There are many Roman finds in the County Museum. The Romans built an 8-mile (13 km) aqueduct to supply the town with water, lengths of the terrace on which it was constructed still remain in parts. Near the town centre is Maumbury Rings, an ancient British henge earthwork converted by the Romans for use as an amphitheatre, and to the north west is Poundbury Hill, another pre-Roman fortification.

Little evidence exists to suggest continued occupation after the withdrawal of the Roman administration from Britain. Historians have suggested that the town became known as Caer Durnac, mistakenly recorded by Nennius as Caer Urnac.^[4][5] The area remained in British hands until the mid-7th century and there was certainly continuity of use of the Roman cemetery at nearby Poundbury. Dorchester has therefore been suggested as the centre of a sub-kingdom of Dumnonia or other regional power base.^[6]

Anglo-Saxon[link]

By 864, the area around Durnovaria/Caer Durnac was dominated by the newly established Saxons, who came to refer to themselves as Dorsaetas ('People of the Dor' - Durnovaria). In their own language, they referred to the town as Dornwaraceaster or Dornwaracester, combining the original name 'Dor/Dorn' from the Latin and Celtic languages with the word 'cester', which was an Anglo-Saxon word used for 'walled town'.^[7] The name would further change to Dorncester/Dornceaster until modern Dorchester emerged some time later. It continued as a thriving commercial and political centre for south Dorset with a textile trading and manufacturing industry continuing until the 17th century.^[8]

Early modern history[link]

"The town is populous, tho' not large, the streets broad, but the buildings old, and low; however, there is good company and a good deal of it; and a man that coveted a retreat in this world might as agreeably spend his time, and as well in Dorchester, as in any town I know in England". -- Daniel Defoe, in his A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724-1726).^[9]

In 1613 and 1725 great fires destroyed large parts of the town, but some of the mediaeval buildings, including Judge Jeffreys' lodgings, and the Tudor almshouse survive in the town centre, amongst the replacement Georgian buildings, many of which are built in Portland limestone.

In the 17th century the town was at the centre of the Puritan emigration to America, and the local rector, John White, organised the settlement of Dorchester, Massachusetts. For his efforts on behalf of Puritan dissenters, White has been called the unheralded founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Some observers have attributed the oversight to the fact that White, unlike John Winthrop, never came to America.)^[10]

In 1642, just prior to the English Civil War, Hugh Green, a Catholic chaplain was executed here. After his execution, Puritans played football with his head.^[11] The town was heavily defended against the Royalists in the Civil War.

In 1685 the Duke of Monmouth failed in his invasion attempt, the Monmouth Rebellion, and almost 300 of his men were condemned to death or transportation in the "Bloody Assizes", held in the Oak Room of the Antelope Hotel, Dorchester and presided over by Judge Jeffreys.

Modern history[link]

In 1833, the Tolpuddle Martyrs formed the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. Trade unions were legal, but due to them swearing an oath of allegiance, they were arrested and tried in the Shire Hall in Dorchester. This building still remains and is preserved as it was at the time. Under the court are the cells where the prisoners were held while waiting for their court appearance. Dorchester Prison was constructed in the town during the 19th century and the prison is still in use today, holding convicted and remanded inmates from the local courts.

Dorchester remained a compact town within the boundaries of the old town walls until the latter part of the 19th century due to the ownership of all land immediately adjacent to the west, south and east by the Duchy of Cornwall. This land composed the Manor of Fordington, and a select few developments had encroached onto it:

• The Marabout Barracks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1794
• The Dorchester Union Workhouse, to the north of Damer's Road, in 1835
• The Southampton and Dorchester Railway and its station east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1847
• The Great Western Railway and its station to the south of Damer's Road, in 1857
• The Waterworks, to the north of Bridport Road, in 1854
• A new cemetery, to the west of the new railway and east of Weymouth Avenue, in 1856
• The Dorset County Constabulary police station in 1860, west of the Southampton railway, east of Weymouth Avenue and north of Maumbury Rings.

A map of Dorchester in 1937

This remaining Duchy land was farmed under the open field system until 1874 when the land was enclosed - or consolidated - into three large farms by the landowners and residents.^[12] Soon afterwards followed a series of key developments for the town: the enclosing of Poundbury hillfort for public enjoyment in 1876, the 'Fair Field' (new site for the market, off Weymouth Avenue) in 1877, the Recreation Ground (also off Weymouth Avenue) opening in 1880, and the imposing Eldridge Pope Brewery of 1881, adjacent to the railway line to Southampton. Salisbury Field was retained for public use in 1892, with land being purchased in 1895 for the formal Borough Gardens, between West Walks and Cornwall Road.^[12] The clock and bandstand were added in 1898.^[13]

Meanwhile, land had begun to be developed for housing outside the walls. This included the Cornwall Estate, between the Borough Gardens and the Great Western Railway, from 1876 and the Prince of Wales Estate, centred on Prince of Wales Road, from 1880. Land for the Victoria Park Estate was bought in 1896 and building began in 1897, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. The lime trees in Queen's Avenue were planted in February 1897.^[12]

Recent developments[link]

Dorchester High West Street

Poundbury is the well-known western extension of the town, constructed on Duchy of Cornwall land (owned by Charles, Prince of Wales) according to urban village principles since 1993. Being developed over 25 years, it will eventually be composed of four phases with a total of 2,500 dwellings and a population of about 6,000. Since 2008, Poundbury is now home to Dorset Fire and Rescue Service headquarters and Dorchester fire station. Prince Charles designed the estate (as well as the local Tesco supermarket) and makes several visits throughout the year.

Dorchester became Dorset's first Official Transition Initiative in 2008 as part of the Transition Towns concept.^[14] Transition Town Dorchester is a Dorchester community response to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change.^[15]

The town's Woolworths shop closed in January 2009 after the high-street retail chain entered administration. The store manager, however, secured investment to re-open the store in March 2009, under the name Wellworths,^[16] although due to legal reasons it was later renamed Wellchester. In May 2009, a skatepark was opened in Dorchester after 12 years of planning and construction.^[17]

The catchment population for major food retail outlets in Dorchester is 38,500 (2001 estimate). The catchment area extends eight miles west, north and east of the town, and two miles south.^[1] Brewery Square is a new development in the heart of the town, and is planned to include a multitude of retail outlets, residential units, bars, restaurants and various cultural facilities, plus the regeneration of Dorchester South station to make it the UK's first solar powered rail station.^[18] The Charles Street development, being built on the site of the former Charles Street car park, is the newest project in Dorchester, and will include 23 new shops, a 485-space underground car park, an hotel, affordable housing, new public toilets, a public library and adult education centre provided and paid for by Dorset County Council, and offices and separate parking occupied and paid for by West Dorset District Council. The Charles Street development is predicted to create 660 new jobs (not including jobs within the council).^[19]

There is a new leisure centre being built on Coburg Road to replace the old Thomas Hardye School Leisure Centre, costing over £8 million, and will consist of a new swimming pool and sports equipment.^[20]

Government[link]

Dorchester is represented by three tiers of government. Dorchester town council, West Dorset District Council and Dorset County Council, all of whom are based within the town. The Member of Parliament for West Dorset is Oliver Letwin.

The town's coat of arms depicts the old castle that used to stand where the prison now does. The royal purple background signifies Dorchester's status as part of the private estates of the king since before Domesday. The shield within the castle depicts lions, copied from the shields of Dorset men who fought at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415, and fleur-de-lys. The fleur-de-lys on the shield are scattered (or "semée") rather than the more traditional triangular arrangement. Doing so, shows that the town had the right to bear the arms of France before 1405, when they were altered by King Henry VI. Dorchester's seal is the only one in the UK to use the fleur-de-lys in this way. The inscription 'Sigillum Bailivorum Dorcestre' means 'The Seal of the Bailiffs of Dorchester'.

In 2011 Dorchester was one of more than 20 towns across the country to apply for city status to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee,^[21] although in March 2012 it was revealed that Dorchester's bid was unsuccessful.

Media[link]

Dorchester is served by two local radio stations: Wessex FM and BBC Radio Solent (BBC Dorset). The county hospital has its own station named 'Ridgeway Radio'. Local television news coverage is by South Today or Spotlight (BBC News). Dorchester's regular print media comprise Dorset Echo and a free weekly periodical.

Transport[link]

Dorchester South railway station

The town has two railway stations. Dorchester South railway station on the South Western Main Line to Bournemouth, Southampton and London is operated by South West Trains. Dorchester West railway station on the Heart of Wessex Line is operated by First Great Western and serves Yeovil, Bath and Bristol The building at Dorchester West railway station is the original building designed and built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As part of the regeneration project taking place at the Brewery Site in the town centre, Dorchester South railway station will become the first solar powered railway station in the UK.

