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Bartók On His Own Music
Bartók On His Own Music
.
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WHEN
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 composer 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 prepared 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 designationswould apply 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 problemsfor 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 formulaefrom which to deduce theories. But even now I would prefer
to try new ways and meansinsteadof deducingtheories.
Source 7 (1942-43),
p. 594
pp.
337-343.Some addenda
233
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 contemporaryWestern 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 material exerted its influence on us; for instance: tonal influence, melodic influence, rhythmicinfluence,and even structuralinfluence.
Source 7 (I942-43),
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 published originally in "Der Einflussder Volksmusikauf die heutige Kunstmusik,"
Melos (October, 1920),
pp. 384-386; however, the passages quoted in the
presentarticle appearedonly in the English version.
2.
"The Folk Songs of Hungary," Pro Musica (October, 1928), pp. 28-35.
12,
pp. 267-
287.
York).
8. "Foreword"to "Bela Bartok: Masterpieces for the Piano" (unpublished).
This foreword was written in 1945when Bartok assembledan anthology of his
piano compositionsfor publicationby the E. B. MarksCorporation;the anthology 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:
234
. .. Every single melody of the peasantmusic in the narrower sense is perfection 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 expression, the utmost excision of all that [is] non-essential-and it was this
very thing, after the excessive grandiloquenceof the romantic period, which
we thirstedto learn.
Source 2 (1928), pp. 30-3I
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
235
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 averagemusician] a plain old rustic melody sounds incomprehensibly
modern because his ears are not greeted with the comfortable and well known
tonic-dominant variantsof the major and minor scales, but by dorian, lydian,
mixolydian and other remarkableand 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
7Bart6klisted here as examples:for the spreading-outof a melody, the String
236
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
andab cdlbclde[[.
ablcalbcldel|;
Each letter stands for a quarter-note value; identical letters mean identical
content. The phrase . . . is repeated with shifted accents so that accentuated
partslose their accent in the repeatwhile non-accentuatedpartsgain 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-rubatomelodies; 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 possibilitiesfor us.
Source 2
(1928),
p. 34
[ J J
J J.
or
j.
.),
8 Bartokaddedhere: "Kekszakallubol
beard"].
nehanypelda"["Someexamplesfrom Blue-
237
DJ 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 influence can be discovered in many places [in] my original works. As for the
strangenessof these measures,it is, however, nothing in comparisonwith . . .
"Bulgarian"rhythm formations.
Source 7 (1942-43), pp. 77, 79, &8i
[In Bulgarianrhythm-formations]the smallestunit 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 sixteenthswhich form a bar.
There are many differentsuch groups: about 40 or 50.
Source 6 (194I), p. II
III. TONALITY AND MODALITY
2.
tema III. tetel trio" [". . . ist movement,2nd theme; 3rd movement,trio"].
In the last year of his life, Bartok made the following observation about
pieces that had once been "analyzed" as polytonal:
Some additionalexplanationsseem to be appropriateto the Bagatelles.The
first bears a key signatureof 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 semiserious and semi-jesting procedure was to demonstratethe absurdity of key
signatures in certain kinds of contemporary music. After carrying the keysignatureprinciple ad absurdumin the first piece, I dropped its use in all the
other Bagatellesand 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 fashionable to talk about bi- and polytonality. The same fate befell the second Sketch
about the same time although its tonality is indisputablya pure C Major.
Concerning the tonality of some of the other pieces, the following statements are added, in order to avoid misunderstanding:
Sketches: 4 CSminor
Bagatelles: 2 Db Major
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 addressedespecially to those who like to label all music
they do not understandas atonal music.
Source 8 (1945)
As an alternative explanation for his own experiments away from
traditional harmonic practices, Bart6k offered the concept of polymodality. It is here that his writing becomes less clear than usual and sometimes 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 interestingto note that we can observe the simultaneoususe of major
and minor third even in instrumentalfolkmusic. 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 ratherqueer chords may appearin these pieces.
Source 7 (1942-43), p. 45
239
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 continuously 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 bimodality appearsin 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 examplein which each tone of the theme is
treatedseparately.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 easternEurope is almost completely diatonic and in
some parts, such as Hungary, even pentatonic. Curiously enough [in view of
this fact] . .. a tendency [appearedin our art music] towards the emancipa12Bartoklisted here as examples:the String QuartetNo. 2, No. I08 from the
and the trio from the secondmovementof the StringQuartetNo. 6.
Mikrokosmos,
13The exampleis the BagatelleNo. 7.
240
tion of the twelve tones comprising our octave . . . (This has nothing to do
with the ultra-chromaticism[of the Wagner-Straussperiod] . . . , for there
chromaticnotes are only chromaticin so far as they are basedupon the underlying 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 harmonisationfor 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 digressionon 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.14I can't rememberhaving met such kinds of
melodic chromaticism deliberately developed to such a degree in any other
contemporarymusic.
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 approachinga
species of twelve-tone music. Yet even in works of that period the absolute
tonal foundationis 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 concerning the chromaticfolk 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
241
p. 31
A visible sign of the consonant characterof 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
i;
r rrr
I[
r
1--
- -
i TI
I
,L I
"r p
i
Source
2 (1928),
p. 32
242
tG
rI
L.
II
. . . The frequent repetition of this remarkable skip occasioned the construction of the simplest fourth chord (which was filled in to be completed as a
consonant chord) and its inversions:
Ex. 8
-5 JI II-I.
II
(a)
(c)
(b)
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
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 harmonic system.15
Source 2 (1928), p. 34
15 Because the tritone has been so
in
widely exploited 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
243
The single comment given below is not as significant as Bartok's remarks 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 exclusively to such music [for the durationof an entire concert]. This is my feeling in spite of being personally very much interested in the exploitation of
percussioninstrumentsin variousnew ways.
Source 7 (1942-43), p. 9