Bartok
Lets see… how do I conveniently, but accurately, sum up Bartok in about 150 words? Organically, perhaps. Organic is always what comes to mind when I listen to Bela. I picture him as comfortably seated right in between Debussy (with his slightly spooky, almost jazzy, modified tonal systems) and Prokofiev (with his ADHD mood contrasts and drving sonics) but with a huge dollop of folk music thrown in for extra goodness.
In fact, you just can’t get away from folk music with Bartok. He fees like part of the countryside, green and brown and leafy - hence the organic connection. He’s distinctly modern (and so some of it might be particularly tricky to understand at first, such as his first three string quartets) but with a more earthy, human quality than a lot of his contempories. At least, that’s how I hear it. He often plays with the standard tonal system which gives it a bit of an ethereal touch.
Musical Snippets
- String quartet No. 5, 1st movement - A bracing start to the Bartok soundbites! His string quartets (along with Shosty’s) are considered the most improtant of the 20th century. This is a prime example of his sometimes schizophrenic style, and it’s also all very folky. (buy at Amazon
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- Music for strings, percussion, and celesta, 2nd movement - This you might recognize from a certain film featuring John Malkovich. The celesta (which is similar to the piano but the strings are plucked, not hammered) always sounds very Bartokian to me - unusual, and kind of rounded. Also, here is a youtubed version of the whole movement. (buy at Amazon
- Music for strings, percussion, and celesta, 3rd movement - This movement was used in yet another film - Kubrick’s version of The Shining (one of my favorites). It’s easy to hear why. This is an example of Bartok’s “night music”, which, unlike Mozart’s, is extremely creepy. This is night music when lost in the middle of desolate woods somewhere. It’s absolutely fantastic. (buy at Amazon
- Concerto for Orchestra, 4th movement - This Concerto (which usually implies a focus on one particular instrument) gives individual groups of instruments in the orchestra individual parts in the spotlight, in turn. The beautiful folk melody you hear at the start of this snippet soon gets trodden on by a theme from Shostakovich’s 7th symphony (which you can hear if you click here - in the real thing it’s repeated about 15 billion times, a la Bolero), and the orchestra screetches in protest. This is (apparently) Bartok venting his frustration at constantly hearing the 7th all over the radio when composing this piece. (buy at Amazon