bartók on his own music

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Bartók on His Own Music Author(s): John Vinton Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1966), pp. 232-243 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/830583 . Accessed: 17/02/2015 23:40 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . University of California Press and American Musicological Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Musicological Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 130.126.162.126 on Tue, 17 Feb 2015 23:40:31 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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  • Bartk on His Own MusicAuthor(s): John VintonSource: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1966), pp.232-243Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/830583 .Accessed: 17/02/2015 23:40

    Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

    .JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

    .

    University of California Press and American Musicological Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,preserve and extend access to Journal of the American Musicological Society.

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  • Bartok on his own Music1 BY JOHN VINTON

    WHEN EXAMINING Bela Bart6k's remarks about music, one should re- member two things: his remarks about the folk music of Eastern

    Europe2 were the product of tens of thousands of hours of scholarly research and systematic analysis, but his remarks about his own music (although they deal with specific technical features and are supported by numerous examples) are basically the informal thinking of a com- poser rather than the systematic analysis of a scholar. It should be pointed out that Bartok was often reluctant to express his feelings about art music and that he refused many attractive offers to teach composition. We can expect, therefore, that when he writes about his own music, he will not be as comprehensive as he is when he writes about folk music, and we can expect that he will dwell on those aspects of his style that are most closely related to the folk music he has already analyzed.3 These tendencies can be seen in two passages from a lecture that Bart6k pre- pared in 1942-43:

    I never created new theories in advance; I hated such ideas. I had, of course, a very definite feeling [about] certain directions [I wanted] to take, but at the time of the work I did not care about what designations would ap- ply to those directions, what sources they came from. This doesn't mean . . . composing without . . . plans and without sufficient control. The plans were concerned with the spirit of the new work and with technical problems- for instance, formal structure [as required] by the spirit of the work-all this more or less instinctively felt; but I was never concerned with general theories to be applied to the works I was going to write. Now that the greatest part of my work has already been written, there appear certain general tendencies, general formulae from which to deduce theories. But even now I would prefer to try new ways and means instead of deducing theories.

    Source 7 (1942-43), p. 594

    1 The following article is based on material that was made available to the writer by the Bela Bartok Archives in New York. Permission to quote from Bartok's un- published writings was kindly granted by Victor Bator, founder of the Archives and Trustee of the Bart6k Estate.

    2 Bart6k prepared more than five dozen books, articles, and lectures on this subject, some of which remain unpublished to this day. The most complete bibliography of his writings can be found in Halsey Stevens' The Life and Music of Bela Bartok, re- vised edition (New York: Oxford University Press, I964), pp. 337-343. Some addenda to Professor Stevens' list have been included in a review of the book by the present writer, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of Notes.

    3 For these observations, as well as for other valuable suggestions, the writer is in- debted to Professor Ivan F. Waldbauer of Brown University. 4 See the list of sources printed below.

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  • BARTOK ON HIS OWN MUSIC

    So the start for the creation of the new Hungarian art music was given first by a thorough knowledge of the devices of old and contemporary West- ern art music (for the technique of composition); and second by this newly discovered musical rural material of incomparable beauty and perfection (this for the spirit of our works to be created).

    Scores of aspects could be distinguished and quoted by which this ma- terial exerted its influence on us; for instance: tonal influence, melodic in- fluence, rhythmic influence, and even structural influence.

    Source 7 (I942-43), pp. 31 & 33. In the pages that follow, some of Bartok's writings are quoted and

    placed into categories similar to those that he himself mentions in the passage immediately above. The quotations have been gathered from eight sources, all of which are in English. Bartok's spelling and English style sometimes differ from standard usage, and in such cases the present writer has taken the liberty of editing the text; in no instance does such editing affect the meaning of the passage. The sources quoted will be referred to in this article by the numbers under which they are given here:

