Bartok aimed at composing more of a modern type of music, like Debussy's works. They were rich with tone and very lush.
There was one day while Bartok was traveling through a Hungarian town, when he heard a young maid singing an unusual melody. He stopped to ask her where her song had come from. She told him that it was a local folksong. This song that Bartok heard was like no other he had thought of composing. Bartok liked the rythem, and the interesting melodies and tunes.
Intrigued by this music so much, Bartok traveled around Hungary, writing and recording all the folk that he heard. This music had a certain flow to it, that Bartok found very nice. A lot of the music bartok heard, was very happy and made you feel as though you wanted to dance. Folk music often gets repeated until the musician gets tired and ends it by either slowing down or speeding up.
After touring Hungary, Bartok began composing songs that were mixtures of lush, rich tones and happy, dancing melodies. At first, the Hungary people did not like his works, they were akward and strange to them. Even though Bartok's cuntry didn't like his pieces, Bartok did, so he continued on with his mission to create nationalized Hungarian folk music. After a while, the people of Hungary began to enjoy Bartok's works. Then, they loved his works. Bartok became Hungary's leading nationalist composer.
In 1990, Bartok fled to the United States of America to escape the war-torn Europe. Bartok's music was not always appreciated or understood in the USA, and he became depressed and unhappy in New York. Yet Bartok wrote some of his finest works in the USA, including his Concerto for Orchestra, which you can hear that it combines modern styles of music with his beloved Hungarian folk music.