A bypass road was completed in 1988 by construction company Mowlem to the south and west of the town, diverting through traffic using the A35 and A37 from the town.^[22]

Education[link]

Dorchester has one private school, several first schools, two middle schools and one upper school. The upper school, The Thomas Hardye School, can trace its origins back to 1569, when it was founded by a merchant of that name, not the writer Thomas Hardy as commonly believed. Nineteen schools in the Dorchester area form the Dorchester Area Schools Partnership (DASP).

Kingston Maurward College is a land-based studies college based on the outskirts of the town.

Culture[link]

Local author and poet Thomas Hardy based the fictional town of Casterbridge on Dorchester. Hardy's childhood home is to the east of the town, and his house in town, Max Gate, is owned by the National Trust and open to the public. William Barnes, the local dialect poet, was Rector of Winterborne Came, a small hamlet near Dorchester, for 24 years until his death in 1886,^[23] and ran a school in the town. Statues of both men stand in the town centre; Barnes is outside St Peter's Church and Hardy's beside the Top o' Town crossroads. Cecil Day Lewis is buried in Stinsford, one mile (1.6 km) from Dorchester. Hardy is buried in London, but his heart was removed and buried in Stinsford.

On the hills to the south west of the town, stands Hardy's Monument, a memorial to the other local Thomas Hardy, Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, who served with Lord Nelson, which overlooks the town with views of Weymouth, the Isle of Portland and Chesil Beach. Tom Roberts, Australian painter, was born in Dorchester in 1856.

Dorchester Arts, a regularly funded arts organisation based in a former school building runs a seasonal programme of music, dance and theatre events in the town as well as a range of participatory arts projects for socially excluded groups and the biannual Dorchester Festival. In 2011, Dorchester Arts became an Arts Council 'National Portfolio organisation' with enhanced funding until 2015.

Museums in Dorchester include the Roman Town House, The Dinosaur Museum, the Terracotta Warriors Museum, the Dorset Teddy Bear Museum, The Keep Military Museum, Dorset County Museum. and the Tutankhamun Exhibition. All of these museums took part in the "Museums at Night" event in May 2011 where museums across the UK opened after hours.^[24]

On 15 December 2004, Dorchester was granted Fairtrade Town status.^{[citation needed]}

Twinned towns[link]

Dorchester is twinned with three European towns:^[25]

• Bayeux in France since 1959, came about because the Dorset Regiment were the first soldiers to enter the town in 1944 as the Second World War came to an end
• Lübbecke in Germany since 1973, largely down to the special relationship between the Durnovaria Silver Band who met the Lübbecker Schutzenmusik Corps at an event in Bayeux when Bayeux was twinning with Lübbecke in 1968
• Holbæk in Denmark since 1992, resulted from a shared interest in community plays.^{[citation needed]}

Notable people[link]

• James Campbell (born 1988), cricketer
• Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), writer, was born near Dorchester and later lived at Max Gate in the town. Two of his novels were directly based on Dorchester.
• Paul Hillier (born 1949), classical singer and composer was born in Dorchester. He attended the Thomas Hardye School.

Sport[link]

Dorchester is represented by many sports teams, the most prominent of whom are Dorchester Town F.C., a football team currently playing in the Conference South.

Harry Redknapp and former England players Graham Roberts and Martin Chivers represented 'The Magpies' during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The club have historically been based along Weymouth Avenue in the south of the town. Having previously played at the old Avenue Ground since their inception, the club moved to a new purpose built 5,000 capacity Avenue Stadium in the early 1990s - designed and owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The site of the old Avenue ground is now a Tesco supermarket built at the same time as the Avenue stadium

Dorchester RFC are an amateur rugby union team who currently play in the Southern Counties South league.

Dorchester CC, are a cricket club, who play in the Dorset Premier League, being last crowned champions in 2009.

Aaron Cook, a taekwondo athlete who competed in the 2008 Olympic Games finishing in fifth place, was born in Dorchester.^[26]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Bingham, A. (1987) Dorset : Ordnance Survey landranger guidebook , Norwich: Jarrold, ISBN 0-319-00187-3
• Chandler, J. H. (1990) Wessex images, Gloucester: Alan Sutton and Wiltshire County Council Library & Museum Service, ISBN 0-86299-739-9
• Draper, J. (1992) Dorchester : An illustrated history Wimborne: Dovecote Press, ISBN 1-874336-04-0
• Morris, J. and Draper, J. (1995) "The 'Enclosure' of Foridngton Fields and the Development of Dorchester, 1874–1903", Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society proceedings, v. 117, p. 5–14, ISSN 0070-7112
• Pitt-Rivers, M. (1966) Dorset, A Shell guide, New ed., London: Faber, ISBN 0-571-06714-X
• Taylor, C. (1970) Dorset, Making of the English landscape, London: Hodder & Stoughton, p. 197–201, ISBN 0-340-10962-9
• Waymark, J, (1997) "The Duchy of Cornwall and the Expansion of Dorchester, c. 1900–1997", Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society proceedings, v. 119, p. 19–32, ISSN 0070-7112

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dorchester, Dorset

• Census data
• Dorchester, Dorset at the Open Directory Project

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2007)

Edmund Pascha (Páska) (1714 – May 6, 1772) was a preacher, organist and composer. He used pseudonym Claudianus Ostern.

Life[link]

Pascha was born in Kroměříž. His exact date of birth and his first name are unknown. In 1731 he was affiliated as a Franciscan cleric novice in Hlohovec. There he got oblate name Edmund. He studied philosophy in Beckov and theology in Uherské Hradiště (local monastery was a part of Salvatorian province). After ordination he acted as a preacher and an organist in monasteries of Salvatorian province. With certainty we know that he acted this way also in Prešov and Žilina.

Despite his later diseases, he still continued to performed his function in choir. Records about his death on May 4, 1772 exist, but authentic records from Žilina monastery claim that he died there on May 6, 1772.

Works[link]

Edmund Pascha was not only an organist and choir director, but he was also a music composer. By compositions of Slovak passionals, pastoral masses and carols he deserved well of Slovak Baroque music, but also of Slovak literature. In his musical textbooks he kept foremost Christmas folklore and pretentious Slovak folk-songs with Christmas and Easter themes.

From his musical works are preserved a few textbooks in manuscripts. So-called Žilinský kancionál (about year 1770) contains two manuscript textbooks. In the first - Harmonia pastoralis (Pastierska harmónia) - are two Latin Slovak Christmas masses with Slovak, exclusively folk pastorela and carols, and also Latin antiphony Tota pulchra (Celá krásna). In the second one - Prosae pastorales (Pastierske spevy) - are 25 carols for Christmas, New Year and Three Kings and pastorelas. Among them is also known carol Do hory, do lesa, valasi.

The most known Pascha's work is Vianočná omša F-dur (Christmas mass in F Major) from mentioned textbook Harmonia pastoralis. It is unique work of Slovak Baroque. Music historians state that his Christmas mass for its charm, unrepeatable originality and power doesn't have equivalent in any known Christmas mass (Terray). Musical critics immediately in 1969 stated that it is a jewel of musical past, a work of extraordinary beauty, which will certainly become at least European sensation, word for word musical bestseller (Vajda). Its reedition proves it. It reflects elements of Slovak folk-music and shepherd singings. It is noted as organ particel. Well-mastered are also organ interludes, solo duets and vocal trios, which interchange with choir unisono parts. There are also inlets of other instruments - clarinets, flutes, shepherd tubas (tuba pastoralis). This composition is completely preserved and it is interpreted even in present times.

Besides that has preserved his three passionals - prešovský (1770), pruštiansky a žilinský (both 1771), which contain Slovak responsorial choral passions for four voices. These manuscripts are richly illustrated by author self. Text parts are made up from simple meditations. It is a solely Baroque poetry. Folk Baroque in carols and pastorelas joins with elements of folk musical expressions and shepherd singings, which author knew to his cost. He pushed folk elements in melodic, rhythmic and harmonic structure, and also in organ part. Solos and duets, however, have origin in Baroque, almost Bach's music. It is possible to find in it elements of older and early Classicistic music.

There also occurred some not well-founded speculations that Pascha was not author of mentioned works. According to it, they were only his transcriptions of compositions by another Franciscan organist, musical composer and copyist Jozef Juraj Zrunek (1736-1789).

Bibliography[link]

• Harmónia Pastoralis — Prosae pastorales. Notated Latin Slovak manuscript with two parts made out in 1770 in Žilina;
• Prešovský pašionál. Notated Slovak manuscript from 1770;
• Prušiansky pašionál. Notated Slovak manuscript from 1771;
• Žilinský pašionál. Notated Slovak manuscript from 1771 in Žilina.