    SOURCES

    I. "The Relation of Folk-Song to the Development of the Art Music of Our Time," The Sackbut (June, 1921), pp. 5-II. Parts of this article were pub- lished originally in "Der Einfluss der Volksmusik auf die heutige Kunstmusik," Melos (October, 1920), pp. 384-386; however, the passages quoted in the present article appeared only in the English version. 2. "The Folk Songs of Hungary," Pro Musica (October, 1928), pp. 28-35. 3. "The Peasant Music of Hungary," The Musical Courier (September 12, 1931), pp. 6 & 22. 4. "Hungarian Peasant Music," The AMusical Quarterly XIX (I933), pp. 267- 287. 5. "Rumanian Folk Music" (3 volumes, unpublished, which were completed in I943). The manuscript of this work is deposited at Columbia University. It has been edited by Benjamin Suchoff and will be published in I966 under the auspices of the Bela Bart6k Archives, New York. 6. "Some Problems of Folk Music Research in East Europe" (unpublished lec- ture prepared in 1941; the typescript is at the Bela Bartok Archives, New York). 7. ["The New Hungarian Art Music"] (unpublished lecture notes prepared in I942-43; Bart6k's hand-written draft is at the Bela Bart6k Archives, New York). 8. "Foreword" to "Bela Bartok: Masterpieces for the Piano" (unpublished). This foreword was written in 1945 when Bartok assembled an anthology of his piano compositions for publication by the E. B. Marks Corporation; the anthol- ogy was not published, but the typescript for the foreword is at the Bela Bartok Archives, New York.

    I. MELODIC ECONOMY One of the first characteristics of folk music that Bartok discovered

    and utilized in his own compositions was economy of means:

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  • JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

    . .. Every single melody of the peasant music in the narrower sense is perfec- tion itself-a classical example of how the musical thought can be expressed in the most ideal manner with the simplest means and in the most finished form.

    Source 4 ( 933), p. 270

    So, above all, from this music we learn how best to employ terseness of ex- pression, the utmost excision of all that [is] non-essential-and it was this very thing, after the excessive grandiloquence of the romantic period, which we thirsted to learn.

    Source 2 (1928), pp. 30-3I The first group of original compositions to show the influence of this

    factor was the Fourteen Bagatelles. Bartok wrote the following about these pieces when, many years after they were composed, he assembled an al- bum of his piano music: The oldest of these sets of pieces are the Bagatelles, written in May, I908. In these, a new piano style appears as a reaction to the exuberance of the roman- tic piano music of the nineteenth century-a style devoid of all unessential decorative elements, deliberately using only the most restricted technical means. As later developments indicate, the Bagatelles inaugurate a new trend of piano writing in my career, which is consistently followed in almost all of my successive piano works ....

    Source 8 (i945)5 Bartok was not alone in hearing something new in the Bagatelles. Shortly after they were composed he played them for a piano class of Ferruccio Busoni in Switzerland. In a postcard to Etelka Freund, 28 June 1908, Bart6k reported: Busoni nagyon 6riilt a zongoradaraboknak "Endlich etwas wirklich neues" mondta. [Busoni was very happy with the piano pieces and said, "Finally, something really new."]6

    II. MELODIC AND RHYTHMIC VARIABILITY

    To produce good music, restricted resources must be used in an imaginative way, and this, too, Bart6k found in folk music: It is amazing indeed what a variety can be achieved with such scanty means. Still more surprising is the wealth of repertoire (or creative imagination?) of Lazar Lascus, a boy eighteen years old, the best bagpipe player I have ever met. He played all in all thirty-one dance pieces which contain io6 different motifs . . . He turned them out with an ease and an almost kaleidoscopic rapidity, really remarkable. We must concede, though, that he began to repeat himself later.

    Source 5 (1943) I, p. 57 5 In the same source Bart6k also mentions the Seven Sketches (1908-191o) as being

    a product of this trend, "although in the fourth, there is a certain return to the old style piano technique."

    6 Printed in Jainos Demeny (ed.), Bartdk Bela levelei [11] (Budapest, I95I), p. 83.

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  • BART6K ON HIS OWN MUSIC

    In addition to the creative use of material by musicians like Lazar Lacu?, Bartok heard melodic and rhythmic variations that were produced almost accidentally: A considerable number of the singers either seem to have no correct notion about the melody and its structure or are totally careless about it. They may begin the melody at a wrong point, with the second or third section, and may terminate it in the same way. This is a fortuitously characterized procedure from which no system can be deduced.

