The String Quartet No. 5, Sz. 102, BB 110 by
Béla Bartók was written between 6 August and 6 September 1934. It is one of six
string quartets by Bartok.
The work is in five movements:
Like the
String Quartet No. 4 and several other works by Bartók, the piece is in an
arch form.
Additionally, the first movement, which is in a sort of
sonata form
Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...
, is itself arch-like, in that each section of
exposition
Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to:
*Universal exposition or World's Fair
* Expository writing
** Exposition (narrative)
* Exposition (music)
*Trade fair
A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade e ...
is given in reverse order during the
recapitulation – the
melodies
A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinati ...
of each section are also
inverted (played upside-down). Bartók himself pointed out that the
keys used in the movement ascend in the steps of the
whole tone scale
In music, a whole-tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, there are only two complementary whole-tone scales, both six-note or '' hexatonic' ...
: the exposition is in B, C and D; the
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development hell, when a project is stuck in development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
*Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped
* Photograph ...
is in E; and the recapitulation is in F, A and B.
The three middle movements are all in
ternary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples inclu ...
, of which the third is in the unevenly-divided ''
aksak
In Ottoman musical theory, ''aksak'' is a rhythmic system in which pieces or sequences, executed in a fast tempo, are based on the uninterrupted reiteration of a matrix, which results from the juxtaposition of rhythmic cells based on the alternat ...
''
time signature
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note va ...
s typical of
Bulgarian folk music: for the main scherzo, and in the trio.
[Walsh, S.(1982, p.66) ''Bartók Chamber Music.'' London, BBC] The last movement is again arch-like: Bartók described it as being in the form ABCB′A′ with a
coda to round things off.
The two slow movements, the second ''Adagio molto'' and the fourth ''Andante'' are great examples of Bartók's
night music style: eerie dissonances, imitations of natural sounds, and lonely melodies.
The work was commissioned by
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and is dedicated to her. It was premiered by the
Kolisch Quartet The Kolisch Quartet was a string quartet musical ensemble founded in Vienna, originally (early 1920s) as the New Vienna String Quartet for the performance of Schoenberg's works, and (by 1927) settling to the form in which it was later known. It h ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
on 8 April 1935 and first published in 1936 by
Universal Edition
Universal Edition (UE) is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, they originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market (which had until then been dominated by Leipzig-bas ...
.
Discography
References
Further reading
* Antokoletz, Elliott. ''The Music of Béla Bartók: A Study of Tonality and Progression in Twentieth-Century Music''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
* Chapman, Roger E. "The Fifth Quartet of Béla Bartók", ''Music Review'' (1951).
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:String Quartet No. 5 (Bartok)
1934 compositions
Compositions that use extended techniques
Music commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
5