"Three seminal figures in 20th-century music are considered in this volume. First Béla Bartók, the Hungarian composer who drew deeply on the folklore of his homeland to bring a fresh vitality into 20th-century music; his life and works are treated by László Somfai and Vera Lampert, working with the resoures of the Budapest Bartók Archive. Second, Igor Stravinsky, whose life - from his upbringing in pre-revolutionary 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-middle 20th century. -- from back cover.