    Source 5 (1943) II, pp. 46-47 Peasant melody is a very elastic material; its external form, being without an essential basis, is unstable even in the case of one and the same individual. When one hears any given melody sung several times in succession by the same person, one will generally notice certain slight alterations in the rhythm, sometimes even differences in pitch.

    Source 4 (1933), p. 269 On such variations as these, Bartok may have based one of his own tech- niques of melodic development: You know very well the extension of themes . . . called augmentation and the compression . . . of them called diminution. These devices are very well known, especially from the i7th- and i8th-century art music. This new device could be called "extension in range" of a theme. For the extension we have the liberty of choosing whatever diatonic scale or mode we want .. . As you will see, such an extension will considerably change the character of the melody, sometimes to such a degree that its relation to the original non- extended form will be scarcely recognizable. [In some cases] we will have the impression [of dealing] with an entirely new melody. And this is very good in- deed, because we will get variety in one sense while the unity remains un- destroyed because of the hidden relation between the two forms. If, perhaps, you will object that this new device is somehow artificial, my only answer will be that it absolutely is no more artificial than those old devices of augmen- tation, diminution, inversion, and cancrizans of themes. The last one even seems to be much more artificial . . . When I first used the device of ex- tending chromatic melodies into diatonic form or vice-versa, I thought I [had] invented something absolutely new that [had] never existed [before].

    Source 7 (1942-43), pp. 67, 69, & 7i7

    Along with the freedom of pitch that Bartok found in folk music, he also found a great variety in the treatment of note values and accent: [To the average musician] a plain old rustic melody sounds incomprehensibly modern because his ears are not greeted with the comfortable and well known tonic-dominant variants of the major and minor scales, but by dorian, lydian, mixolydian and other remarkable and strange series of tones. And to this is added the freest of rhythm; not the hackneyed sequence of but one kind of measure, but a rubato recital with the strangest coloratures-sometimes four

    7Bart6k listed here as examples: for the spreading-out of a melody, the String Quartet No. 4 [I, bars II-22] and the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta; and for the compressing of a melody, No. I12 from the Mikrokosmos.

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  • JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

    or five variations in a measure within one short melody. Truly difficult to understand!

    Source 3 (1931), p. 6 The greater rhythmic structure of instrumental dance melodies is, on the whole, much more subject to seemingly hazardous changes than that of melodies sung with text. Extra-structural repeats of certain bars or sections, and even interpolations of several bars, are rather common.

    Source 5 (1943) I, p. 51 We must mention . . . the "shifted" rhythm occurring in some pieces . . . It can be expressed for one melody section by the following symbols: (Ex. i).

    Ex. i > > > > > > > > ablcalbcldel|; andab cdlbclde[[.

    Each letter stands for a quarter-note value; identical letters mean identical content. The phrase . . . is repeated with shifted accents so that accentuated parts lose their accent in the repeat while non-accentuated parts gain one.

    Source 5 (1943) I, p. 51 After coming into contact with these aspects of folk music, Bartok

    revised his own rhythmic thinking: I also mention the quite incredible rhythmic variety inherent in our peasant melodies. We find the most conceivably free, rhythmic spontaneity in our parlando-rubato melodies; in the melodies with a fixed dance rhythm the most curious, most inspiring rhythmic combinations are to be found. It therefore goes without saying that this circumstance pointed the way to altogether novel rhythmic possibilities for us.

    Source 2 (1928), p. 34 Thus, we had three sources to draw from. First, the parlando-rubato;

    second, the normal rigid rhythm with occasional changes of measure; and third, the dotted rhythm. As for the parlando-rubato rhythm, it could mostly be used in vocal-solo works.8 This kind of musical recitation is in a certain relation to that created by Debussy in his Pelleas et Melisande and in some of his songs; [Debussy] again based it on the old-French recitativo. This recita- tion is in the sharpest possible contrast to the Schonbergian treatment of vocal parts in which the most exaggerated leaps and restlessness appear.

