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''Contrasts'' ( Sz. 111, BB 116) is a
1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...
composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...
scored for clarinet–violin–piano trio by
Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...
(1881–1945). It is based on Hungarian and
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n dance melodies and has three movements with a combined duration of 17–20 minutes. Bartók wrote the work in response to a letter from
violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...
ist Joseph Szigeti, although it was officially commissioned by
clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
ist
Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...
.


Structure

The work is in three movements: #''Verbunkos'' (Recruiting Dance) #''Pihenő'' (Relaxation) #''Sebes'' (Fast Dance) The movements contrast in
tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...
. The first movement contains a
cadenza In music, a cadenza, (from , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist(s), usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display ...
for clarinet and the last one for violin. The piece features examples of alternate or dual-thirds (C and C in an A triad): :Seiber 1949 This
mixed thirds An added tone chord, or added note chord, is a non-tertian chord composed of a triad and an extra "added" note. Any tone that is not a seventh factor is commonly categorized as an added tone. It can be outside the tertian sequence of ascendin ...
structure may be thought of as bitonal in that the
major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...
and
minor third In music theory, a minor third is a interval (music), musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three staff positions (see: interval (music)#Number, interval numb ...
of a triad are used. This structure may be extended through considering each third of the original triad as also being a possible third in a triad a half step in either direction. Thus C/D is a major third in an A major triad and the minor third of a B major triad: : Various Hungarian and Romanian dance melodies are incorporated into the work. The first movement begins with a lively violin pizzicato, after which the clarinet introduces the main theme, which is then varied. This theme is an example of the Hungarian
dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
and
music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
genre " verbunkos", or recruiting dance. The genre of music was commonly played at military recruitings. The second movement is much more introspective and has a continuously shifting mood without a defined theme. The third is a frenzied dance that begins with a
scordatura Scordatura (; literally, Italian for "discord", or "mistuning") is a Musical tuning, tuning of a string instrument that is different from the normal, standard tuning. It typically attempts to allow special effects or unusual Chord (music), chords ...
(G-D-A-E) violin section, after which the clarinet introduces the main theme. In the middle, there is a slower section in the
time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...
, after which the pattern of variations on the theme is resumed. János Kárpáti has discussed the structural aspects of ''Contrasts'' in detail. Szigeti recalled that Bartók had told him that the start of ''Contrasts'' had partial inspiration from the "Blues" second movement of
Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
's ''Sonata for Violin and Piano''. F. Bónis has further noted the parallel between a short passage in the same Ravel movement and a passage in the first movement of ''Contrasts''.


Movements


1. Verbunkos

"Verbunkos" features polymodality or what Kárpáti terms alternative structures. For example, the framing motif of the first movement features, in relation to the root, A, the minor and major third and the perfect and diminished fifth:Kárpáti 1981, p.203 : E is revealed as both an alternative fifth of an A chord and the alternative third of a C chord by the
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
at the third at the beginning of the development, bar 58: : Between the six notes of both triads are seven thirds. Verbunkos was a stately and stylized Hungarian Recruiting Dance "measured in rhythm and rich in melodic embellishments characterized by the theme": :


2. Pihenő

This movement has been described as volcanic rather than relaxing,E.R. 1948. despite its title, "relaxation" or "rest".


3. Sebes

The violinist must retune (
scordatura Scordatura (; literally, Italian for "discord", or "mistuning") is a Musical tuning, tuning of a string instrument that is different from the normal, standard tuning. It typically attempts to allow special effects or unusual Chord (music), chords ...
) two strings for the last movement, lowering the E and raising the G a semitone each. The trio of this movement features " Bulgarian Rhythm" Seiber 1949, p.28 and is similar in spirit to the Finale of the first Violin Sonata:Seiber 1949, p.29 :


Reception

The work is said by Kárpáti to have "technical bravura and at the same time...poetic versatility". In contrast, E.R., assumes that appreciation of the work suffers from its "lack of variety of mood" though "Bartók's genius consists in gifts of rhetoric so rich that he can spread this one mood, and spread it interestingly, over a score or more of large-scale works". He argues that the "contrasts" in the piece are "of speed rather than of mood." Seiber considers it "a less weighty, less important work in Bartók's whole ''œuvre''" though the "writing for both violin and clarinet" is "most effective throughout". An article describing a program in which "the standard note on Bartók's ''Contrasts''...was replaced by a sequential, diagrammatic sketch," concluded that, "in fact, Bartók looks as inscrutable as he sounds"."Program Notes: Better Unwritten than Unread", ''Music Educators Journal'', Vol. 54, No. 7. (Mar. 1968), pp. 96–97.


References


Sources

* *Bradshaw, Susan (2001). "Piano music: recital repertoire and chamber music", '' Cambridge Companion to Bartók'', p. 116. Amanda Bayley, ed. . * Centenrio Belae Bartók Sacrum#. *E. R. (1943) ."Review: Contrasts, for Violin, Clarinet and Piano by Béla Bartók", ''Music & Letters'', Vol. 24, No. 1. (January 1943), p. 61. *Seiber, Mátyás (1949). "Béla Bartók's Chamber Music", ''Tempo'', New Ser., No. 13, Bartók Number. (Autumn, 1949), pp. 19–31.


Further reading

*"Program Notes: Better Unwritten than Unread", ''Music Educators Journal'', Vol. 54, No. 7. (Mar. 1968), pp. 96–97. Features a listening score for ''Contrasts''. * Kárpáti, János. ''Bartók's Chamber Music.'' Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press (1976).


External links


ET's Clarinet Studio: Contrasts by Bela Bartok
by Eric Tishkoff * Sierra Chamber Society Program Notes: Contrasts by Joseph Way
Notes to Naxos recording, 8.550749
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Contrasts (Bartok) Chamber music by Béla Bartók Bartok Bartok 1938 compositions Bartok