Béla Bartók was born in Nagyszentmiklos, Hungary on March 25, 1881. His early childhood was riddled with illness. Until the age of five, he suffered from a prominent skin rash that was brought on by a botched small pox vaccination he had received at the age of three months. Bartók was embarrassed by his appearance and avoided contact with other children, preferring to instead sit and listen to his mother play piano for hours on end. This was believed to be the cause of his shyness and distance from society later in life.
Bartók contracted Bronchitis as a child a…
