Shuffle Sunday has bestowed us with a little bit of classical this week. Béla Bartók is widely credited as being one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century and I wouldn’t be one to argue. His music always throws my mind into wonderment; making me wish that I could get into the mind of its greatly influential composer.
Bartók started composing at a very young age, very much influenced by the late romanticism era. Yet as he matured, he began to find inspiration in the much simpler concept of Hungarian and Turkish folk music. One of his most famous thoughts is his comparison of classical composition to the works of William Shakespeare. Bartók believed that if Shakespeare could develop ingenious art in the form of plays, simply from the stories of common-folk, then an evolution in the musical art may be unearthed from the simple songs of the same people. He then spoke the art of his composition as this: to neither use the folk songs directly, nor expand upon them, but to harbor into music, the true entity and atmosphere of the songs themselves.
Another of Bartók’s beliefs was that there were three great discoveries in the world of music, held above any others: the use of progressive form by Beethoven, Bach’s attention to the importance of counterpoint, and the endless knowledge of harmony usage, rebirthed by Claude Debussy. Throughout the early nineteen hundreds, Bartók spent a great deal of time trying to find a way of perfectly combining this great trinity of concepts. It wasn’t until 1911, when he finally admitted defeat at the criticism of his peers. From then on he gave up on this musical goal, and wrote very few new compositions afterwards. Although he may not have unveiled the powerful tri-force of music (you all knew the Zelda reference was coming), to say he didn’t leave the world with any great musical landmarks would be ludicrous.
The track shuffled into my ears this week, is the first part of a great composition of Bartók’s, “Rhapsody No. 1.” It was composed in 1928, being one of Bartók’s latest pieces. The song is written in a Night music style; a style of Bartók’s slower classical compositions in which he uses creepy or eerie backgrounds filled with strategically placed dissonance to bring emphasis to a more beautiful and innocent melody. In this case, the melody is always presented by a lone violin. The backdrop is provided by a mild string orchestra (or just a single piano in the original transcription), accompanied by a small brass section depending on the harshness of emotion being portrayed by the melody. It is simply amazing how he can get the mashing of dissonant chord to sound so uplifting. The concept is incredibly hard to muster, but believe me, the first time you listen to a Béla Bartók piece, you will understand. Not only that, your musical mind will be opened to a fresh new plain of possibilities, just waiting to be explored.
I only wish I could describe this music in greater detail, but I know if I tried, it would do you no good. Words cannot do these compositions justice, so please check out the following link. It is the original transcription of the piece, and the piano is being played by Béla Bartók himself, and if anyone can help you understand the wonders of this Night music, he can. I mean, he created the darn thing. Enjoy.
Chris...the site isn't back yet!
ReplyDeletei wanted to throw something interesting my teacher said about bartok the other day. He was talking about how Bartok is Famous for creating harmonies with Triads based on 4ths instead of 3rds. So if you take your Major "C E G" triad, bartok would have a "c f d" triad in one way or another. Just something intereting I heard.
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