Listed music except Prušiansky pašionál is stored in Literárny archív Matice slovenskej in Martin. Prušiansky is stored in Štátny archív v Bytči.

References[link]

• Biography of Edmund Pascha in Slovak

External links[link]

• Title page of Christmass Mass manuscript
• Works by Pascha

Béla Bartók in 1927

Béla Viktor János Bartók ( /ˈbɑrtɒk/; Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈbeːlɒ ˈbɒrtoːk]; March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer (Gillies 2001). Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of ethnomusicology.

Biography[link]

Childhood and early years (1881–98)[link]

Béla Bartók was born in the small Banatian town of Nagyszentmiklós in the Kingdom of Hungary, Austria-Hungary (since 1920 Sânnicolau Mare, Romania) on March 25, 1881. Bartók's family reflected some of the ethno-cultural diversities of the country. His father, Béla Sr., considered himself thoroughly Hungarian, because on his father's side the Bartók family was a Hungarian lower noble family, originating from Borsod county (Móser 2006a, 44; Bartók 1981, 13), though his mother was from a Roman Catholic Serbian family (Bayley 2001, 16). His mother, Paula (born Paula Voit), had German as a mother tongue, but was ethnically of "mixed Hungarian" origin: Her maiden name Voit is German, probably of Saxon origin from Upper Hungary (Since 1920 in Czechoslovakia, since 1993 in Slovakia), though she spoke Hungarian fluently.^{[citation needed]} Among her closest forefathers there were family names like Polereczky (Magyarized Polish or Slovak) and Fegyveres (Magyar). Béla displayed notable musical talent very early in life: according to his mother, he could distinguish between different dance rhythms that she played on the piano before he learned to speak in complete sentences (Gillies 1990, 6). By the age of four, he was able to play 40 pieces on the piano; his mother began formally teaching him the next year.

Béla was a small and sickly child and suffered from severe eczema until the age of five (Gillies 1990, 5). In 1888, when he was seven, his father (the director of an agricultural school) died suddenly. Béla's mother then took him and his sister, Erzsébet, to live in Nagyszőlős (today Vinogradiv, Ukraine) and then to Pozsony (German: Pressburg, today Bratislava, Slovakia). In Pozsony, Béla gave his first public recital at age eleven to a warm critical reception. Among the pieces he played was his own first composition, written two years previously: a short piece called "The Course of the Danube" (de Toth 1999). Shortly thereafter László Erkel accepted him as a pupil.

Early musical career (1899–1908)[link]

Bartók's signature on his high school graduation photograph, dated September 9, 1899

From 1899 to 1903, Bartók studied piano under István Thomán, a former student of Franz Liszt, and composition under János Koessler at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest. There he met Zoltán Kodály, who influenced him greatly and became his lifelong friend and colleague. In 1903, Bartók wrote his first major orchestral work, Kossuth, a symphonic poem which honored Lajos Kossuth, hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

The music of Richard Strauss, whom he met in 1902 at the Budapest premiere of Also sprach Zarathustra, strongly influenced his early work. When visiting a holiday resort in the summer of 1904, Bartók overheard a young nanny, Lidi Dósa from Kibéd in Transylvania, sing folk songs to the children in her care. This sparked his life-long dedication to folk music.

From 1907 he also began to be influenced by the French composer Claude Debussy, whose compositions Kodály had brought back from Paris. Bartók's large-scale orchestral works were still in the style of Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss, but he wrote a number of small piano pieces which showed his growing interest in folk music. The first piece to show clear signs of this new interest is the String Quartet No. 1 in A minor (1908), which contains folk-like elements.

In 1907, Bartók began teaching as a piano professor at the Royal Academy. This position freed him from touring Europe as a pianist and enabled him to work in Hungary. Among his notable students were Fritz Reiner, Sir Georg Solti, György Sándor, Ernő Balogh, and Lili Kraus. After Bartók moved to the United States, he taught Jack Beeson and Violet Archer.

In 1908, he and Kodály traveled into the countryside to collect and research old Magyar folk melodies. Their growing interest in folk music coincided with a contemporary social interest in traditional national culture. They made some surprising discoveries. Magyar folk music had previously been categorised as Gypsy music. The classic example is Franz Liszt's famous Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano, which he based on popular art songs performed by Romani bands of the time. In contrast, Bartók and Kodály discovered that the old Magyar folk melodies were based on pentatonic scales, similar to those in Asian folk traditions, such as those of Central Asia and Siberia.

Bartók and Kodály quickly set about incorporating elements of such Magyar peasant music into their compositions. They both frequently quoted folk song melodies verbatim and wrote pieces derived entirely from authentic songs. An example is his two volumes entitled For Children for solo piano, containing 80 folk tunes to which he wrote accompaniment. Bartók's style in his art music compositions was a synthesis of folk music, classicism, and modernism. His melodic and harmonic sense was profoundly influenced by the folk music of Hungary, Romania, and other nations. He was especially fond of the asymmetrical dance rhythms and pungent harmonies found in Bulgarian music. Most of his early compositions offer a blend of nationalist and late Romanticism elements.

Middle years and career (1909–39)[link]

Personal life[link]

In 1909, Bartók married Márta Ziegler. Their son, Béla III, was born on August 22, 1910. After nearly 15 years together, Bartók divorced Márta in 1923.

He then married Ditta Pásztory, a piano student. She had his second son, Péter, born in 1924.

Opera[link]

In 1911, Bartók wrote what was to be his only opera, Bluebeard's Castle, dedicated to Márta. He entered it for a prize by the Hungarian Fine Arts Commission, but they rejected his work as not fit for the stage (Chalmers 1995, 93). In 1917 Bartók revised the score for the 1918 première, and rewrote the ending. Following the 1919 revolution, he was pressured by the new Soviet government to remove the name of the librettist Béla Balázs from the opera (Chalmers 1995, 123), as he was blacklisted and had left the country for Vienna. Bluebeard's Castle received only one revival, in 1936, before Bartók emigrated. For the remainder of his life, although he was passionately devoted to Hungary, its people and its culture, he never felt much loyalty to the government or its official establishments.

Folk music and composition[link]

After his disappointment over the Fine Arts Commission competition, Bartók wrote little for two or three years, preferring to concentrate on collecting and arranging folk music. He collected first in the Carpathian Basin (the then-Kingdom of Hungary), where he notated Hungarian, Slovakian, Romanian and Bulgarian folk music. He also collected in Moldavia, Wallachia and in 1913 in Algeria. The outbreak of World War I forced him to stop the expeditions, and he returned to composing, writing the ballet The Wooden Prince in 1914–16 and the String Quartet No. 2 in 1915–17, both influenced by Debussy.

Raised as a Roman Catholic, by his early adulthood Bartók had become an atheist. He believed that the existence of God could not be determined and was unnecessary. He later became attracted to Unitarianism and publicly converted to the Unitarian faith in 1916. As an adult, his son later became president of the Hungarian Unitarian Church (Hughes 1999–2007).

Bartók wrote another ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin influenced by Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, as well as Richard Strauss. He next wrote his two violin sonatas (written in 1921 and 1922 respectively), which are harmonically and structurally some of his most complex pieces. The Miraculous Mandarin, a modern story of prostitution, robbery, and murder, was started in 1918, but not performed until 1926 because of its sexual content.

In 1927–28, Bartók wrote his third and fourth string quartets, after which his compositions demonstrate his mature style. Notable examples of this period are Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936) and Divertimento for String Orchestra BB 118 (1939). The String Quartet No. 5 was composed in 1934, and the sixth and last string quartet in 1939.

In 1936 he travelled to Turkey to collect and study folk music. He worked in collaboration with Turkish composer Ahmet Adnan Saygun mostly around Adana (Özgentürk 2008; Sipos 2000).

World War II and last years in America (1940–45)[link]

In 1940, as the European political situation worsened after the outbreak of World War II, Bartók was increasingly tempted to flee Hungary. He was strongly opposed to the Nazis and Hungary's siding with Germany. After the Nazis came to power in the early 1930s, Bartók refused to give concerts in Germany and broke with his publisher there. His anti-fascist political views caused him a great deal of trouble with the establishment in Hungary. Having first sent his manuscripts out of the country, Bartók reluctantly emigrated to the U.S. with Ditta Pásztory in July that year. They settled in New York City. After joining them in 1942, his younger son, Péter Bartók, enlisted in the United States Navy where he served in the Pacific during the remainder of the war and later settled in Florida where he became a recording and sound engineer. His oldest son, Béla Bartók, Jr., remained in Hungary where he survived the war and later worked as a railroad official until his retirement in the early 1980s.

