Bartók - String Quartet No. 4 - Mov. 1-2/5

[redseabopper]

To Maestro TGS. I disagree with your statement about serialist not having to study counterpoint. When and where notes are placed on the x and y makes for better z. Counterpoint in 12 tone. or Atonal music is just as essential, and a thousand-fold more variable and expressive.

[redseabopper]

The word is climactic not climatic unless you meant to express stormy passages.

[hotbetinho]

Nice but strange!

[urquiaga8]

Analyzing this piece at school made me appreciate it even more.  Masterpiece.

[11weldon]

it's almost too terrifying to listen to this and look at that painting at the same time.

[Chromometron]

Is there anywhere where I can buy this?

[IronHorse4642]

@Chromometron

Amazon: B0008JEKD6 (search the code)

[Chromometron]

@IronHorse4642 Wow. Thanks. Hopefully I can get this for Christmas.

[TKDLime88]

This music is downright ugly. Whatever happened to the transcendentals?

[Kkerr72]

@TKDLime88 Not everything that is art is meant to be "beautiful".

[TKDLime88]

@Kkerr72 Clearly.

[MaestroTJS]

@Kkerr72 The greatest art is always beautiful. Just because twentieth century (self-appointed) smart guys decided on a new definition for aesthetics doesn't actually make it true.

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@MaestroTJS Also, I hope you understand that art is a reflection of the times ;a response to current events. Not explicitly entertainment for the layman.

As well as this, if someone is a "self-appointed smart guy", how do they come become a legitimately elected one? I am curious as to this...

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak The greatest music reflects the times but TRANSCENDS the times. Music that only reflects the times is trash, no matter which century it's from.

If you need a book to explain why something is great, then it probably isn't. The book may help one appreciate greatness more, but it shouldn't be a pre-requisite. It's the same argument 20th c. guys used against program music...and in that sense, they were right.

And intervals of a 2nd or 7th are never going to "good."

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@MaestroTJS Your argument is that "great" music transcends time. If that is the case, how can you tell what is great music today? Do you have a time machine: able to go into the future and see which composers/trends prevailed?

And tell me: how do composers like Mozart and Haydn transcend time? How do their works effectively reflect the modern world, and not that of the 18th century?

Also, a certain interval being 'bad' is a load of shit. There were 7ths/2nds all over the CP era.

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak The ways that Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, et. al., transcend time is that their music works within a framework of the times but is far deeper, unpredictable, lacking in useless frills and cliches, and beyond a superficial layer sounds nothing like their contemporaries. Of course, some of their weaker (usually early) works might not fit that so much. B's music represents struggles anyone can identify with; I see nothing that sets it only in the times it was written.

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak Maybe you can explain to me how modern music reflects the modern world. If it did, it would be a lot more popular, but instead it only confuses the majority of listeners, and even the ones who think they know what's going on are mostly pretending. What the hell do Stockhausen, Schoenberg, or Boulez have to tell me that is in any way reflective of the modern world? Anyone can see the ugliness of the world; artists are supposed to show us the beauty behind the ugliness.

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak And why are you being obtuse? Yeah, there were 7ths and 2nds in earlier music, but they resolved to more consonant notes. The biggest problem is that modern composers don't seem to understand the dramatic use of dissonance. It's not even so much that it sounds "bad," it just sounds BORING to have nothing but dissonance all the time. But studies have shown animals don't notice dissonance, humans do, so I guess we can "thank" modern composers for making us hear more like animals.

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak I should also say that I don't completely dismiss any of this music, though I might dislike a lot (I hate later composers such as the serialists far more, though). Despite the superficial "ugliness," I get that there are other compositional techniques going on that are quite advanced and certain innovations that are very interesting. So, no, I don't dislike Bartok quite as much as my posts may be indicating (some of his stuff I like a lot, actually).

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@MaestroTJS "Despite the superficial ugliness, I get that there are other compositional techniques going on that are quite advanced and certain innovations that are interesting"

-Glad to see you are starting to understand why classical music is where it is at today.

