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  • Texture: Bartók String Quartet No.5 (Second Movement)

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    David Wolfswinkel
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    Eighty years ago, Béla Bartók reinvented the string quartet by evoking strange nighttime sounds and unusual textures in the slow movements of his quartets. In the second movement of his Fifth String Quartet, Bartók creates an atmospheric texture where time stands still through the second violin playing a constant tremolo, the first violin playing quick nervous scales moving through a tritone, the viola playing disjoined pizzicato notes like night insects, and the cello providing melodic fragments that direct the music.

    Original Description:

    Composing texture

    Original Title

    Composing texture

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    Eighty years ago, Béla Bartók reinvented the string quartet by evoking strange nighttime sounds and unusual textures in the slow movements of his quartets. In the second movement of his Fifth String Quartet, Bartók creates an atmospheric texture where time stands still through the second violin playing a constant tremolo, the first violin playing quick nervous scales moving through a tritone, the viola playing disjoined pizzicato notes like night insects, and the cello providing melodic fragments that direct the music.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Flag for inappropriate content
    14 views1 page

    Texture: Bartók String Quartet No.5 (Second Movement)

    Uploaded by

    David Wolfswinkel
    Eighty years ago, Béla Bartók reinvented the string quartet by evoking strange nighttime sounds and unusual textures in the slow movements of his quartets. In the second movement of his Fifth String Quartet, Bartók creates an atmospheric texture where time stands still through the second violin playing a constant tremolo, the first violin playing quick nervous scales moving through a tritone, the viola playing disjoined pizzicato notes like night insects, and the cello providing melodic fragments that direct the music.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    Bartók String Quartet No.5 (second movement)

    Eighty years ago, the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók reinvented the sound of the string
    quartet as we know it. In some of the slow music from these quartets he evokes through
    unusual textures and sounds the strange sounds of night.

    - This music that is about creating


    an atmosphere – about making
    time stand still – so it is not
    important to move it forward in
    the conventional kind of way.

    - The second violin plays a tremolo


    on its lowest note throughout

    - The first violin has quick, nervous


    upward and downward scales
    (each of these moves through
    the notes between the interval of
    a tritone (or augmented 4th)

    - The viola has several disjoined


    pairs of pizzicato notes (a little
    like one of those night insects
    that we can all hear, but not see)

    - The cello has fragments of


    melody, pulling the music
    together and giving it direction.

    19

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