Béla Bartók


Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and collector of Eastern European and Middle Eastern folk music. Bartók is considered one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. He was one of the founders of the field of ethnomusicology, the study and ethnography of folk music.

Music
Paul Wilson lists as the most prominent characteristics of Bartók's music the influence of the folk music of rural Hungary and eastern Europe and the art music of central and western Europe, and his changing attitude toward (and use of) tonality, but without the use of the traditional harmonic functions associated with major and minor scales (Wilson 1992, p.2-4).

Bartók is an influential modernist (though see Reception below) and his music used or may be analysed as containing various modernist techniques such as atonality, bitonality, attenuated harmonic function, polymodal chromaticism, projected sets, privileged patterns, and large set types used as source sets such as the equal tempered twelve tone aggregate, octatonic scale (and alpha chord), the diatonic and heptatonia seconda seven-note scales, and less often the whole tone scale and the primary pentatonic collection (ibid, p.24-29).

He rarely used the aggregate actively to shape musical structure, though there are notable examples such as the second theme from the first movement of his Second Violin Concerto, commenting that he "wanted to show Schoenberg that one can use all twelve tones and still remain tonal". More thoroughly, in the first eight measures of the last movement of his Second Quartet, all notes gradually gather with the twelfth (G♭) sounding for the first time on the last beat of measure 8, marking the end of the first section. The aggregate is partitioned in the opening of the Third String Quartet with C♯-D-D♯-E in the accompaniment (strings) while the remaining pitch classes are used in the melody (violin 1) and more often as 7-35 (diatonic or "white-key" collection) and 5-35 (pentatonic or "black-key" collection) such as in no. 6 of the Eight Improvisations. There, the primary theme is on the black keys in the left hand, while the right accompanies with triads from the white keys. In measures 50-51 in the third movement of the Fourth Quartet, the first violin and 'cello play black-key chords, while the second violin and viola play stepwise diatonic lines (ibid, p.25).

Ernő Lendvai (1971) analyses Bartók's works as being based on two opposing systems, that of the golden section and the acoustic scale, and tonally on the axis system (ibid, p.7).

Reception
Some of Bartók's works have been criticized for their use of tonality and nontonal methods unique to each piece; Milton Babbitt, for example, praises the "identification of the personal exigency with the fundamental musical exigency of the epoch" yet concludes that "Bartók's solution was a specific one, it cannot be duplicated." The problem is Bartók's praised use of "two organizational principles" - tonality for large scale relationships and the piece-specific method for moment to moment thematic elements - worrying that the "highly attenuated tonality" requires extreme non-harmonic methods to create a feeling of closure. Presumably Babbitt preferred Arnold Schoenberg's completely atonal non-piece specific method of twelve tone music. (Maus 2004, p.164)

Stage works
Duke Bluebeard's Castle, opera
The Miraculous Mandarin, ballet-pantomime
The Wooden Prince, ballet

Orchestral works
Dance Suite (1923)
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1937)
Divertimento for String Orchestra (1939)
Concerto for Orchestra (1942–43, revised 1945)

Concertante works
Piano
Piano Concerto No. 1 (1926)
Piano Concerto No. 2 (1932)
Piano Concerto No. 3 (1945)
Violin
Violin Concerto No. 1 (1907-1908, 1st pub 1956)
Violin Concerto No. 2 (1937-38)
Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra (1928–29)
Rhapsody No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra (1928, rev. 1935)
Viola
Viola Concerto (1945)

Choral works
Four Slovak Folksongs (1917)
Cantata Profana (1930)
From Olden Times (1935)

Chamber works
Sonata for two pianos and percussion
String Quartets
String Quartet No. 1
String Quartet No. 2
String Quartet No. 3
String Quartet No. 4
String Quartet No. 5
String Quartet No. 6
Contrasts, for clarinet, violin, and piano (1938)
Piano Quintet (1903-4)
Violin Sonatas
Violin Sonata No. 1
Violin Sonata No. 2
Violin Sonata No. 3
Violin duets (44 Duos)

Piano works
Fourteen Bagatelles Op.6 (1908)
Two Romanian Folk Dances (1910)
Allegro barbaro (1911)
Elegy Op. 8a, 8b (191?)
Piano Sonatina (1915)
Romanian Folk Dances (1915) These were also arranged for piano and violin as well as an orchestral version
Suite for Piano, Op. 14 (1916)
Improvisations Op. 20 (1920)
Piano Sonata (1926)
Im Freien (Out of Doors) (1926)
Mikrokosmos - These include the 6 Dances in Bulgarian Rhythym dedicated to Harriet Cohen (1926, 1932–39)
For Children
Pieces for Little Children