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak Nice try, smartass, but I know what's going on in this music and have clearly given more thought to its actual value and aesthetic than you have. You seem to be quite happy to go along with what your professors have told you.

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@TKDLime88 Uhh.....Bartok's string quartet cycle is about as transcendental as they come :3

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak No, I'd say they're more in-the-flesh or fantastical than transcendental.

[MaestroTJS]

@TKDLime88 People with bad taste came along and promoted ugliness over beauty.

Still the case today, sadly.

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@MaestroTJS Understanding.....you know.....developments in classical music will lead one to understand that "people with bad taste came along and promoted ugliness", couldn't be farther from the truth.

Bartok (specifically this string quartet) was a great influence on early 20th century composers. The common-practice approach to writing (i.e. melodies and keys) was exhausted. Composers were going in other direction: Bartok for example, exploited intervalic relationships of 4-note cells.

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak Look, you can buy into the argument that the common practice was exhausted or whatever, but I think it's more of an excuse than anything else or a concerted effort on the part of progressives to forget the past (though later composers are far more guilty of that than Bartok). You clearly have no idea what "taste" means, but it's not all your fault: no one has really made an effort to define it since the late 1700's or so.

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@MaestroTJS No one 'forgot' the past. Any composer worth mentioning that is still alive today has started from the beginning....you don't end up writing serial music, music which utilizes indefinite pitch, or any other modern approach as your first compositional endeavor.

20th century+ composers don't need to excuse themselves for pushing music the envelope. Just because you haven't made an effort to understand modern music, doesn't mean you can denounce it all as 'bad'.

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak Yeah, they start from the past in the same way that people used to learn Latin. I fail to see the true purpose of it if they refuse to "allow" people to write in older styles, other than analysis. If you want to be a serialist, you really don't need to know earlier harmony in any meaningful way.

But tonal music is making a comeback....

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@MaestroTJS "Still the case today" is also and extremely wrong statement. Do you even know who is winning Pulitzer Prizes today? The likes of Philip Lang, Jennifer Higdon, John Adams, ect.

So yeah: you don't know what your talking about, unfortunately.

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak Adams has written some pretty good stuff (not MASTERLY, mind you), but a lot of what he's been writing lately sure isn't very interesting or melodic, or it's downright annoying. Higdon has only ever bored me, but I'll use a quote she said during an interview at a concert I was at to explain all that's wrong with classical music today: "When I was in university, if you wrote a major or minor chord, you would have failed."

I don't know Lang, but I'll check him out sometime.

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@MaestroTJS You clearly don't understand why I exemplified Adams, Higdon and Lang. I personally despise these 3 composers, but my point is that they compose in a more consonant, accessible style. They are all Pulitzer Prize winners and of high acclaim. There are no such "self appointed smart guys" who "define aesthetic" (and by "define aesthetic", I assume you are saying "define what is aesthetically relevant", not LITERALLY define aesthetic.)

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak If you think Higdon and Adams are writing consonant music, you obviously haven't listened to much of what they've done (especially Adams since the '90's). That's hardly my idea of consonant, or most people's.

People seem to forget that the masters of the past were writing music that was more related to the popular music of the time than is normally realized, but that it was more elevated, refined, and complex. Unfortunately, I don't think there is really a modern equivalent.

[AfroDeezeeYak]

@MaestroTJS As it is the holidays, I don't have the time or energy to respond to your thesis length comments.

All I have to say, is that once you become more educated in modern classical music, it will all make a ton of sense. It's okay: I myself started as someone who was openly contemptuous of music which succeeded the impressionists. We've all been there. Just remember: the layman isn't the best judge of what is great. Great artists aren't understood until later.

Happy holidays

[MaestroTJS]

@AfroDeezeeYak As I alluded to previously, I understand the music perfectly well and much more than you are giving me credit for. That doesn't mean I'm obligated to like or respect it (beyond certain levels) or whatever. In fact, as time goes on, I have LESS patience for it (or for weak pre-twentieth century music, for that matter, of which I will say there is plenty).

But Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you also.

