A previously unknown manuscript by Béla Bartók has come to light after being identified by Hungarian antiquarian bookseller Ádám Bősze, who acquired the document at a Spanish auction where it had been mistakenly catalogued as a simple page from a musical album.
According to Bősze, the manuscript dates from 1 October 1907 and was written by the 26-year-old composer in response to a musical question from violinist Stefi Geyer, with whom Bartók was deeply in love at the time.
Three days earlier, Geyer had sent Bartók a melody and asked him how he would harmonise it. Rather than replying in words, the composer answered in music. At the top of the manuscript, Bartók wrote “Így ni!” (“Like this!”), followed by a short composition marked Adagio molto. Beneath the opening line appears a further instruction, con molto espressione, amoroso (“with much expression, lovingly”), leading Bősze to describe the piece as a musical love letter rather than a simple exercise in harmony.
The manuscript also contains four appearances of the so-called “Stefi motif”, a musical idea associated with Geyer that later became central to Bartók’s First Violin Concerto, a work dedicated to the violinist. The concerto was composed during the period of Bartók’s intense but ultimately unrequited affection for Geyer.
The authenticity of the unsigned manuscript has been endorsed by László Vikárius, director of the Bartók Archives in Budapest. According to Bősze, Vikárius considers the document an authentic Bartók manuscript and an irreplaceable part of Hungary’s cultural heritage.
Bősze revealed that he purchased the manuscript in 2024 but kept the discovery private while its significance was being assessed. The announcement was made this week through his social media channels.
The discovery adds a new document to the corpus of material connected with Bartók’s relationship with Geyer, one of the most significant personal and artistic influences of his early career. Beyond its biographical interest, the manuscript offers a rare glimpse into the origins of musical ideas that would later find their way into one of the composer’s earliest major orchestral works.
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