Bartók never became fully at home in the US. He initially found it difficult to compose. Although well known in America as a pianist, ethnomusicologist and teacher, he was not well known as a composer. There was little American interest in his music during his final years. He and his wife Ditta gave concerts. Bartók, who had made some recordings in Hungary also recorded for Columbia Records after he came to the US; many of these recordings (some with Bartók's own spoken introductions) were later issued on LP and CD (Bartók 1994, 1995a, 1995b, 2003, 2007, 2008).

Supported by a research fellowship from Columbia University, for several years, Bartók and Ditta worked on a large collection of Serbian and Croatian folk songs in Columbia's libraries. They also translated some old Hungarian textbooks into English which were also from Columbia's libraries.^{[citation needed]} Bartók's economic difficulties during his first years in America were mitigated by publication royalties, teaching and performance tours. While his finances were always precarious, he did not live and die in poverty as was the common myth. He had enough supporters to ensure that there was sufficient money and work available for him to live on. Bartók was a proud man and did not easily accept charity. Despite being short on cash at times, he often refused money that his friends offered him out of their own pockets. Although he was not a member of the ASCAP, the society paid for any medical care he needed during his last two years. Bartók reluctantly accepted this (Chalmers 1995, 196–203).

The first symptoms of his health problems began late in 1940, when his right shoulder began to show signs of stiffening. In 1942, symptoms increased and he started having bouts of fever, but no underlying disease was diagnosed, in spite of medical examinations. Finally, in April 1944, leukemia was diagnosed, but by this time, little could be done (Chalmers 1995, 202–207).

As his body slowly failed, Bartók found more creative energy, and he produced a final set of masterpieces, partly thanks to the violinist Joseph Szigeti and the conductor Fritz Reiner (Reiner had been Bartók's friend and champion since his days as Bartók's student at the Royal Academy). Bartók's last work might well have been the String Quartet No. 6 but for Serge Koussevitsky's commission for the Concerto for Orchestra. Koussevitsky's Boston Symphony Orchestra premièred the work in December 1944 to highly positive reviews. Concerto for Orchestra quickly became Bartók's most popular work, although he did not live to see its full impact. In 1944, he was also commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin to write a Sonata for Solo Violin. In 1945, Bartók composed his Piano Concerto No. 3, a graceful and almost neo-classical work. He began work on his Viola Concerto, but had not completed the scoring at his death.

Béla Bartók's portrait on 1,000 Hungarian forint banknote (printed in 1983; no longer in circulation).

Béla Bartók died at age 64 in a hospital in New York City from complications of leukemia (specifically, of secondary polycythemia) on September 26, 1945. His funeral was attended by only ten people. Among them were his wife Ditta, their son Péter, and his pianist friend György Sándor (anon. 2006).

Bartok's body was initially interred in Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. During the final year of communist Hungary in the late 1980s, the Hungarian government, along with his two sons, Béla III and Péter, requested that his remains be exhumed and transferred back to Budapest for burial, where Hungary arranged a state funeral for him on July 7, 1988. He was reinterred at Budapest's Farkasréti Cemetery (Chalmers 1995, 214).

The Third Piano Concerto was nearly finished at his death. For his Viola Concerto, Bartok had completed only the viola part and sketches of the orchestral part. Both works were later completed by his pupil, Tibor Serly. György Sándor was the soloist in the first performance of the Third Piano Concerto on February 8, 1946. The Viola Concerto was revised and polished in the 1990s by Bartók's son, Peter; this version may be closer to what Bartók intended (Chalmers 1995, 210).

Statues[link]

• A statue of Béla Bartók stands in Brussels, Belgium near the central train station in a public square, Spanjeplein-Place d'Espagne.
• A statue stands outside Malvern Court, south of South Kensington Underground Station, and just north of Sydney Place, where he stayed when performing in London.
• A statue of him was installed in front of one of the houses which Bartók owned in the hills above Budapest. It is now operated as a house museum.
• A bust and plaque located at his last residence, in New York City at 309 W. 57th Street, inscribed: "The Great Hungarian Composer / Béla Bartók / (1881–1945) / Made His Home In This House / During the Last Year of His Life".
• A bust of him is located in in the front yard of Ankara State Conservatory, Ankara, Turkey right next to the bust of Ahmet Adnan Saygun.

Compositions[link]

Bartók's music reflects two trends that dramatically changed the sound of music in the 20th century: the breakdown of the diatonic system of harmony that had served composers for the previous two hundred years (Griffiths 1978, 7); and the revival of nationalism as a source for musical inspiration, a trend that began with Mikhail Glinka and Antonín Dvořák in the last half of the 19th century (Einstein 1947, 332). In his search for new forms of tonality, Bartók turned to Hungarian folk music, as well as to other folk music of the Carpathian Basin and even of Algeria and Turkey; in so doing he became influential in that stream of modernism which exploited indigenous music and techniques (Botstein [n.d.], §6).

One characteristic style of music is his Night music, which he used mostly in slow movements of multi-movement ensemble or orchestral compositions in his mature period. It is characterised by "eerie dissonances providing a backdrop to sounds of nature and lonely melodies" (Schneider 2006, 84). An example is the third movement Adagio of his Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta.

His music can be grouped roughly in accordance with the different periods in his life.

Youth: Late-Romanticism (1890–1902)[link]

The works of his youth are of a late-Romantic style. Between 1890 and 1894 (nine to 13 years of age) he wrote 31 pieces with corresponding opus numbers. He started numbering his works anew with ‘opus 1’ in 1894 with his first large scale work, a piano sonata. Up to 1902, Bartók wrote in total 74 works which can be considered in Romantic style. Most of these early compositions are either scored for piano solo or include a piano. Additionally, there is some chamber music for strings. Compared to his later achievements, these works are of less importance.

New influences (1903–11)[link]

Under the influence of Richard Strauss (among other works Also sprach Zarathustra) (Stevens 1993, 15–17), Bartók composed in 1903 Kossuth, a symphonic poem in ten tableaux. In 1904 followed his Rhapsody for piano and orchestra which he numbered opus 1 again, marking it himself as the start of a new era in his music. An even more important occurrence of this year was his overhearing the eighteen-year-old nanny Lidi Dósa from Transylvania sing folk songs, sparking Bartók’s lifelong dedication to folk music (Stevens 1993, 22). When criticised for not composing his own melodies^{[citation needed]} Bartók pointed out that Molière and Shakespeare mostly based their plays on well-known stories too. Regarding the incorporation of folk music into art music he said:

The question is, what are the ways in which peasant music is taken over and becomes transmuted into modern music? We may, for instance, take over a peasant melody unchanged or only slightly varied, write an accompaniment to it and possibly some opening and concluding phrases. This kind of work would show a certain analogy with Bach’s treatment of chorales. [...] Another method [...] is the following: the composer does not make use of a real peasant melody but invents his own imitation of such melodies. There is no true difference between this method and the one described above. [...] There is yet a third way [...] Neither peasant melodies nor imitations of peasant melodies can be found in his music, but it is pervaded by the atmosphere of peasant music. In this case we may say, he has completely absorbed the idiom of peasant music which has become his musical mother tongue. (Bartók 1931/1976, 341–44.)

Bartók became first acquainted with Debussy’s music in 1907 and regarded his music highly. In an interview in 1939 Bartók said

Debussy's great service to music was to reawaken among all musicians an awareness of harmony and its possibilities. In that, he was just as important as Beethoven, who revealed to us the possibilities of progressive form, or as Bach, who showed us the transcendent significance of counterpoint. Now, what I am always asking myself is this: is it possible to make a synthesis of these three great masters, a living synthesis that will be valid for our time? (Moreux 1953, 92)

Debussy's influence is present in the Fourteen Bagatelles (1908). These made Ferruccio Busoni exclaim ‘At last something truly new!’ (Bartók, 1948, 2:83). Until 1911, Bartók composed widely differing works which ranged from adherence to romantic-style, to folk song arrangements and to his modernist opera Bluebeard’s Castle. The negative reception of his work led him to focus on folk music research after 1911 and abandon composition with the exception of folk music arrangements (Gillies 1993, 404; Stevens 1964, 47–49).

New inspiration and experimentation (1916–21)[link]

His pessimistic attitude towards composing was lifted by the stormy and inspiring contact with Klára Gombossy in the summer of 1915 (Gillies 1993, 405). This interesting episode in Bartók's life remained hidden until it was researched by Denijs Dille between 1979 and 1989 (Dille 1990, 257–77). Bartók started composing again, including the Suite for piano opus 14 (1916), and The Miraculous Mandarin (1918) and he completed The Wooden Prince (1917).