[BlackEcology]

@MaestroTJS you figure with that sort of patience level, you would have stopped commenting on youtube about trivial personal preferences, no?

[MaestroTJS]

@BlackEcology Not really. I'm a composer and I think about these things constantly. It's almost a pre-requisite I should have feelings about other composers one way or the other, if composers from the past are any example.

[durantemetallica]

such an apropiate painting to the music

[Agomongo1235]

D= this scares me lol

[Coldwarmusic]

Really interesting to hear this after listening to "Szerencsétlen" by Venetian Snares for so long.

[grail68]

Just amazing.

[PStewification]

@pappeter Thanks! It's interesting to view it and listen to the Bartók together. Good combination Harmonico!

[americanliberal09]

hey this is brutal

[baconmallinator]

While this piece may not have been written with set theory in mind, there are actually two prime forms that are very present within the piece. (0 1 2 3) and (0 2 4 6)

[RogueRotting360]

@baconmallinator Chromatic and whole tone sets?

[carlosmariaflores]

Quiero saber quiénes son los 3 nacos que pusieron "no me gusta"!!!!!

[PStewification]

What's the name of the painting for this video and who is the artist?

[pappeter]

@PStewification "Weeping Woman" by Pablo Picasso

[injektileur]

I'm so moved my comment is in the top today. Then I realize I now have to get get rid of those lols and smileys...

[chiledofthekorn]

this is amazing

if you are a big bela bartok fan you will love

gabriel williams - the dissociation

[LayneGreeneMusic]

i love this. so good.

[XRenXViolinX]

Sounds like a song that would be in my nightmares......I love it!

[kenmeerlivermaile]

amorpaz: When I was young and deeply into Bartok, most of his music sounded to me extremely satisfying much the same way digging my hands into the dirt to plant seedlings felt. While he can write typically lyrical music of extreme tenderness, the 'beauty' I felt from Bartok most of all was its self-coherence, much like worms and centipedes and earwigs, while not exactly cute and cuddly, are perfectly part of the soil in which they burrow.

[DiatonicSoul]

This is so broken, I love it

[amorpaz1]

If not used to this kind of music it sounds ugly, but you can listen to it enough to become acclimated and then realize that the beauty/feelings are communicated in the intervallic contours, and the relationship of the different motives. That sounds coldly intellectual, but it's actually no more so than the esoteric thinking behind tonality. Both are very natural and psychologically pleasing. IMO serialism is not because it relies on relationships that are inaudible and exist only on the page.

[kenmeerlivermaile]

amorpaz: When I was young and deeply into Bartok, most of his music sounded to me extremely satisfying much the same way digging my hands into the dirt to plant seedlings felt. While he can write typically lyrical music of extreme tenderness, the 'beauty' I felt from Bartok most of all was its self-coherence, much like worms and centipedes and earwigs, while not exactly cute and cuddly, are perfectly part of the soil in which they burrow.

[lourak]

@kenmeerlivermaile I can identify with your feelings about Bartok - particularly, with respect to his rhythmic structures. I think, however, that, for me, his tonal vocabulary, suffers from the same underlying arbitrariness that afflicts most 20th century experiments in atonality. I compose in an atonal style myself, yet have never fully made peace with the language, diverse though modern music has been. But yes - Bartok's music, I think, does deliver a coherent musical experience.

[DebF124]

Its so fun to listen to, never a dull moment

[udistritalextrema]

DAMN!

What's that from 07:48 to 08:00?

[Viplexify]

@udistritalextrema And what is 8:08-8:11? Cool man

[Chikagba]

I sense some Bernard Herman influences in here

[whoreofmaldoror]

@Chikagba other way around, my friend.

[Chikagba]

@whoreofmaldoror I meant to say Bernard was influenced by this great musican and dissonant style of music. Cheers

[injektileur]

there are only 3 or 4 composers that can get straight to my brain like that : Ravel, Moussorgsky, Prokofiev... and Bartok 8) he will never stop to amaze me. Nothing to do with it, but as my father was playing "mikrocosmos" on his piano when I was in my mother's belly, I'm bragging about the fact that I was brought up to this world with his music ^^ and after I was born playing those pieces was the only to make me stop crying XD... sorry for the personal rant... lol

[22Burnette]

One of my favorites, Interesting!

