This is the third and final part of our educational corner that has taken place over the past three e-newsletters. During this article, we will be focusing on the what to expect from the Bartok piece that will be played on this weekend’s program. If you are interested in the other two articles, you can click here to read them.

The Concerto for Orchestra is a very popular piece of Bartok’s and has garnered a wide variety of fans from across the spectrum of classical music. In The Life and Music of Bela Bartók, biographer Halsey Stevens provided his reasoning for this vast appeal of the Concerto for Orchestra:

Bela Bartok, the founder of the ethnomusicology field, was an important figure in music of the first half of the 20th Century.

The work is in five movements, in an overall arch form (similar to the typical building to a high point, followed by a winding-down of the piece). The outside movements, 1 and 5, are each in a substantial sonata form, the third movement, “Elegia”, forms the central pillar (the high point or climax),  with movements 2 and 4 providing lighter interludes.

The first movement opens with a rather long introduction. First, we hear a haunting passage played by the low strings that is answered with bursts of color - a tremolo in the upper strings followed by a downward flourish in the flutes. This general pattern is repeated, more quickly and loudly until it reaches a strong climax, at which point the introduction gives way to an allegro. The exposition (the first statements of the thematic materials) consists of two main thematic areas, followed by the development section, then the recap with the two themes in reverse order. While neoclassical in form, Bartok frequently departs from traditional tonality, using Eastern European and pentatonic scales (a scale based on five notes, rather than the seven notes that we are accustom to in major and minor tonalities), and the uneven rhythmic patterns of Hungarian folk music. While the composer does not make use of any actual folksongs, the folk influence is evident.

The second movement is called the Game of the Pairs (or in the original manuscript, Presentation of the Pairs.) The movement starts with a repeated rhythmic pattern tapped out on the snare drum. A pair of bassoons enters, playing a minor sixth apart, followed by oboes in minor thirds, clarinets in dissonant minor sevenths, and muted trumpets in dissonant major seconds. This is followed by a beautiful Bach-like chorale played by the brass, before a return of the pairs, and ending with the tapping of the drum.

The third movement is an example of Bartok’s famous “Night Music,” which often makes up the internal movements of the composer’s works - including his string quartets, the Contrasts (for violin, clarinet and piano) and the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. The sounds portrayed in this movement highlight the fascination that Bartok had with the sounds of the night. This is not music like you would hear in Mozart’s gentle Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Rather, this movement explores the creepy and unusual atmosphere of the night - the nightmares, wind rustling the leaves, creatures slithering, and shooting stars. You may want to close your eyes during this movement and let your imagination wander!

The fourth movement, the Interrupted Intermezzo, provides as much fun as one can have listening to a work by Bartok (In fact, when many first heard the piece, can hardly believe it was by Bartok at all). The movement starts with a peasant dance-like melody tossed around by the winds, interrupted by beautiful flowing melody, interrupted by a circus-like parody of Shostakovich (the march from Symphony No. 7) complete with a couple of “razz” glissandi from the trombone and cartoon-like commentary from the woodwinds. The movement should definitely bring a smile to your face, if not an audible chuckle.

Many composers (ex: Beethoven in the Fifth Symphony, Mahler in his Fifth Symphony) have written works that start out expressing anxiety, melancholy or doomed fate, and then ending with a triumphant and exhilarating finale. Bartok similarly ends the Concerto for Orchestra with a brilliant and breathtaking final movement. We hear fireworks in the brass, a whirlwind of notes in the strings, folk dance-like passages in the woodwinds, several fugue sections, an exciting fanfare, a brief interlude, then, the final gathering of forces for the climatic ending. You’ll want to hold onto your seat and may find yourself breathless by the end.