Bartók felt the result of World War I as a personal tragedy (Stevens 1993, 3). Many regions he loved were severed from Hungary: Transylvania, the Banat where he was born, and Pozsony where his mother lived. Additionally, the political relations between Hungary and the other successor states to the Austro-Hungarian empire prohibited his folk music research outside of Hungary (Somfai, 1996, 18). Thrown largely onto himself, he experimented with extreme compositional practices, the peak being his Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 (Op. 21) and No. 2.^{[citation needed]} Bartók also wrote the noteworthy Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs in 1920, and the sunny Dance Suite in 1923, the year of his second marriage.

"Synthesis of East and West" (1926–45)[link]

In 1926, Bartók needed a significant piece for piano and orchestra with which he could tour in Europe and America. In the preparation for writing his First Piano Concerto, he wrote his Sonata, Out of Doors, and Nine Little Pieces, all for solo piano (Gillies 1993, 173). He increasingly found his own voice in his maturity. The style of his last period—named "Synthesis of East and West" (Gillies 1993, 189)—is hard to define let alone to put under one term. In his mature period, Bartók wrote relatively few works but most of them are large-scale compositions for large settings. Only his voice works have programmatic titles and his late works often adhere to classical forms.

Among his masterworks are all the six string quartets (1908, 1917, 1927, 1928, 1934, and 1939), the Cantata Profana (1930, Bartók declared that this was the work he felt and professed to be his most personal "credo", Szabolcsi 1974, 186), the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936), the Concerto for Orchestra (1943) and the Third Piano Concerto (1945).

Bartók also made a lasting contribution to the literature for younger students: for his son Péter's music lessons, he composed Mikrokosmos, a six-volume collection of graded piano pieces.

Analysis[link]

Analytic approaches[link]

Paul Wilson lists as the most prominent characteristics of Bartók's music from late 1920s onwards the influence of the Carpathian basin and European art music, and his changing attitude toward (and use of) tonality, but without the use of the traditional harmonic functions associated with major and minor scales (Wilson 1992, 2–4).

Although Bartók claimed in his writings that his music was always tonal, it rarely uses the chords or scales of tonality, and so the descriptive resources of tonal theory are of limited use. George Perle and Elliott Antokoletz focus on alternative methods of signaling tonal centers, via axes of inversional symmetry. Others view Bartok's axes of symmetry in terms of atonal analytic protocols. Richard Cohn argues that inversional symmetry is often a byproduct of another atonal procedure, the formation of chords from transpositionally related dyads. Atonal pitch-class theory also furnishes the resources for exploring polymodal chromaticism, projected sets, privileged patterns, and large set types used as source sets such as the equal tempered twelve tone aggregate, octatonic scale (and alpha chord), the diatonic and heptatonia seconda seven-note scales, and less often the whole tone scale and the primary pentatonic collection (Wilson 1992, 24–29).

He rarely used the simple aggregate actively to shape musical structure, though there are notable examples such as the second theme from the first movement of his Second Violin Concerto, commenting that he "wanted to show Schoenberg that one can use all twelve tones and still remain tonal" (Gillies 1990, 185). More thoroughly, in the first eight measures of the last movement of his Second Quartet, all notes gradually gather with the twelfth (G♭) sounding for the first time on the last beat of measure 8, marking the end of the first section. The aggregate is partitioned in the opening of the Third String Quartet with C♯–D–D♯–E in the accompaniment (strings) while the remaining pitch classes are used in the melody (violin 1) and more often as 7–35 (diatonic or "white-key" collection) and 5–35 (pentatonic or "black-key" collection) such as in no. 6 of the Eight Improvisations. There, the primary theme is on the black keys in the left hand, while the right accompanies with triads from the white keys. In measures 50–51 in the third movement of the Fourth Quartet, the first violin and 'cello play black-key chords, while the second violin and viola play stepwise diatonic lines (Wilson 1992, 25). On the other hand, from as early as the Suite for piano, op. 14 (1914), he occasionally employed a form of serialism based on compound interval cycles, some of which are maximally distributed, multi-aggregate cycles (Martins 2004, Gollin 2007).

Béla Bartók memorial plaque in Baja, Hungary

Ernő Lendvaï (1971) analyses Bartók's works as being based on two opposing tonal systems, that of the acoustic scale and the axis system, as well as using the golden section as a structural principle.

Milton Babbitt, in his 1949 critique of Bartók's string quartets, criticized Bartók for using tonality and non tonal methods unique to each piece. Babbitt noted that "Bartók's solution was a specific one, it cannot be duplicated" (Babbitt 1949, 385). Bartók's use of "two organizational principles"—tonality for large scale relationships and the piece-specific method for moment to moment thematic elements—was a problem for Babbitt, who worried that the "highly attenuated tonality" requires extreme non-harmonic methods to create a feeling of closure (Babbitt 1949, 377–78).

Catalogues and opus numbers[link]

The cataloguing of Bartók's works is somewhat complex. Bartók assigned opus numbers to his works three times, the last of these series ending with the Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1, Op. 21 in 1921. He ended this practice because of the difficulty of distinguishing between original works and ethnographic arrangements, and between major and minor works. Since his death, three attempts—two full and one partial—have been made at cataloguing. The first, and still most widely used, is András Szőllősy's chronological Sz. numbers, from 1 to 121. Denijs Dille subsequently reorganised the juvenilia (Sz. 1–25) thematically, as DD numbers 1 to 77. The most recent catalogue is that of László Somfai; this is a chronological index with works identified by BB numbers 1 to 129, incorporating corrections based on the Béla Bartók Thematic Catalogue.^{[citation needed]}.

Discography[link]

• Bartók, Béla. 1994. Bartók at the Piano. Hungaroton 12326. 6-CD set.
• Bartók, Béla. 1995a. Bartok Plays Bartok – Bartok At The Piano 1929–41. Pearl 9166. CD recording.
• Bartók, Béla. 1995b. Bartók Recordings From Private Collections. Hungaroton 12334. CD recording.
• Bartók, Béla. 2003. Bartók Plays Bartók. Pearl 179. CD recording.
• Bartók, Béla. 2007. Bartók: Contrasts, Mikrokosmos. Membran/Documents 223546. CD recording.
• Bartók, Béla. 2008. Bartok Plays Bartok. Urania 340. CD recording.

Media[link]

See also[link]

Biography portal

• List of solo piano compositions by Béla Bartók

Bibliography[link]