[raulalfonso27]

Breath-taking beauty.

[fabianidhesona]

this sound like an orchestra playing, instead of a quartet. this means that bartok knew how to arrange as a true master. this piece sounds huge compared to a quartet.

Bartok was a true avantgarde musician.

[oscardelanada]

Who say this istnt beatiful? this marvellos !kLs

[AnnaramaTV]

eeew o.O

[JuanSalvCarrasco]

I love this quartet! And I'm glad that the post-er coupled the music w/this painting. I can see the first mvmt in the painting's colors and strong, bold lines, the second in the textures of the woman's hair and the coat. While the structure and harmonies of a classical piece of music may correlate to a painting by an old master,Bartok's chord clusters and dissonances make perfect sense linked w/Picasso's re-imagining of the human form. Bartok shouldn't be considered less accessible than Picasso!

[Wayavas1337]

Fucking idiots this is not dissonant.

Your ears are too small maybe for listening too much shit.

[newsboysfan14]

@Wayavas1337 As Flatliner0452 said, one man's dissonance is another man's consonance. To me, this is dissonant (and i will be honest, not a big fan). But at the same time, I hear the music in it. Whereas to you, this is consonance which, I am only assuming, you enjoy. So don't bash other people for their own opinions.

[alexdelarge66]

@Wayavas1337 ACTUALLY IT IS DISSONANT, I LOVE THIS PIECE, AND TECHNICALLY SINCE THE STRUCTURE IT HAS IS FILLED WITH DIMINISHED INTERVALS AND AUGMENTED IT IS DISSONANT, YOU COULD EVEN TELL BY LISTENING THAT IT ISNT STRUCTURED WITH THE HARMONNICS CLOSER TO THE TONALITY.

[Wayavas1337]

@alexdelarge66 it might be technically, but this song is planned, its not some random bullshit ,its art.

[alexdelarge66]

@Wayavas1337 i know its not random, its beautiful

[LayneGreeneMusic]

@Wayavas1337 if a major 7th is technically dissonant.... this is definitely dissonant. Dissonant doesn't mean you dislike it, it means the intervals aren't open. they crunch. I love Bartok, and I love lots of dissonant music. but this is very dissonant.

[corvette4554]

its like

the final boss in mcdonald maybe the duck

[lonniemt]

I LOVE this quartet! I find it very exciting. I admit that I didn't develop a taste for contemporary music until I had a professor in college who was very passionate about it. And some contemporary stuff IS crap. But so is some classical stuff. Ultimately it's all about what sounds good to your own ears.

[MrLindenson]

This is pretty tame compared to Schoenberg, Webern, Carter, Xenakis, etc. People need to get over their fear of dissonance. It's like acquiring a taste for spicy food.

[TerentiaWillsomethin]

at around 0:10 it sounds like beeeeees. awesome :D

[iammrchubbsful]

also, true randomness in music would not use the chromatic scale.

[iammrchubbsful]

THIS IS TERRIFYING

[TheProgFistedOne]

In fairness I like this but you do sound elitist about it. "Art not need be beautiful to be art."? What's wrong with saying Art doesn't need to be beautiful to be art? Why can't you just say you like it instead of saying you appreciate it? You're shooting yourself in the foot with your syntax snobbery and you're making me feel misrepresented since I also "appreciate" this music and "I do perhaps have a more intimate knowledge of the philosophies of great New Music".

[waywardhighfive]

I don't understand people that say you must have a knowledge of what is going on in the piece to enjoy it. What a booooring way to look at music. Even when I am able to pick apart what is Technically going on in a piece, I always take that lens off while listening. It's a whole lot more fun dropping all the knowledge and theory and just letting the sound waves wash over you. My lack of knowledge of what is technically going on in this particular piece makes it all the more exciting to me.

