Our Peasant Music, Naturally, Is Invariably Tonal, If Not Always In The Sense That The Inflexible Major And Minor System Is Tonal. (an "atonal" Folk-music, In My Opinion, Is Unthinkable.) Since We Depend Upon A Tonal Basis Of This Kind In Our Creative Work, It Is Quite Self-evident That Our Works Are Quite Pronouncedly Tonal In Type. I Must Admit, However, That There Was A Time When I Thought I Was Approaching A Species Of Twelve-tone Music. Yet Even In Works Of That Period The Absolute Tonal Foundation Is Unmistakable.
In Art There Are Only Fast Or Slow Developments. Essentially It Is A Matter Of Evolution, Not Revolution.
His Pagan Barbarity, His Explosive And Angrily Defiant Melancholy, His Demoniacal Instinct . . . These Are All Echoes . . . Of The Thousand-year-old Hungarian Psyche.
With Maturity Comes The Wish To Economize - To Be More Simple. Maturity Is The Period When One Finds The Just Measure.
Folk Melodies Are The Embodiment Of An Artistic Perfection Of The Highest Order; In Fact, They Are Models Of The Way In Which A Musical Idea Can Be Expressed With Utmost Perfection In Terms Of Brevity Of Form And Simplicity Of Means.