• Anon. 2003. "Béla Bartók 1881–1945". Websophia.com. (Accessed March 25, 2009)
• Anon. 2006. "Gyorgy Sandor, Pianist and Bartok Authority, Dies at 93". The Juilliard Journal Online 21, no. 5 (February). (Accessed September 15, 2010)
• Antokoletz, Elliott. 1984. The Music of Béla Bartók. University of California Press.
• Babbitt, Milton. 1949. "The String Quartets of Bartók". Musical Quarterly 35 (July): 377–85. Reprinted in The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt, edited by Stephen Peles, with Stephen Dembski, Andrew Mead, and Joseph N. Straus, ^[citation needed]. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-691-08966-3
• Bartók, Béla. 1948. Levelek, fényképek, kéziratok, kották. ("Letters, photographs, manuscripts, scores"), ed. János Demény, 2 vols. A Muvészeti Tanács könyvei, 1.–2. sz. Budapest: Magyar Muvészeti Tanács. English edition, as Béla Bartók: Letters, translated by Péter Balabán and István Farkas; translation revised by Elisabeth West and Colin Mason (London: Faber and Faber Ltd.; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1971). ISBN 978-0-571-09638-1
• Bartók, Béla. 1976. "The Influence of Peasant Music on Modern Music (1931)". In Béla Bartók Essays, edited by Benjamin Suchoff, 340–44. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-10120-8 OCLC 60900461
• Bartók, Béla. 1981. The Hungarian Folk Song, second English edition, edited by Benjamin Suchoff, translated by Michel D. Calvocoressi, with annotations by Zoltán Kodály. The New York Bartok Archive Studies in Musicology 13. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Bartók, Peter. 2002. "My Father". Homosassa, Florida, Bartók Records (ISBN 0-9641961-2-3).
• Bayley, Amanda. 2001. Cambridge Companion to Bartók. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Bónis, Ferenc. 2006. Élet-képek: Bartók Béla. Budapest: Balassi Kiadó: Vávi Kft., Alföldi Nyomda Zrt. ISBN 963-506-649-X.
• Botstein, Leon. [n.d.] "Modernism", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed April 29, 2008), (subscription access)
• Boys, Henry. 1945. "Béla Bartók 1881–1945". Musical Times 86, no. 1233 (November): 329–31.
• Chalmers, Kenneth. 1995. Béla Bartók. 20th-Century Composers. London: Phaidon Press. ISBN 0-7148-3164-6 (pbk.)
• Cohn, Richard, 1988. "Inversional Symmetry and Transpositional Combination in Bartok." Music Theory Spectrum 10.
• Cohn, Richard, 1992. "Bartok's Octatonic Strategies: A Motivic Approach." Journal of the American Musicological Society 44
• Czeizel, Endre. 1992. Családfa: honnan jövünk, mik vagyunk, hová megyünk? [Budapest]: Kossuth Könyvkiadó. ISBN 963-09-3569-4
• de Toth, June. 1999. "Béla Bartók: A Biography". Bela Bartok Biography Liner notes to Béla Bartók: Complete Piano Works 7-CD set, Eroica Classical Recordings^{[Full citation needed]}
• Dille, Denijs. 1990. Béla Bartók: Regard sur le Passé. (French, no English version available). Namur: Presses universitaires de Namur. ISBN 2-87037-168-3 ISBN 978-2870371688
• Einstein, Alfred. 1947. Music in the Romantic Era. New York: W.W. Norton.
• Gillies, Malcolm (ed.). 1990. Bartók Remembered. London: Faber. ISBN 0-571-14243-5 (cased) ISBN 0-571-14244-3 (pbk)
• Gillies, Malcolm (ed.). 1993. The Bartók Companion. London: Faber. ISBN 0-571-15330-5 (cloth), ISBN 0-571-15331-3 (pbk) New York: Hal Leonard. ISBN 0-931340-74-8
• Gillies, Malcolm. 2001. "Béla Bartók". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Press; New York: Grove's Dictionaries of Music. Also in Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed May 23, 2006), (subscription access)
• Gollin, Edward. 2007. "Multi-Aggregate Cycles and Multi-Aggregate Serial Techniques in the Music of Béla Bartók". Music Theory Spectrum 29, no. 2 (Fall): 143–76.
• Griffiths, Paul. 1978. A Concise History of Modern Music. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-20164-1
• Hughes, Peter. 1999–2007. "Béla Bartók" in Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. [n.p.]: Unitarian Universalist Historical Society.
• Leafstedt, Carl S. 1999. Inside Bluebeard's Castle. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-510999-6
• Lendvaï, Ernő. 1971. Béla Bartók: An Analysis of His Music, introduced by Alan Bush. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 0-900707-04-6 OCLC 240301
• Loxdale, Hugh D., and Adalbert Balog. 2009. "Bela Bartok: Musician, Musicologist, Composer, and Entomologist!." Antenna – Bulletin of the Royal Entomological Society of London 33, no. 4:175–82.
• Moreux, Serge. 1953. Béla Bartók, translated G. S. Fraser and Erik de Mauny. London: The Harvill Press.
• Móser, Zoltán. 2006a. "Szavak, feliratok, kivonatok". Tiszatáj 60, no. 3 (March): 41–45.
• Móser, Zoltán. 2006b. "Bartók-õsök Gömörben". Honismeret: A Honismereti Szövetség folyóirata 34, no. 2 (April): 9–11.
• Özgentürk, Nebil. 2008. Türkiye'nin Hatıra Defteri, episode 3. Istanbul: Bir Yudum İnsan Prodüksiyon LTD. ŞTİ. Turkish CNN television documentary series.
• Sipos, János (ed.). 2000. In the Wake of Bartók in Anatolia 1: Collection Near Adana. Budapest: Ethnofon Records.
• Somfai, Laszlo (1996). Béla Bartók: Composition, Concepts, and Autograph Sources. Ernest Bloch Lectures in Music 9. Berkeley : University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-08485-8
• Schneider, David E. 2006. Bartók, Hungary, and the Renewal of Tradition: Case Studies in the Intersection of Modernity and Nationality. California Studies in 20th-Century Music 5. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24503-7
• Stevens, Halsey. 1964. The Life and Music of Béla Bartók, second edition. New York: Oxford University Press. ASIN: B000NZ54ZS (Third edition 1993, ISBN 978-0-19-816349-7)
• Szabolcsi, Bence. 1974. Bartók Béla: Cantata profana in "Miért szép századunk zenéje?" (Why is the music of the Twentieth century so beautiful), ed. György Kroó. Budapest.
• Wells, John C. 1990. "Bartók", in Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 63. Harlow, England: Longman. ISBN 0-582-05383-8
• Wilson, Paul. 1992. The Music of Béla Bartók. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-05111-5.

Further reading[link]

• Antokoletz, Elliott. 1984. The Music of Béla Bartók: A Study of Tonality and Progression in Twentieth-Century Music. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04604-8.
• Jyrkiäinen, Reijo. 2012. "Form, Monothematicism, Variation and Symmetry in Béla Bartók’s String Quartets". Ph.D. diss. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. ISBN 978-952-10-8040-1 (Abstract).
• Kárpáti, János. 1975. Bartók's String Quartets, translated by Fred MacNicol. Budapest: Corvina Press.
• Somfai, László. 1981. Tizennyolc Bartók-tanulmány [Eighteen Bartók Studies]. Budapest: Zeneműkiadó. ISBN 963-330-370-2.
• Somfai, Lászlo. 1996. Béla Bartók: Composition, Concepts, and Autograph Sources. Ernest Bloch Lectures. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-08485-3.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Béla Bartók

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Béla Bartók

• Béla Bartók biography and works on the UE website (publisher)
• The Lied and Art Song Texts Page Original texts of the songs of Bartok with translations in various languages.
• Bartók Béla Memorial House, Budapest
• Bartók and his relationship with Unitarianism
• Gallery of Bartók portraits
• Béla Bartók at the Notable Names Database
• Don Gabor and Laszlo Halasz recorded Béla Bartók at his home in New York
• Béla Bartók at Find a Grave
• Plaque #94 on Open Plaques. in Sydney Place, London

Recordings

• Kunst der Fuge: Béla Bartók—MIDI files
• Excerpts from sound archives of Bartok's works.
• In the BBC Discovering Music: Listening Library

Sheet music

• Free scores by Béla Bartók at the International Music Score Library Project

Steve Vai
Steve Vai in 2007
Background information
Birth name	Steven Siro Vai
Born	(1960-06-06) June 6, 1960 (age 52) Carle Place, New York, United States
Genres	Instrumental rock, hard rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, progressive metal, experimental rock
Instruments	Guitar, keyboards, vocals
Years active	1980–present
Labels	Favored Nations, Relativity Records, Urantia Records, Akashic Records, Epic
Associated acts	Joe Satriani, Frank Zappa, John Petrucci, Alcatrazz, Orianthi, David Lee Roth, Whitesnake, Dream Theater, Travis Barker, Eddie Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Zappa plays Zappa, Billy Sheehan, G3, Bad4Good, Incubus, Devin Townsend,
Website	www.vai.com
Notable instruments
Ibanez JEM Ibanez Universe Tom Anderson Drop Top Classic

Steven Siro Vai (born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. After starting his career as a music transcriptionist for Frank Zappa, Vai recorded and toured in Zappa's band for two years, from 1980 to 1982. He began a solo career in 1983, has released eight solo albums and won three Grammy Awards. He has also recorded and toured with Public Image Ltd., Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake. Vai has been a regular touring member of the G3 Concert Tour which began in 1996. In 1999 Vai started his own record label Favored Nations, intending to showcase as he describes, "...artists that have attained the highest performance level on their chosen instruments."^[1]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Vai began playing guitar in 1973, at the age of 13.^[2] In 1974, he took guitar lessons from guitarist Joe Satriani and played in local bands, one of which was called "The Steve Vais". He was influenced by guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Brian May, Jimmy Page, Glen Buxton,^[3] and jazz fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Vai attended the Berklee College of Music, afterwards recording a promotional piece for them in which he spoke about auditioning for Frank Zappa at age 20.

Steve Vai (on guitar in between the drums and keyboard), Frank Zappa and band during a concert at the Memorial Auditorium, Oct 25, 1980 Buffalo, New York

Music career[link]

Vai mailed Frank Zappa a transcription of Zappa's "The Black Page", an instrumental for drums, along with a tape of Vai's guitar playing. Zappa was so impressed that in 1979, he hired him to transcribe a number of his guitar solos, including some on the Joe's Garage album and the Shut Up 'n' Play Yer Guitar series. These transcriptions were published in 1982 in The Frank Zappa Guitar Book. After being hired as a transcriber, Vai did overdubs on many of the guitar parts for Zappa's album You Are What You Is. He became a full-fledged band member, going on his first tour with Zappa in the autumn of 1980.