[lsbrother]

"there is some degree of method to his composition as much as there is a random element."

to compose randomly would mean tossing dice to choose the next note, it's length and loudness etc - I don't think Bartok chose any notes that way! Come to think of it I don't know any composers that did.

[SilenceXCore]

The dissonance of 'people' is my consonance. Bartok is a genius.

[nvbaileys]

I've never heard this side of bartok before, i always hear his more "pretty" pieces. This is disgusting a putrid... and i absolutely love it!

[TheEliskag]

bleeee...

[Montyleeny14]

To some extend, I enjoy listening to this piece of music - I have been quite familiar with Bartók's way of composing eversince I performed a piece by him.

[ToFillTheQuota]

Sounds like there's a bit of 12-tone row in here.....

I don't know, my knowledge isn't that great, but I'm moderately impressed.

[BuckshotLaFunke]

Heard it again after many years (I have the quartets on LP by the Juilliard String Quartet, but I can only play CD's now). Good to hear the music, thanks for uploading, Harmonico.

[ianfred]

What painting is that?

[thinedoor2]

Picasso's "The Weeping Woman" from 1937. It's pretty great, isn't it?

[thekkl]

No I hate Picasso >:[

[thinedoor2]

Yeah, he's definitely overrated, and my interest in/estimation of his work varies according to the period of his career being discussed.

He did produce, however, several paintings during the 30s/40s that I think are nearly incomparable masterpieces of invention in the figurative art of the time.

[MinisterofScissors]

thanks for asking ianfred, I've been wondering a while now.

[thekkl]

I never used to realize just how f***ed up Looney Tunes was. Something about it being part of my childhood memories makes it all the more horrifying.

[achan1058]

This stuff used to make no sense to me. That is, until I heard Shostakovich.

[Montyleeny14]

@achan1058 it makes no sense because the music is atonal :) but a remarkable piece :)

[personmanguy2]

@Montyleeny14 it's not atonal., just different than what you're used to, I promise

[Montyleeny14]

if it is not atonal, then please explain what key this is in :)

[TheNeonKnight]

@Montyleeny14 That's easy, you just have to look at the score. Bartok uses his own harmonic system where he substitutes the functions of chords with others from the same "axis" - a V-I cadence in classical harmony can only be chord V, to chord I, but in Bartok's axis system, there can be 16 different combinations of different chords to make a perfect cadence in one key. For example, a Gb has the same function as C, Eb, and A. If you can identify which axes are being used, you can find the key.

[mayorde18]

i love this random music!! so cool

[TheEarlOfDublin]

HURRRRRRRRRRR

[leforain]

@mayorde18

This music is not random. In fact you would be hard pressed to find music more highly structured and beautifully organized. If you studied this music you would discover a level of complexity and integration on multiple levels that would blow your mind. You might also find some of these elements with repeated listening as the patterns would reveal themselves. Happy trails!

[frichikendz]

Thank you. and thank you for the description

[Killmajoro]

when I started to listen to this I was shocked.....and then slowly as the piece began to progress I found myself laughing in some strange way...this music makes you feel so different...Bartok was a true genius

[motorhead412]

i am a lay person.

[MrAkihiros]

The first time I heard this I thought it was by some contemporary avantgarde composer. When I discovered that it was by Bartok then I realized what a real musical genius he is.

[andwhatfire]

a lay person can deeply appreciate this composition by paying very close attention. the melodic line can be visualized as a sort of dance, and by observing its direction, change of direction, and the way a section is balanced by other direction, there alone is aesthetic appreciation. texture and other aspects are also accessible to the lay person.

[MinisterofScissors]

I like this comment. But what does it mean to be a "lay" person?

[FatManRedemption]

It means you're not cultured, but at least you get laid.

[andwhatfire]

@MinisterofScissors i mean, not knowing anything about "5ths" and "resolution" etc, but just being able to feel

[Aiden057]

I've loved Bartok's music from childhood onward. Thanks for posting these and sectioning them so well.

[nikoversmessen]

I especially adore the second movement, but it's even better when you hear it in stereo, because the witty play of contrasts becomes more clear then.

