Music for string instruments, percussion and celesta

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Béla Bartók (date of recording unknown)

The music for string instruments, percussion and celesta ( Sz. 106) by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881–1945) was commissioned by Paul Sacher in 1936 and premiered the following year in Basel .

Origin and premiere

The music for stringed instruments, percussion and celesta is a commission for the Basel Chamber Orchestra and its conductor Paul Sacher , to whom the composition is also dedicated. In Sacher's request to Béla Bartók on June 23, 1936, a playing time of around 15 minutes is mentioned, whereby in addition to the around 30 existing strings, a piano, harpsichord or a percussion instrument can also be used if necessary. The target date was the gala concert on the 10th anniversary of the orchestra's first appearance at the beginning of 1937. Bartók responded positively and also agreed - the Basel Chamber Orchestra included professional musicians as well as amateurs - to show consideration for the performers with regard to the degree of difficulty. In the 1930s, Bartók borrowed various percussion instruments from an instrument factory in Budapest in order to experiment with them and was probably already making plans for a composition. He was quickly aware of the line-up - in addition to strings, piano, celesta, harp, xylophone and percussion - which he had already told Sacher in his reply of June 27, 1936. Despite a short trip to the Tatra Mountains and preparations for a longer trip to Turkey , Bartók completed the score on September 7, 1936. The definitive title Music for String Instruments, Percussion and Celesta (in 4 movements) was not communicated to his publisher, Universal Edition , until December 22, 1936.

The first performance of the work took place in Basel on January 21, 1937, it was performed by the Basel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Paul Sacher in the presence of the composer, who had also participated in the last two rehearsals. The gala concert, which also performed works by Conrad Beck and Willy Burkhard , brought Bartók's composition a great success, with the fourth movement having to be repeated. Within a year, almost 50 performances worldwide followed under conductors such as Ernest Ansermet , Wilhelm Furtwängler , Ernst von Dohnányi , John Barbirolli and Eugene Ormándy .

Paul Sacher later said, looking back on his commission for a composition: "We could not have known at the time that we had been given a true masterpiece".

Cast and characterization

The score requires the following scoring:

Timpani (machine timpani ), percussion (2 players; snare drum with snare strings, snare drum without snare strings, pair of cymbals , tam-tam , bass drum ), xylophone , harp , celesta (player alternately supports the pianist in four-handed passages), piano and strings .

According to Bartók's instructions, the strings sit opposite each other in two groups, on both sides of the other instruments placed centrally on the concert podium.

The performance is (according to Bartók in the score) 25'40 '' minutes.

The four movements have the following tempo designations:

  1. Andante tranquillo
  2. Allegro
  3. adagio
  4. Allegro molto

Bartók himself is aware of three analyzes of his composition, which were created at the request of Universal Edition or for the Belgian premiere in 1938, but are largely limited to formal aspects of the four movements.

Theme of the 1st movement (bars 1–5), which is modified at the end of the 4th movement (extended intervals) and returns (bars 204–209) Play ? / iAudio file / audio sample

The first movement begins with a four-part theme in the coordinated violas, the next entry of which is a fifth higher, like a fugue . Further voices in the exposition , which becomes a total of 6 voices, are added, whereby the theme spreads out in a fan shape and alternately sounds a fifth lower or higher than the central tone, until the key E- flat furthest away from the starting tone A in both directions - and also the tension peak in triple forte - is reached. This is followed by inserts of the theme in reverse , until the movement in the basic key pianissimo ends. According to Winfried Zillig , Bartók's discussion of the twelve-tone system takes place here, because the latent chromaticism of the theme means that when two successive thematic entries come together, all twelve semitones are heard.

The second movement, which is structured according to the rules of the sonata movement form and emphasizes the rhythmic element, has a strongly contrasting scherzo character . An introductory, short bass motif is followed by an energetic main theme, in the further development of which the two string groups give an antiphonal concert. In the implementation of the fugal subject of the first sentence in basic shape and a reversal of the main theme of the fourth set anticipatory new topic appears rhythmically modified as well.

The third, slow movement has a bridge shape with parts A, B, C + D, B, A; one of the four sections of the fugue theme from the first movement appears between the individual parts. Zillig describes it as the "high point of New Music par excellence". Already the beginning with a first accelerated, then slowed repetition of the xylophone, accompanied by timpani glissandi , is characteristic of its coloring, in which arpeggios and glissandos of harp, celesta, piano and timpani determine the tonal palette.

In terms of mood, the final movement forms a strong contrast to the preceding movement due to its predominantly folk dance-like character. It is based on a rondo-like form scheme: A + B + A, C + D + E + D + F, G. In part G, the fugue theme of the opening movement appears again, whereby the originally chromatic intervals are expanded into diatonic .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cit. n. Tadeusz A. Zieliński: Bartók. Schott, Mainz, 1973. ISBN 978-3-254-08417-0 . P. 302.
  2. ↑ Jürgen Hunkemöller: Bartók analyzes his "Music for String Instruments, Percussion and Celesta". Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 40th year, H. 2. (1983), pp. 147-163.
  3. ↑ Michiel Schuijer: Analyzing Atonal Music: Pitch-Class Set Theory and Its Contexts . University Rochester Press, November 30, 2008, ISBN 978-1-58046-270-9 , p. 79.
  4. ^ A b Winfried Zillig: Variations on New Music. List Verlag, Munich 1964, p. 68.

literature

  • Tadeusz A. Zieliński: Bartók. Schott, Mainz, 1973. ISBN 978-3-254-08417-0 . Pp. 302-313.
  • Jürgen Hunkemöller: Bartók analyzes his "music for string instruments, percussion and celesta". Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 40th year, H. 2. (1983), pp. 147-163.

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