One of those early shows with Vai on guitar, recorded in Buffalo, was released in 2007. While touring with Zappa's band, Vai sometimes asked audience members to bring musical scores and see if he could sight-read them on the spot. Zappa referred to Vai as his "little Italian virtuoso" and listed him in the liner notes as performing "stunt guitar" or "impossible guitar parts". Vai was a featured artist on the 1993 recording Zappa's Universe. In 2006 he returned to Frank Zappa as a special guest on Dweezil Zappa's 'Zappa Plays Zappa' tour, alongside friends from his early years with Zappa.

After leaving Zappa in 1982 he moved to California, where he recorded his first album Flex-Able, in 1983 (released January 1984) and performed in a couple of bands. In 1985 he replaced Yngwie Malmsteen as lead guitarist in Graham Bonnet's Alcatrazz, with whom he recorded the album Disturbing the Peace. Later in 1985, he joined former Van Halen front man David Lee Roth's group to record the albums Eat 'Em and Smile (released July 1986) and Skyscraper (released 1988). In 1986, Vai played with John Lydon's Public Image Ltd on their album Album. In 1989, Vai joined Whitesnake, replacing Vivian Campbell. When Adrian Vandenberg injured his wrist shortly before recording was to begin for the album Slip of the Tongue, Vai played all the guitar parts. Vai played on the Alice Cooper album Hey Stoopid, along with Joe Satriani on the song "Feed my Frankenstein."

Vai continues to tour regularly, with his own group and with his one-time teacher and fellow guitar instrumentalist friend Joe Satriani on the G3 series of tours. Former David Lee Roth and Mr. Big bassist Billy Sheehan joined him for a world tour. In 1990, Vai released his critically acclaimed solo album Passion and Warfare. The song "For the Love of God" was voted #29 in a readers' poll of the 100 greatest guitar solos of all time in Guitar World magazine. In 1994, Vai began writing and recording with Ozzy Osbourne. One track from these sessions, "My Little Man", was released on the Ozzmosis album. Despite Vai penning the track, he does not appear on the album, with his guitar parts replaced by Zakk Wylde. Another track, "Dyin' Day", appeared as an instrumental on Vai's Fire Garden album. Vai's band members in the 90's included drummer Mike Mangini, guitarist Mike Keneally, and bassist Philip Bynoe. In 1994 Vai received a Grammy Award for his performance on the Frank Zappa song Sofa from the album Zappa's Universe.

Vai playing a twin-necked Ibanez

2000s[link]

Steve Vai released a DVD of his performance at The Astoria in London in December, 2001. The performance featured Billy Sheehan, guitarist/pianist Tony MacAlpine, guitarist Dave Weiner, and Australian drummer Virgil Donati. In July 2002, Steve Vai performed with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan, in the world premiere of composer Ichiro Nodaira's Fire Strings, a concerto for electric guitar and 100-piece orchestra. In 2004, a number of his compositions and orchestral arrangements including some previously recorded pieces, were performed in The Netherlands by the Metropole Orchestra in a concert series entitled The Aching Hunger. In 2003, drummer Jeremy Colson joined Vai's group, replacing Virgil Donati. Vai's album Sound Theories, was released in 2007.

In February 2005, Vai premiered a dual-guitar (electric and classical) piece that he called The Blossom Suite, with classical guitarist Sharon Isbin at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris. In 2006, Vai played as a special guest guitarist alongside additional guest Zappa band members, drummer Terry Bozzio and saxophonist-singer Napoleon Murphy Brock in the "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour led by Frank's son Dweezil Zappa in Europe and the U.S. in the Spring, as well as a short U.S. tour in October. On September 21, 2006, Vai made a special appearance at the Video Games Live concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California. He played two songs with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; Halo Theme, and a second song for the world premier trailer for Halo 3.

In 2005, Vai signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in public schools throughout the U.S. He sits on LKR's Honorary Board of Directors. Vai was a judge for the 3rd and 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.^[4] Vai is the founder of the Make A Noise Foundation, which he started with his manager Ruta Sepetys.^[5] The foundation's goal is to provide funding for music education and programs for those unable to pursue music-related activities due to limited resources.^[6] Vai is also a patron of music education around the world giving master classes in such prestigious music schools as the Fermatta Music Academy.

Steve Vai made an appearance at the London Guitar Show in 2007 on the April 28, 2007 at the ExCeL Center. In late April 2007, Vai confirmed the release of his record, Sound Theories, on June 26. The release is a two-CD set, mostly of previously released material that Vai rearranged and played with a full orchestra. Vai says the project was a great joy because he considers himself a composer more than a guitarist, and he is happy to see music he has composed played by an orchestra that can play it well. A DVD followed the record later that year. He guested on the Dream Theater album Systematic Chaos, on the song "Repentance". The appearance was vocal rather than instrumental, as Vai was only one of many musical guests recorded. The song features contributions from many artists, with the aim of apologizing to important people in their lives for wrongdoings committed in their pasts. On August 29, 2009, he appeared on stage with Dream Theater during the final show of their Progressive Nation tour at the Greek Theater^{[disambiguation needed ]}, where he performed in an improvised jam with the other musicians on tour. Broken Records magazine (Volume 1, Issue 3) quotes Vai as saying, "I enjoy challenging myself to come up with new ideas that I believe are unique."

In 2010, Vai released several "VaiTunes" singles of tracks that were previously recorded and later finished. They are available on Vai.com, iTunes and Amazon.com. On September 14, 2010, Steve released "Where The Wild Things Are" as double vinyl through his label Favored Nations and made a guest appearance with Rickey Minor and The Tonight Show Band on NBC. In October, 2010, Steve completed his first full symphony and performed the compositions at the Steve Vai Festival which featured Vai and the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (NNO) on October 20–24, 2010. "The possibility to write for a full orchestra, as Vai was offered the opportunity to do during the last years, closes a circle back to the beginning of his solo career, his years with Frank Zappa and his first pieces for his debut record Flex-Able (1984)."^[7] After the Holland shows, Vai embarked for the US to headline the "Experience Hendrix Tour" which featured Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shephard, Susan Tedeschi, Billy Cox, Vernon Reid, Robert Randolph, Johnny Lang, Brad Whitford and other top guitarists.

On March 3, 2011, the online education division of Boston’s Berklee College of Music and Steve Vai, set the Guinness® World Record for the world’s largest online guitar lesson. The first-of-its-kind initiative, held at streaming media platform Livestream Studios in New York City, brought together thousands of members of the international guitar community in a celebration of online music education. Berkleemusic and Steve Vai co-authored a 12-week online course: Steve Vai Guitar Techniques. The course presents students with the chance to gain a deep understanding of Vai’s playing styles, repertoire, techniques, and musical concepts from anywhere in the world, and to incorporate their learnings into their own playing. Vai owns Favored Nations, a recording and publishing company that specializes in internationally procuring and maintaining recording artists. Favored Nations is separated into three sections, 'Favored Nations', 'Favored Nations Acoustic' and 'Favored Nations Cool (Jazz style)'.

Media appearances[link]

Video games[link]

"Juice" was featured on the 1996 video game "Formula One" for the PlayStation. Steve Vai's guitar-work appeared in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. David Lee Roth's "Yankee Rose" was featured on the game's soundtrack as well as "God Blessed Video" by Alcatrazz as part of the Lazlow-led, 1980s rock/metal radio station "V-Rock." In 2004, Steve Vai was featured on Xbox's Halo 2 (a game by Bungie Studios) Volume 1 soundtrack, performing a heavy rock-guitar rendition of the Halo theme, known as Halo Theme (MJOLNIR Mix). He also performed on the track Never Surrender. He later featured in the second volume of the soundtrack, where he performed on the track Reclaimer.

In 2008, Steve Vai's For the Love of God and Halo Theme (MJOLNIR Mix) were featured as downloadable tracks for the game Guitar Hero 3. A live version of the song "For the Love of God" was also available at release on the Rock Band Network as well as the song "Get the Hell Out of Here" from his 2002 album "The Elusive Light and Sound, Vol. 1" on March 4, 2010. The Attitude Song and a live version of The Crying Machine were both also added to the Rock Band Network. A re-recording of "Speeding" is featured in the 2010 video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock for Xbox 360, Wii and Playstation 3.