[EthanPants]

great music, but what is that amazing picture?

[PTFAbedeh]

Weeping Woman by Picasso

[XCelloVG]

i love this stuff. music for musicians.

[Phoenix3568]

Bach was under scrutiny because he was old-fashioned and stuck to old forms, not because he was revolutionary.

[SecretTheatre]

Well don't listen to it then, you tit.

[GintarasDautartas]

Agreed.

[HARMONICO101]

Art not need be beautiful to be art.

[amorpaz1]

@HARMONICO101 Deep.

[TheBlackPage1]

No, if you "point out" Bartòk's music is crap, you get treated like the idiot you truly are.

[RoberTastic]

Why don't you compose your own concerto under ur shrine 2 richard chamberland xD

[Flatliner0452]

the reason you are told you don't understand it is because you don't. you don't have the ears to hear it, it isn't music for the lay person, this is music for people who know music in a more intimate way than you do, i won't say never will, because you could train yourself to understand, I just doubt you will because most people only like what is appealing to them right away and only want something that can be the wallpaper to their lives, not the house that can shelter them in the storm.

[Phoenix3568]

way to sound elitist.

[HARMONICO101]

He is right though. This is music that is difficult to appreciate unless you have an intimate knowledge of music.

[findingusernamesucks]

I disagree actually. I enjoyed 20th Century classical music from the first time I heard Stravinsky's Rite of Spring until just a few minutes ago when I listened to the beginning of Schoenberg's Quartet No. 4 just now. I do perhaps have a more intimate knowledge of the philosophies of great New Music but I haven't the slightest clue about this music in actual musical terms. This could be an instant classic if people weren't so lazy.

[HARMONICO101]

Well, Bartok's string quartets are staples of the genre.

I also never said it was impossible for someone without much musical understanding to appreciate this music. I did afterall when I was a kid.

[QwoPhasaArius]

@HARMONICO101 Please, would you kindly take your time to enlighten us plebians, then?

[ludwigvan17]

@Flatliner0452 You consider this to be the "house than can shelter them in the storm." When you say "understanding it", are you referring to the theoretical or emotional aspect of it? When you understand this music, what does it do for your feelings? For most people, a piece of music either soothes them or makes them cry or some sort of emotion like that but this music doesn't really do that so I'm interested to know what you get out of it. I am sort of ambiguous about it so I'm just curious.

[DanDanTheBassman]

@Flatliner0452 No, I absolutely disagree with you on this one. I'm an aspiring composer. So I understand a lot of what he's doing here. But I don't think that you have to be some kind of special, musically-inclined person with some kind of sophisticated ear to enjoy this. This music WAS appealing to me right away, even when I knew nothing about music (in an academic sense, that is)

[juanmlleras]

@DanDanTheBassman I understand it too. But I guess other people are talking about on how 'approachable' is certain kind of music. Thirty years ago I would have thought this to be hideous.

Now I compose music that sounds 'kind of' like Bartok. I would have hated my own music 20 years ago. I send some of my stuff to my friends and I receive a resounding silence in respose. I understand that too.

[DanDanTheBassman]

@juanmlleras (So much understanding going on here!) Yeah, as far as what I write, I'm still VERY tonal. Consciously moving in a contrary fashion, etc. It takes a certain something, a certain special command over music to compose music like this. Music is beautiful by its very nature. It's not easy to make it sound "ugly"

[juanmlleras]

@DanDanTheBassman And now you tell me that you find this UGLY? You're very difficult to fathom......

I find this piece keeping a very interesting balance between tonality and atonality. I don't find it ugly.

[DanDanTheBassman]

@juanmlleras It's kinda like stinky cheese. It smells like feet and unless for some reason this intrigues you, you're gonna want nothing to do with it. I'm the one that says, "Holy shit, this cheese smells so bad! I gotta try it!" I just got through listening to an Ustvolskaya record and adored every second of it. This is the punk rock of academic music.

[leforain]

@Flatliner0452

Well said!

