BARTÓK A KÖZÉLETBEN, GENF, 1931: Egy elveszettnek hitt népszövetségi bizottsági elôterjesztés nyomában.

The present article traces two writings missing from the canon of Bartók's voluminous short texts first published and catalogued by András Szôllôsy in Hungarian and compiled and edited by Benjamin Suchoff in English. Bartók was invited to join the Committee of Arts and Letters of the League of Nations in 1931 and, as we know from his letter about the meeting, he had to deliver a proposal, which so far has appeared to be lost. This motion urging the establishment of a gramophone recording collection and initiating new recordings can be found both as published in the minutes of the session and also among Bartók's still unpublished papers. The Appendix of the article contains the newly found French and German text versions of his proposal, as well as Bartók's other proposal, which attempts to find support for the defence of the freedom of art and science, a text he had originally wished to present at the meeting but was discouraged from doing so because of its politically delicate nature. The surviving text, previously published in facsimile but not included in the list of Bartók's writings, clearly testifies to the composer's sense of responsibility and foresight. Finally, the identification of most of the twenty-seven members of the committee shown in a repeatedly reprinted photograph is also attempted for the first time. The article was published in a slightly different and earlier English version (together with a Romanian translation) entitled 'Béla Bartók as Public Figure: Tracing Two Missing Writings Linked to a League of Nations Committee Session in Geneva, 1931' in Lucr±ri de Musicologie / Musicology Papers in 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]