    What mostly interested us in the rigid rhythm . . . were the changes of measure. I fully exploited these possibilities . . . in my earliest works, and later with, perhaps, some exaggeration . . .9

    Our third and perhaps most important rhythmic source is the "dotted rhythm" [Ex. 2]. This, although of vocal origin, can be transferred into

    Ex. 2

    [ J . J , J J . , J. J , or j. .), ] 8 Bartok added here: "Kekszakallubol nehany pelda" ["Some examples from Blue-

    beard"]. 9 Bartok added here: "milyen peldak I. suite? II. suite? kesobbiek? tanc-suite,

    Huiros hangsz. elso tetel?" ["which examples: ist suite? 2nd suite? later ones? dance suite, Music for str. first movement?"].

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  • BARTOK ON HIS OWN MUSIC

    purely instrumental music and is amply used there by us.10 A softer variety of it is the following rhythm: [Ex. 3]. . . .11 We may have, though not

    Ex. 3

    D J J D - | ^ J^ J S!) ..or JJ very frequently, 5/8 time or 7/8 time in our [folk]melody. The difference between these and the regular 2/4 is not essential; it is rather a derivative difference. 5/8 can be explained as a doubling of one of the eighths in a 2/4-time measure, and 7/8 by a trebling of one of the eighths in a 4/4-time measure. These strange measures attracted me in a high degree, and their in- fluence can be discovered in many places [in] my original works. As for the strangeness of these measures, it is, however, nothing in comparison with . . . "Bulgarian" rhythm formations.

    Source 7 (1942-43), pp. 77, 79, & 8i [In Bulgarian rhythm-formations] the smallest unit is very short, the MM.

    [value] being about 380. These extremely small units are grouped into higher unequal units . .. [such as] groups of 2 + 2 + 3 sixteenths which form a bar. There are many different such groups: about 40 or 50.

    Source 6 (194I), p. II

    III. TONALITY AND MODALITY

    Considering the difficulty of describing twentieth-century harmonic procedures, it is not surprising that Bartok should be a little confusing when he treats this subject. However, some general principles can be clearly delineated. The first and most important is that Bartok always con- sidered folk music and his own music to be tonal: One point, in particular, I must again stress: Our peasant music, naturally, is invariably tonal, although not always in the sense that the inflexible major and minor system is tonal. (An "atonal" folk-music, in my opinion, is unthink- able.) Since we depend upon a tonal basis of this kind in our creative work, it is quite self-evident that our works are quite pronouncedly tonal in type.

    Source 2 (I928), p. 35 Bart6k was so thoroughly rooted in tonal harmony that he could not

    even acknowledge the existence of atonality and polytonality: Perfect and real atonality doesn't exist even in Schonberg's works, because of that unchangeable physical law concerning the interrelation of the harmonics, and their relation to their fundamental tone. When we hear a single tone, we will interpret it subconsciously as a fundamental tone. When we hear a fol- lowing different tone, we will-again subconsciously-project it on the first tone (felt as being the fundamental one) and interpret it according to its rela- tion to the latter. In a so-called atonal work, one selects now this, now another tone as a fundamental one, and projects all other happenings of the piece onto these selected fundamentals. The same phenomenon appears when dealing

    10 Bartok added the following examples here: the first dance in his ballet, The Wooden Prince, and the second theme of No. 5 from Ten Easy Piano Pieces. 1 Bart6k added here: "I used this for instance in my VI Str. qu. pelda I tetel 2. tema III. tetel trio" [". . . ist movement, 2nd theme; 3rd movement, trio"].

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  • JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

    with so-called polytonal music. Here polytonality exists only for the eye when looking at the music. But our mental hearing again will select one key as a fundamental key and will project the tones of the other keys on this selected one. The parts in different keys will be interpeted as consisting of tones of the chosen key....

    Source 7 (1942-43), pp. 39 & 4I In the last year of his life, Bartok made the following observation about

    pieces that had once been "analyzed" as polytonal: Some additional explanations seem to be appropriate to the Bagatelles. The

    first bears a key signature of four sharps (as used for C# minor) in the upper staff, and of four flats (as used for F minor) in the lower staff. This semi- serious and semi-jesting procedure was to demonstrate the absurdity of key signatures in certain kinds of contemporary music. After carrying the key- signature principle ad absurdum in the first piece, I dropped its use in all the other Bagatelles and in most of my following works as well. The tonality of the first Bagatelle is, of course, not a mixture of C# minor and F minor, but simply a Phrygian colored C Major. In spite of this, it was quoted several times as an "early example of bitonality" in the twenties when it was fashion- able to talk about bi- and polytonality. The same fate befell the second Sketch about the same time although its tonality is indisputably a pure C Major.