[hylelogos]

claramente es lo primero que escuchas de Bartok = )

Sorry, but my english are very bad.

[hylelogos]

Bartok also died without recognition =(

[locomotifx]

@futurmilli I agree re Warhol and Freud, but Bela? It's just a personal taste thing. I love all sorts of stuff and have loved Bartók since my early teens, well before i "understood" it. It is v. irritating when i say i don't like Tchaikovsky and people instantly assume i am ignorant rather than simply expressing a view about an artist i respect but don't relate to, so i know where you're coming from.

[josesblima]

@futurmilli If you're someway connected to music never say that again, every one will laugh at you...

[MrPekingCat]

@futurmilli I'm not saying I'm a fan of Freud, but I don't know, this actually sounds quite avant garde for its time.

[sexysadie1977]

Wow! Such dissonance.

[Flatliner0452]

haha, one man's dissonance is another's consonance. Bach and mozart's music would have been thought to be dissonant to people of the middle ages.

[urbanescimo]

@Flatliner0452 thats bullshit. learn some music theory

[MrEdgeofchaos]

@Flatliner0452 schoenberg is still dissonant to me tho. I think most would have to admit it, he is kinda hard to listen to

[OriginalBasaliskos]

@Flatliner0452 It's true. When the British started carving up Africa with other world powers, they remarked that the Africans didn't know how to keep time on their tribal drums. The reality was that they were using rhythms too complex for the British to perceive since they were so attuned to Western music.

[Exanimousx]

@Flatliner0452 Yes, but there is a different between culturally imposed tolerance of dissonance and generally consistent across all people auditory system neurological tolerances.

Dissonance may be pleasing to one person, group, culture while abhorrent to another, but the actual tension perceived has been empirically shown in psycho physical studies to be generally consistent across people.

[alexvollrathsmith]

"there is some degree of method to his composition as much as there is a random element." Shame on you, Wikipedia! Random? I don't think so! One can follow one's instincts in chromatic scales as easily as in diatonic subsets. Intuition is far from random.

Thanks a lot for putting this up, it's the only one I could find. I really appreciate it!

[TheBlackPage1]

I think I prefer this to the Emerson Quartet's version (their complete set of Bartok's quartets on DG), thanks for posting!

[smitha09]

Are the notes from the CD?

[HARMONICO101]

Wikipedia.

[tempodimarcia]

very energetic and fresh interpretation of a staple in the quartet repertoire. great video, thanks for posting!

[smruizp]

Hi HARMONICO101.

Fantastic piece!.

I know that is not your usual style but a lot of us would appreciate if you continue posting modern music.

Thanks a lot!

[HARMONICO101]

Although I mostly post 18th century music, and it is my favorite time-period musically, I love alot of romantic and 20th century works. Two problems though: Alot of it is long, over 10 minutes which is a problem considering the time limit for videos here is 10 minutes. Also, certain modern pieces might get my channel noticed by certain copyright people and it might get closed or suspended if they see what I've got.

However, I will try to post more in the future, I'm glad you enjoy it!

[SecretTheatre]

Great stuff, thanks for posting.

[ChibiChahiro]

I'm just finding out about this piece and I love it because it's so "awkward" for the time it was created. It's awsome. Bartok is officially more awsome in my book.

Thanks for posting this.

[BereinigtenWelt]

fantastic!

[mernrmlehet]

really AMAZING!!!!!!

[peymaania]

Oh Yes, a very disturbing and demented piece,

it should be part of the Psycho Repertoire.

The Picasso painting-Weeping Woman fits the Music like a glove!

[HARMONICO101]

"Oh Yes, a very disturbing and demented piece,

it should be part of the Psycho Repertoire."

Ya, that's why Stanley Kubrick used a Bartok piece in "The Shining".

[imusiciki]

Stunning! Thank you for another great addition and I love your video!

[HARMONICO101]

I'm glad you like it! I was a little worried at first, because this music is a bit of a "departure" from what I usually post. I don't normally upload post-Beethoven music because it is generally too long to fit in the 10 minute time-limit. Plus Baroque is my favorite.