Bálint Bakfark
Bálint Bakfark (Hungarian: [ˈbaːlint ˈbɒkfɒrk]; in contemporary sources Valentin Bakfark or (from 1565 onward) Valentin Greff alias Bakfark, his name is variously spelled as Bacfarc, Bakfarc, Bakfarkh, Bakffark, Backuart) (c. 1507 – 15 or 22 August 1576) was a Hungarian composer of Transylvanian Saxon origin, and lutenist of the Renaissance. He was enormously influential as a lutenist in his time, and renowned as a virtuoso on the instrument.
Also recorded as Valentí Greff · Balint Bakfark · Valenti Greff · Valentí Graew
Bálint Bakfark
User:Rettinghaus · Public domain
- Born
- 1507 · Brașov.
- Died
- 1576 · Padua.
- Nationality
- Hungary
- Occupation
- composer · lutenist
- Fields
- composer
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Bálint Bakfark (Hungarian: [ˈbaːlint ˈbɒkfɒrk]; in contemporary sources Valentin Bakfark or (from 1565 onward) Valentin Greff alias Bakfark, his name is variously spelled as Bacfarc, Bakfarc, Bakfarkh, Bakffark, Backuart) (c. 1507 – 15 or 22 August 1576) was a Hungarian composer of Transylvanian Saxon origin, and lutenist of the Renaissance. He was enormously influential as a lutenist in his time, and renowned as a virtuoso on the instrument.
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wikidata · Q788956 · wikipedia · Bálint Bakfark
In this article
Life
Life
He was born in Brassó, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary (today Brașov in Romania), into a family of Transylvanian Saxon origin. An orphan, he was brought up by the Greff family and was educated in Buda at the court of John Zápolya. Bakfark remained there until 1540, though he possibly traveled to Italy once during this time. Sometime in the 1540s he traveled to Paris, but, finding the position of lutenist to the king filled, he left for Jagiellon Poland in 1549, where he was employed as a court lutenist by Sigismund II Augustus. From then until 1566, he traveled extensively around Europe, with his renown increasing, but remained faithful to his employer in spite of numerous efforts by other monarchs to win him away; the riches bestowed on him by Sigismund may have affected his decision to remain attached to the court of Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius. What happened to him in 1566 is not precisely known, but he clearly did something to provoke the wrath of the king, and scarcely had time to flee before Polish army troops ransacked his house and destroyed his possessions. After this, he lived for a while in Vienna and then returned to Transylvania, but not for long; in 1571 he moved to Padua in Italy, where he remained until his death during the plague of 1576. As was common practice at the time, all the possessions of plague victims were destroyed by fire, so most of his manuscript music was lost.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1515
Bálint Bakfark was born in 1515.
1576
Bálint Bakfark died on 15 August 1576.
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Brașov.
Birth place
Padua.
Death place
Music and influence
While Bakfark almost certainly wrote an enormous amount of music, very little was printed: a commonly given reason was that it was simply too difficult for others to play. His surviving works include ten fantasies, seven madrigals, eight chansons, and fourteen motets—all in amazingly faithful polyphonic arrangements for lute alone. Additionally, he transcribed vocal motets by contemporary composers such as Josquin des Prez, Clemens non Papa, Nicolas Gombert, and Orlando di Lasso into arrangements for the lute.
Bakfark Bálint lyoni lantkönyvének címlapja
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reference work
- “Bálint Bakfark”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q788956: Bálint Bakfark
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Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Vogl, Emil. Johann Anton Losy: Lutenist of Prague. Journal of the Lute Society of America. XII. 58–86. 1980.
- 2.Majuru, Adrian. VALENTIN GREFF BAKFARK, COMPOZITOR ŞI. E-antropolog. 2011-01-21.
- 3.Mészáros, Dávid. A world star raised in Buda in the Middle Ages - memories of Bálint Bakfark and the street named after him. PestBuda. 2022-12-12.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Article "Bálint Bakfark", in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie, 20 vols. (London, Macmillan, 1980); .
- Peter Király, "Bakfark [Bacfarc, Bakfarc, Bakfarkh, Bakffark] [Greff alias Bakfark, Greff Bakfark], Valentin", in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, 29 vols. (London: Macmillan, 2001);
- Gustave Reese: Music in the Renaissance (New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 1954); .
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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