    Concerning the tonality of some of the other pieces, the following state- ments are added, in order to avoid misunderstanding: Bagatelles: 2 Db Major Sketches: 4 CS minor

    6 B Major 7 B Major 7 D: minor 8 G minor 9 Eb Major Elegies: i D minor

    10 C Major 2 CX minor 12 B minor 13 Eb minor

    This information is addressed especially to those who like to label all music they do not understand as atonal music.

    Source 8 (1945) As an alternative explanation for his own experiments away from

    traditional harmonic practices, Bart6k offered the concept of polymo- dality. It is here that his writing becomes less clear than usual and some- times sounds like the species of theory-deducing that he disliked. He came into contact with polymodality, as one might expect, through folk music:

    It is very interesting to note that we can observe the simultaneous use of major and minor third even in instrumental folkmusic. Folkmusic is generally music in unison; however, there are areas where two violins are used to perform dance music; one violin plays the melody, the other plays accompanying chords. And rather queer chords may appear in these pieces.

    Source 7 (1942-43), p. 45 Bart6k developed this spontaneous use of polymodality into a more com-

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    Diego Celi

  • BART6K ON HIS OWN MUSIC

    plex harmonic procedure, which he called "polymodal chromaticism" or, more simply, "modal chromaticism": As the result of superimposing a lydian and a phrygian pentachord with a common fundamental tone, we get a diatonic pentachord filled out with all the possible flattened and sharpened degrees. These seemingly chromatic flat and sharp degrees, however, are totally different in their function from the altered chord degrees of the chromatic styles of the previous periods. A chromatically altered note of a chord is in strict relation to its non-altered form; it is a transition leading to the respective tone of the following chord. In our polymodal chromaticism, however, the flat and sharp tones are not altered degrees at all; they are diatonic ingredients of a diatonic modal scale.

    Source 7 ( I 942-43), p. 43 I must state again to what results the superimposing of the various modes led us. First result: a kind of restricted bimodality or polymodality. Bimodality again led towards the use of diatonic scales or scale-portions [that were] filled out with chromaticized degrees . . . They are not altered degrees of a certain chord leading to a degree of a following chord. They can only be in- terpreted as the ingredients of the various modes used simultaneously-a cer- tain number of these seemingly chromaticized degrees belonging to one mode, others to another mode . . . This modal chromaticism, as we will call this phenomenon henceforward . . . is a main characteristic of the new Hungarian art music.

    Source 7 (1942-43), p. 57 But not only different modes can be superimposed; the same can be done with the common major and minor scale, or to be more exact, with a major and minor pentachord. As a result we will get a triad with a double third, one a minor third, the other a major.12

    Source 7 (1942-43), p. 45 You can't expect to find a work among ours in which the upper part con- tinuously uses a certain mode and the lower part another mode. So if we say that our art music is polymodal, this only means that modality or bi- modality appears in longer or shorter portions of our works, sometimes only in single bars. So, changes may succeed from bar to bar or even from beat to beat in a bar. I will show you an example in which each tone of the theme is treated separately.13

    Source 7 (1942-43), p. 47 These last remarks, and the example of a theme in which each tone

    is treated separately, help to clarify some of Bartok's earlier writings on the chromatic tendencies in his own music. In the twenties he (or his translator) referred to modal chromaticism as an equalizing of the value of semitones: The genuine folk music of eastern Europe is almost completely diatonic and in some parts, such as Hungary, even pentatonic. Curiously enough [in view of this fact] . .. a tendency [appeared in our art music] towards the emancipa-

    12Bartok listed here as examples: the String Quartet No. 2, No. I08 from the Mikrokosmos, and the trio from the second movement of the String Quartet No. 6. 13 The example is the Bagatelle No. 7.