Films[link]

Steve Vai's music has appeared in a number of feature films, including Dudes and Ghosts of Mars. He appeared onscreen in the 1986 Walter Hill film Crossroads, playing the demonically-inspired Jack Butler. At the film's climax, Vai engages in a guitar duel with Ralph Macchio, whose guitar parts were dubbed by Vai and Ry Cooder, who played the initial slide work in the duel and Macchio's earlier performances in the film. Vai composed the fast-paced neo-classical track Eugene's Trick Bag that wins Macchio the competition. He based the body of the piece heavily on Paganini's Capriccio number 5. He later borrowed the opening riff from the track Head Cuttin' Duel for a song called Bad Horsie from his 1995 EP Alien Love Secrets. The Crossroads duel reappeared on the 2002 album The Elusive Light and Sound, volume 1.

In 1991's Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, the introductory riff to KISS' "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You II", as performed by the Wyld Stallyns in the Battle of the Bands, was performed by Vai. He composed and performed the soundtrack to PCU (1994), and made contributions in 2001 to the score for John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars, performing on the tracks "Ghosts of Mars" and "Ghost Poppin'". His track, "I'm the Hell Outta Here", can be heard during 1992's Encino Man in the scene where Brendan Fraser is taking a driving lesson. He plays guitar in the animated short film "Live Music".

Style and influence[link]

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (March 2008)

Vai performing in 2001.

Steve Vai has been called a guitar virtuoso.^[8] His 1990 album Passion and Warfare and the ballad For the Love of God in particular received a significant amount of press and are often cited by critics and fans alike as among his best work, often noted since the entire piece at just over six minutes, was reportedly recorded in one take.^[9] Vai's playing style has been characterized as quirky and angular, due to his technical ability with the guitar instrument and deep knowledge of music theory. He regularly uses odd rhythmic groupings and his melodies often employ the Lydian mode.

Perhaps his most readily-identifiable stylistic feature is his creative use of the floating vibrato, using it to add melodic lines that sound odd to the ear. His playing can be described as lyrical, as if sung by a human voice. During the recording of "Eat 'em and Smile" with David Lee Roth, he employed several guitar techniques that "mimicked" the human voice, as heard in the opening bars of the opening track "Yankee Rose." He is noted for being physically expressive as he plays his guitar. He often uses exotic guitars: he plays both double and triple neck guitars (including a custom-made heart-shaped triple-neck model built by luthier Joe Rolston). Vai is regarded as the first to use the 7-string guitar in a rock context.^[10] Along with Ibanez, he designed a signature 7-string guitar, the Ibanez Universe in 1989.

Equipment[link]

Vai is also a producer. He owns two studios, "The Mothership"^[11] and "The Harmony Hut" ^[12]), and his own recordings combine his guitar skills and novel compositions with studio and recording effects. Vai helped design his signature Ibanez JEM guitar series. They feature a hand grip (fondly referred to as a "monkey grip") cut into the top of the body of the guitar, a humbucker–single coil-humbucker (H/S/H) DiMarzio pickup configuration with several different types of pickup including Evolution, Breed and EVO 2. He also uses the Ibanez Edge and Lo-Pro Edge double-locking tremolo systems (between the years 2003-2009, production JEMs had the Edge Pro, which is now discontinued), as well as an elaborate and extensive "Tree of Life" inlay down the neck. Vai also equips many of his guitars with an Ibanez Backstop, a tremolo stabilizer that has been discontinued. Lately Vai has also equipped some of his guitars with True Temperament fretboards to make his chords sound more in tune.^[13]

Vai has a 7-string model designed by him named Ibanez Universe, featuring DiMarzio Blaze II pickups in an HSH arrangement. The Ibanez Universe gained attention in the 90s when the band Korn used the guitar and sold millions of albums worldwide. Vai also has a signature Ibanez acoustic, the Euphoria. His two main guitars are white JEMs dubbed "Evo" and "Flo", each with their own unique modifications. Before Ibanez, he briefly endorsed Jackson guitars, but the relationship only lasted two years. Steve Vai has also worked with Carvin Guitars and Pro Audio to develop the Carvin Legacy line of guitar amplifiers. Vai wanted to create an affordable amp that was unique, and equal in sound and versatility to any guitar amp he had previously used.^[14] Over his long musical career, Steve Vai has used and designed an array of guitars. He even had his blood put into the swirl paint job on one of his signature JEM guitars, the JEM2KDNA.^[15] Only 300 of these were made. Currently, he mainly uses his white "Evo", a JEM7V, and his "Flo", which is a customized Floral JEM 77FP painted white. They are both inscribed with their names in two places, mainly so he can distinguish between them onstage. "Flo" is equipped with a Fernandes sustainer system.

He has a guitar named "Mojo" with dot inlays that are blue LED lights. He has a custom-made triple-neck guitar that has the same basic features as his JEM7V guitars. The top neck is a 12-string guitar, the middle is a six-string, and the bottom is a six-string fretless guitar with a Fernandes Sustainer pickup. This guitar was featured on the G3 2003 tour on the piece I Know You're Here. Vai's effects pedals include a modified Boss DS-1, Ibanez Tube Screamer, Morley Bad Horsie, Ibanez Jemini Twin Distortion Pedal, TC Electronics G-System, Morley Little Alligator Volume pedal, DigiTech Whammy, and an MXR Phase 90/Phase 100 on the Passion and Warfare album. His flight cases are labeled "Mr. Vai", or lately, "Dr. Vai." He has used a number of rack effects units controlled via MIDI, but used a floor-based TC electronics G system instead for the Zappa Plays Zappa tour.

Personal life[link]

Resides in Encino, CA with his family. Vai is married to Pia Maiocco, former bass player of Vixen, who can be seen in Hardbodies.^[16] Vai and Maiocco have two children, Julian and Fire. In his spare time Vai is an avid beekeeper.^[17] and an honorary member of the British Beekeepers' Association.^[18] His bees regularly produce a crop of honey that Vai sells for his Make a Noise Foundation.^[19] Vai is a longtime vegetarian. "It has affected my music in a way I believe that what we put in our bodies has a reflection on the way we think," Vai told Veggies Rock. "And the way we think has a reflection on what we create. So I can’t tell you consciously how being a vegetarian affected my music but I’m sure it has. I think everyone has to find what’s right for them. I don’t judge anybody for what they eat. That’s their world and everybody has to find what resonates with them."^[20]

Band history[link]

Not including guest appearances.^[21]

Early bands

• The Ohio Express (1971–1972)
• Circus (circa 1973 to 1976)
• Ravge (circa 1973 to 1976)
• Bold As Love (1977)

Berklee bands

• Axis (1978–1979)
• Morning Thunder (1979)

Professional bands

• Frank Zappa (1980–1982)
• The Out Band (Circa 1983)
• The Classified (1984)
• 777 (1984)
• Alcatrazz (1985)
• David Lee Roth (1985–1989)
• Whitesnake (1989–1991)

Solo band (1992-94)

"Sex & Religion" album

• Vocals: Devin Townsend
• Guitar: Steve Vai
• Bass: TM Stevens
• Drums: Terry Bozzio

"Sex & Religion" tour

• Vocals: Devin Townsend
• Guitar: Steve Vai
• Bass: Scott Thunes
• Keys: Will Riley
• Drums: Abe Laboriel, Jr., then Toss Panos

1995

• Guitar: Steve Vai
• Bass: Tony Pimental, then Scott Thunes
• Keys: Will Riley
• Drums: Chris Frazier

This band toured Russia twice, South America and the US (opening for Bon Jovi).

1996-99

• Guitar, Vocals: Steve Vai
• Guitar, Vocals and Keys: Mike Keneally
• Bass, Vocals: Philip Bynoe
• Drums: Mike Mangini

2000

• Guitar, Vocals: Steve Vai
• Guitar, Vocals and Keys: Mike Keneally
• Guitar: Dave Weiner
• Bass, Vocals: Philip Bynoe
• Drums: Mike Mangini
• Keyboards (South American Tour): Eric Goldberg
• Drums (South American Tour): Chris Frazier

2001-02

• Guitar, Vocals: Steve Vai
• Bass, Vocals: Billy Sheehan
• Guitar, Vocals and Keys: Mike Keneally, then Tony MacAlpine
• Guitar: Dave Weiner
• Drums: Virgil Donati

2003-04

• Guitar, Vocals: Steve Vai
• Bass, Vocals: Billy Sheehan
• Guitar, Vocals and Keys: Tony MacAlpine
• Guitar: Dave Weiner
• Drums: Jeremy Colson

Discography (solo)[link]

Studio albums and EPs[link]

Live and orchestral albums (Inc. G3 (tour))[link]

Other[link]

Compilations[link]

Discography (with other artists)[link]

With band (as lead guitarist)[link]

Appearances on Zappa albums[link]

Appearances, featuring (with other lead artists)[link]

Soundtracks[link]

Compilations[link]

Videos[link]

Live[link]

With other artists[link]

Movies (as an actor)[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Grammy Awards[link]