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

BÉLA BARTÓK (1881-1945)

String Quartet No. 4

1. Allegro

2. Prestissimo, con sordino

Performed by the Vermeer Quartet

*The String Quartet No. 4 was written from July to September, 1927 in Budapest.

This work, like the String Quartet No. 5, and several other pieces by Bartók, is in a so-called "arch" structure - the first movement is thematically related to the last, and the second to the fourth with the third movement standing alone. Also, the outer four movements feature rhythmic sforzandos that cyclically tie them together in terms of climatic areas. The playing time for the movements are [generally] 5, 2, 5, 2, 5 minutes respectively, a display of the mathematical logic behind this quartet.

The quartet employs a similar harmonic language to that of the String Quartet No. 3, and as with that work, it has been suggested that Bartók was influenced in his writing by Alban Berg's Lyric Suite (1926) which he had heard in 1927.

The quartet employs a number of extended instrumental techniques; for the whole of the second movement all four instruments are played with mutes, while the entire fourth movement is played pizzicato. In the third movement, Bartók sometimes indicates held notes to be played without vibrato, and in various places he asks for glissandi (sliding from one note to another) and so-called Bartók pizzicati (a pizzicato where the string rebounds against the instrument's fingerboard).

The work is dedicated to the Pro Arte Quartet but the first public performance of the work was given by the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet in Budapest on March 20, 1929. It was first published in the same year by Universal Edition.

Bartók can be analyzed a number of different ways; the two most popular would be analysis through traditional western music or analysis through Bartók's research into folk music. Bartók's music, particularly the String Quartets, departs from traditional use of major and minor keys, instead focusing more on the chromatic scale and attempting to utilize each note equally, similar to the twelve-tone scale. Regardless, Bartók doesn't follow any set theory -- there is some degree of method to his composition as much as there is a random element.

Bartók was always fascinated with mathematics and how it pertained to music. He extensively used whole-tone, pentatonic, and heptatonia seconda scales; the use of these scales was heavily by his interest and exploration in folk music. He extensively researched folk music by exploring the Hungarian countryside and Eastern and Central Europe and incorporated his research into his music. Bartók also experimented with incorporating the golden section and the Fibonacci sequence into his writing; this isn't immediately present in String Quartet No. 4. He did incorporate symmetrical structures into this piece, however; Movements I & V and Movements II & IV are similar. Movement III is at center, in contrast to the other movements.

Movements I and V have similar motifs; the second theme in the first movement is prominent in the fifth movement. Movements II and IV share similar ideas as well, but the ideas present within these two movements can be considered variations on themes presented earlier, expanding and building on ideas presented in the first and fifth movements. Movement III differs from the other four movements in that it's textured and quiet.

The symmetry of the movements isn't only limited to the themes present in the music; the lengths of the movements show symmetry between movements. The first, third and fifth movements are 6 minutes long, where as the second and fourth are shorter, at about 3 minutes long.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• bela
• bartok
• string
• quartet
• four
• vermeer

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[BlackEcology]

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

[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.

[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 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.

[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....