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  • JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

    tion of the twelve tones comprising our octave . . . (This has nothing to do with the ultra-chromaticism [of the Wagner-Strauss period] . . . , for there chromatic notes are only chromatic in so far as they are based upon the under- lying diatonic scale.) The diatonic element in eastern European folk music does not in any way conflict with the tendency to equalize the value of semitones. This tendency can be realised in melody as well as in harmony; whether the foundation of the folk melodies is diatonic or even pentatonic, there is still plenty of room in the harmonisation for equalizing the value of the semitones.

    Source i (1921), pp. 7-8 This analytical concept preceded the period of greatest chromaticism in Bart6k's original compositions:

    My first "chromatic" melody I invented in 1923 and used as the first theme of my Dance Suite. This has some resemblance to Arab melody . . . This was only an incidental digression on my part and had no special consequences. My second attempt was made in 1926; on that occasion I did not try to imitate anything known from folkmusic.14 I can't remember having met such kinds of melodic chromaticism deliberately developed to such a degree in any other contemporary music.

    Source 7 (1942-43), pp. 65 & 67

    By 1928 Bartok felt that he had passed through this period of extreme chromaticism: I must admit . .. that there was a time when I thought I was approaching a species of twelve-tone music. Yet even in works of that period the absolute tonal foundation is unmistakable.

    Source 2 (I928), p. 35 Bartok continued to insist throughout the rest of his life that his music was based on an "unmistakable" tonal foundation: The same can be said about my melodies as [what] I have already said con- cerning the chromatic folk melodies. That is: the single tones of these melodies are independent tones having no interrelation between each other; there is, however, in each specimen of them a decidedly fixed fundamental tone to which the others resolve in the end.

    Source 7 (1942-43), p. 67 To point out the essential difference between atonality, polytonality, and polymodality in a final word on this subject, we may say that atonal music offers no fundamental tone at all, polytonality offers or is supposed to offer several of them, polymodality offers a single one. Therefore, our music, I mean the new Hungarian art music, is always based on a single fundamental tone, as [much] in its entirety as in its sections.

    Source 7 (1942-43), P. 47

    14Bartok added nine examples here: i) No. 4 from Out of Doors; 2) String Quartet No. 4, second movement; 3) Piano Concerto No. 2, second movement; 4) Cantata Profana, fugue theme; 5) Music for Strings . . . , first and third move- ments; 6) Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, second movement; 7) Violin Con- certo [1937-38], first movement "contrasting" theme; 8) Divertimento for String Orchestra, second movement; and 9) String Quartet No. 6.

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  • BARTOK ON HIS OWN MUSIC

    IV. HARMONIC MANNERISMS

    With regard to this subject, Bartok's own words need no further comment:

    The Minor Seventh as a Consonant Interval We find in the music of Eastern Europe the most incredible variety in the leading of the melodic lines, as well as in the available tonal modes ... In the majority of these tonal modes the fifth degree, in general, does not play that dominant part which we can observe in the case of the fifth degree of the major or minor scale. This circumstance has exerted an important influence on our harmonic processes-that reciprocity of effect between tonic and domi- nant, so familiar to us in older art music, must here give up much of its sovereignty. In ... pentatonic scales the third, fifth and seventh are of equal rank and importance.

    Source 2 (1928), p. 31

    A visible sign of the consonant character of the seventh [in folk music] is the condition that the regular resolution of the seventh (one degree downward to the sixth degree) does not occur, in reality cannot occur, because the sixth degree is missing, [as] for instance, in this old Hungarian melody from Transdanubia: Ex. 4

    Parlando

    tt-h r - i I TI - -

    i; r rrr 1 r I [ -- I ,L - A principal motive in my... II. Suite, 2nd movement is as follows:

    Ex. 5

    "r p i J _ The final chord of the movement is:

    Ex. 6

    which is a simultaneous resonance of all four (or five) tones of the motive. . . The incentive to do this was provided by these pentatonic melodies. When the consonant form of the seventh was established, the ice was broken: From that moment the seventh could be applied as a consonance even without a neces- sarily logical preparation.

