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BARTOK Music For Strings, Percussion, and Celesta - Analysis
BARTOK Music For Strings, Percussion, and Celesta - Analysis
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The previous listening excerpt was Ives, Charles: Concord Sonata, mvt. 3, "The
Alcotts".
The first movement of MSPC (often pronounced Moose Pack) is a fugue. As you
can see, it has frequent changes of meter, sometimes called variable meter, and also
has irregular meters such as 5/8, 7/8, and 10/8, so that there is no apparent regular
meter. There is no key signature, but the movement is centered on pitch class A, the
pitch on which it begins and ends. The significant interval, however, is the tritone:
A - E-flat.
Note the long-line melody which, however, begins as a brief, 5-note germ motive
that ascends a third and returns with different notes, then ascends again, growing to
a tritone and returning. The third phrase is the climax phrase, followed by a fourth
phrase before the Answer begins at m. 5. Even after the Answer, the original
subject continues its independent way developing the germ motive with which it
began. Meanwhile, you should be aware of the particular way in which the
successive Subject and Entry pitches are arranged. The procedure is similar to a
wedge in which the Subjects enter successively a fifth higher, thus A - E - B - F#
(Gb) - C#(Db) - Ab - Eb, while the Answers enter successively a fifth lower, thus A
- D - G - C - F - Bb - Eb. Thus there is a Subject or Answer on each of the 12 pitch
classes and the climax of the piece is reached when the Subject and Answer both
reach the tritone in opposite directions on Eb, m. 56. The wedge:
Eb
Ab
C#(Db)
F#(Gb)
B
E
A
D
G
C
F
Bb
Eb
Not all the entries are the same, but find them: A m. 1, E m. 4, D m. 9, B m. 12, G
m. 16, (then several measure of working out the motive), F# m. 26, C m. 27, C# m.
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10/15/2004
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28, F m. 33, Ab(G#) m. 35, Bb m. 37, Eb m. 44, leading to the dynamic climax on
Eb m. 56 and reversing direction (and with some compression) returning via
inverted intervals to the original pitch of A. This wedge begins in the lower string
with an Eb entrance m. 56.
l
p. 477
#173, p. 286
4/11
513.1
MHL 341 Study Guide for K. Marie Stolba Brief Second Edition with Antholology, 2nd
edition.
[How to use MHL 341 Study Guide] [Medieval] [Renaissance] [Baroque]
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10/15/2004
Page 3 of 3
[How to use MHL 342 Study Guide] [Classic] [Romantic] [20th Century]
Return to First Page
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10/15/2004