April 26 Program Notes: Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) he 1920s were a busy time of 1936, Sacher commissioned Bartók had devoted much of T for Béla Bartók. While hold- a work from Bartók for the first the first two decades of the 20th Music for Strings, ing a teaching position at the time. In his correspondence with century to the collection and Percussion and Celesta Budapest Academy of Music, he Bartók, Sacher requested that transcription of folk music, continued his scholarly studies of the piece not call for wind play- often in collaboration with Béla Bartók was born on March 25, the indigenous music of Eastern ers (his ensemble was made up Zoltán Kodály, while on field 1881 in Nagyszentimiklós in Hungary Europe and he also toured often largely of amateur players, some expeditions in rural Hungary (now Sînnicolau Mare, in Romania). as a concert pianist and con- of whom boasted only modest and Romania as well as other He died in New York City on Sep- ductor throughout Europe and abilities), and suggested a work- parts of Eastern Europe, even- tember 26, 1945. On June 23, 1936, the United States. On one such able substitute might be “a piano tually ranging as far as Algeria the Swiss conductor Paul Sacher tour in 1929, he met Paul Sacher or cembalo (as a continuo, so to and Turkey. Bartók the composer (1906–1999; Basel, Switzerland), found various uses for the mate- commissioned a work from Bartók speak) or some kind of percus- conductor of the Basel Chamber rial he collected, sometimes in- to mark the tenth anniversary of the sion instrument.” The Music for Orchestra. Sacher had founded tegrating peasant rhythms and Basel Kammerorchester (Chamber Strings, Percussion and Celesta was the orchestra in 1926 while still a harmonic scales into his own Orchestra). The Music for Strings, the result. conducting student at the Basel musical language, and sometimes Percussion and Celesta, composed Conservatory for the purpose of The music calls for an unusual using the melodies intact as over a remarkably short span of time performing both modern works assemblage of instruments: at the basis for new works. In his in the summer of 1936 and completed and what we now call “early its core is a body of strings in autobiography Bartók discussed on September 7, was the result. Its music” (i.e., music composed ten parts and divided into two the influence of these sources: premiere, by the Basel Kammer- prior to the mid-18th century). equal groups. Bartók instructed The outcome of these stud- He continued to lead the ensem- that the two groups be arrayed orchester with Sacher conducting, ies was of decisive influence ble until he disbanded it in 1987 around the outside of the en- took place on January 21, 1937. Uni- upon my work, because it after a 61-year run. In addition, versal Edition of Vienna published the semble, mirroring each other freed me from the tyrannical in 1933 Sacher also founded the (only one example of the impor- piece later that same year. The work rule of the major and minor Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, a tance symmetry plays in the con- is scored for string ensemble (divided keys. The greater part of teaching and research institution ception of the work). The other into two groups), a large percussion the collected treasure, and devoted to early music. instruments (percussion, harp, the more valuable part, was section comprising two side drums The following year, Sacher mar- piano, and celesta) occupy the in old ecclesiastical or old (with and without snares), two pairs ried the heiress to the vast for- center of the ensemble. Bartók Greek modes, or based on of cymbals (at different pitches), tune of the Hoffmann-LaRouche exploits the dual nature of the more primitive [pentatonic] tam-tam, and bass drum (all played drug company, and began to use piano as a percussive string scales, and the melodies by a single individual), plus timpani, were full of most free and his wealth to commission new instrument, sometimes using varied rhythmic phrases and xylophone, celesta (occasionally tak- works from leading contempo- it in the service of the percussion changes of tempi, played ing a second part at the piano), harp, rary composers. To commemo- forces, and at other times em- both rubato and giusto. and piano. The duration of the work is rate the 10th anniversary of the phasizing its melodic qualities about 26 minutes. Basel Chamber Orchestra, in June in support of the strings. It became clear to me that

2 April 26, 2012 April 26, 2012 3 the old modes, which had Symmetrical structures perme- Suchoff has distinguished mo- Once more we return to the vigor- been forgotten in our ate Music for Strings, Percussion tives and scale patterns from ous world of Eastern European music, had lost nothing and Celesta not only harmonically Hungarian, Romanian, and Slo- folk dance for the fourth move- of their vigor. Their new but also formally. The first vak folk traditions. The bipartite ment. Melodies and rhythms from employment made new movement demonstrates this division of the orchestra is used Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Ukraine rhythmic combinations most vividly. Its principal theme to good effect here, as the two swirl past in quick succession. possible. This new way of begins on A and rises in its twist- halves of the string section are In addition, this finale provides using the diatonic scale ed and chromatically tortured played off against each other a summation and resolution of brought freedom from the way to E-flat as its highest antiphonally. all that has gone before. Thematic rigid use of the major and structural note. This interval ideas from the previous three minor keys, and eventually The atmospheric third move- divides the octave exactly in movements make fresh appear- led to a new conception of ment is an example of Bartók’s half, so when the theme is in- ances, and most satisfyingly, the chromatic scale, every “Night Music.” Not a formal verted it fills in the other half the chromatic theme from the tone of which came to be designation, pieces in the “night of the octave, from E-flat to A. first movement returns in a new considered of equal value music” style evoke the sensa- The theme fans out through diatonic guise. and could thus be used tion of being outdoors at night. the orchestra in fugal fashion, freely and independently. Bartók family lore has it that the Three years after completing Mu- with each even-numbered state- sic for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, One of the “tyrannical” features composer drew his inspiration ment a fifth higher than the Bartok gave an interview in Paris of the traditional major-minor from summers he spent at the one preceding, and each odd- in which he laid out his principal key system is the strong gravi- country estate of his sister on numbered statement a fifth aim as a composer: tational attraction exerted by the Great Hungarian Plain. Iso- lower. Overall, the impression the tonic note; this pull is aided lated clusters of notes or seem- Kodály and I wanted to make is of an expanding wave which and abetted by the asymmetri- ingly random melodic gestures a synthesis of East and West. reaches its crest at the mid- cal layout of the pitches in tonal conjure the memory of insect, Because of our race, and point of the movement, when scales. Most of the intervals are frog, or wild animal sounds; because of the geographi- the theme is presented in E-flat, major seconds (whole steps) long-held quiet notes suggest cal position of our country, which is also the midpoint in but minor seconds (half steps) the stillness of the nocturnal air. which is at once the extreme the scale from A to A. The move- are located at crucial points What night music does not gen- point of the East and the de- ment’s second half unfolds like fensive bastion of the West, in the scales and it is these erally include is a clear melody a mirror image of the first, with we felt this was a task we smaller intervals that nudge in the traditional sense; Bartók statements of the theme turned were well fitted to undertake. the harmony in predictable devised this style partly to re- upside down and backwards directions. Treating the tones flect the rhapsodic nature of By successfully integrating the (though in compressed form). of the chromatic scale equally Eastern European folk songs in harmonic and rhythmic charac- allowed for novel harmonic Where movement I was slow and a slow tempo. Though impres- teristics of Eastern European folk systems, including symmetrical densely wrought, movement sionistic, this movement none- music with the formal procedures scales and harmonic structures II is fast and rhythmic. Bartók theless is tightly organized in an of Western European art music that were free from the stereo- tells us that it is in sonata form, arch form (ABCBA) with brief in Music for Strings, Percussion and typed patterns of progression and its main theme echoes the allusions to the first movement Celesta, Bartók proved himself up and resolution so common to subject of the first movement. theme interposed between the to that task. traditional tonal music. American scholar Benjamin sections. —© Victor Gavenda

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