    Source 2 (1928), p. 32

    241

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  • JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

    The Building of Fourth Chords

    A further peculiarity of these old melodies is to be found in the frequent occurrence of the skip of a perfect fourth:

    Ex. 7 Parlando

    4 t G rI i I II L. . . . The frequent repetition of this remarkable skip occasioned the construc- tion of the simplest fourth chord (which was filled in to be completed as a consonant chord) and its inversions:

    Ex. 8

    -5 II JI II-I. (a) (b) (c)

    Form (b) occurs as the final chord (to be sure derived thematically in the same manner as the above-mentioned final chord of the II. Suite) in the last movement of my first string quartet.

    Ex. 9

    1r -

    Source 2 (1928), pp. 32-33

    The Use of the Tritone

    Roumanian and Slovakian folk-songs show a highly interesting treatment of the tritone (the first in a sort of mixolydian mode with minor 6th, the other in a lydian mode) . . . These forms brought about the free use of the augmented fourth, the diminished fifth, and of such chords as:

    Ex. IO 0 0

    Through inversion, and by placing these chords in juxtaposition one above the other, many different chords are obtained and with them the freest melodic as well as harmonic treatment of the twelve tones of our present day har- monic system.15

    Source 2 (1928), p. 34 15 Because the tritone has been so widely exploited in twentieth-century music, it

    might be interesting to compare Bartok's approach to this interval with Anton Webern's. Bartok was attracted to it because of its occurrences in the modes used in folk song, while Webern was attracted to it because of its position at the mathematical

    242

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  • BART6K ON HIS OWN MUSIC

    V. THE USE OF PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS

    The single comment given below is not as significant as Bartok's re- marks on other aspects of his music, but it does show an important aesthetic inclination:

    This idea [of writing pieces for percussion instruments alone] seems to be propagated mostly in this country [USA]; several composers have written such pieces; I have seen whole programs consisting only of percussion music. However interestingly rhythmic and other devices may be used in such kinds of music, I think it is nevertheless rather monotonous . . . to listen ex- clusively to such music [for the duration of an entire concert]. This is my feel- ing in spite of being personally very much interested in the exploitation of percussion instruments in various new ways.

    Source 7 (1942-43), p. 9

    * * # # *

    It is one of Bartok's twentieth-century characteristics that he was conscious of and verbal about so many of his own techniques of com- position. But because he was never systematic in analyzing his own music, he overlooked many significant factors and thereby left plenty of room for further analysis and evaluation. For some of us, his music may gain in attractiveness if it is pointed out that even obvious features, such as thematic resemblance, were not necessarily the result of deliber- ate calculation:

    When the statement was made by the author that the first theme of the last movement [of the second quartet] was derived from the corresponding theme of the first movement, Bart6k seemed surprised, and asked to be shown where the similarity existed. After studying the themes for a moment, he replied, "You are right, you are right-but it was entirely unconscious."1x6

    The Evening Star Washington, D. C.

    center of the octave: "Considerations of symmetry, regularity are now to the fore, as against the emphasis formerly laid on the principal intervals-dominant, subdominant, mediant, etc. For this reason the middle of the octave-the diminished fifth-is now most important." (Anton Webern, The Path to the New Music, Bryn Mawr: Theo- dore Presser Company, 1963, p. 54.) 16 Christine Ahrendt, "An Analysis of the Second Quartet of Bela Bart6k," unpub- lished master's thesis (Eastman School of Music, I946), p. io.

    243

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    Article Contentsp.[232]p.233p.234p.235p.236p.237p.238p.239p.240p.241p.242p.243

    Issue Table of ContentsJournal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Summer, 1966), pp. 125-278Front Matter [pp.125-126]Music and Cultural Tendencies in 15th-Century Italy [pp.127-161]Some Questions about the Gregorian Offertories and Their Verses [pp.162-181]The Music of J. B. Besard's "Novus Partus", 1617 [pp.182-204]Techniques of Unification in Early Cyclic Masses and Mass Pairs [pp.205-231]Bartk on His Own Music [pp.232-243]Publications Received [pp.244-245]Reviewsuntitled [pp.246-249]untitled [pp.249-251]untitled [pp.251-254]untitled [pp.254-257]untitled [pp.257-261]

    Notices [pp.262-263]Back Matter [pp.264-278]