Béla Bartók (1881-1945), composer, ethnomusicologist, pianist, author and professor at the Academy of Music toured Hungary to collect folksongs, and he also collected in Keszthely among other places. He arrived in the town in September 1906. He stayed with János Szeless, chief clerk of the estate, in the manor house of Tasziló Festetics II. Bartók collected 41 folksongs in Keszthely, some from the pupils of the local music school. Later he compiled these folksongs in a collection and published them with sheet music and lyrics. Some of the songs had different variations known and sung elsewhere, but the collection also included songs that were specific to Keszthely and its region.

He collected some in Keszthely (e.g. Forest, forest, round forest; I have just come from Paris, Snail’s boom has broken, Afraid to walk the streets of Keszthely, Stars, stars, shine bright, among others.) It is the last song, Stars, stars, the melody of which has been played since 2010 at 8 a.m. and at midday every day from the clock tower of the local secondary school, performed on a traditional woodwind instrument, similar to the Turkish pipe. (At 6 in the evening, another folksong, collected by Zoltán Kodály in Zala County and entitled Shall God Give you a Good Night is played from the tower.