Gabriel Lubowe-HOMMAGE A BARTOK.m4v

This piece was inspired by Bartok's "Mikrokosmos," which is a series of short pieces intended to help pianists develop their technique and sight reading. I attempted to emulate some of the compositions in the book by composing a simplistic right hand melody and then writing left hand counterpoint in a different key. In movement 2, (the piece has been divided into 6 different "movements" which delineate the thematic material), D Major is superimposed over A Major (and then vice versa). The similarity of the keys allowed for a certain degree of controlled dissonance.
The most difficult aspect of the composition process was developing the thematic material. The first three sections of the piece are fairly independent, as far as melodic ideas are concerned, so my goal was to tie them together in the last few sections. I achieved a union of thematic material in movement 4—by combining the melodies of movements 1 and 2—and in movement 6—by superimposing these two melodies over the left hand figure from movement 3.
One technique Bartok employs in "Mikrokosmos" is the left hand imitating the right hand melody (though not necessarily in strict canon). I used this method in movement 1, wherein a sort of "subject" is stated in the right hand and echoed line by line in the left. After the subject has been completed, the left hand takes over and the right hand plays short, staccato minor seconds which assert the Lydian scale over the Ionian (hinting at the more in depth bitonality to come).
Lastly, Bartok uses metric modulation in "Mikrokosmos". I borrowed this concept, and put the melodic ideas of movement 6 into several different time (and key) signatures which heightens tension at the climax of the piece.



Hommage a Bartok by Gabriel Lubowe is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. (2012)

Category:

Music

Tags:

• hommage bartok
• Bela Bartok
• Gabe
• Gabriel Lubowe
• Ligeti Gyorgy
• IB music
• composition
• IA
• Sergei Prokofiev
• marching dwarves
• NPA

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