The news that Halsey Stevens, an American University professor, was preparing a book on Bartók, aroused keen interest among sympathisers with the Hungarian composer, and publication-date was impatiently awaited. The author received very generous assistance from every quarter: a research grant from his university, and direct and indirect material information from a large number of people most of whose help is duly acknowledged in the preface. Why was it, then, that the book did not come up to expectations? The answer lies, partly, in Prof. Stevens's self-imposed limitations. The title says: “The Life and Music of Béla Bartók”, and Prof. Stevens seems to be careful to confine himself, almost literally, to the description of the two points his title indicates. His aims are more clearly defined in the foreword, where he says: “This book is concerned primarily with Bartók's music, approached from both the analytical and the critical point of view” (though the latter point of view is rather tentatively approached), and in a passage later on in the book: “… it has nowhere been the intention in this book to examine Bartók's work from the standpoint of its motivations, physical, psychological, or otherwise …” (p.250). I submit that this approach, though conducive of valuable information, is essentially a wrong one to adopt.
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