Imre Waldbauer, an Important but Little-Known Violinist Partner of Béla Bartók

Imre Waldbauer (1892–1952) attained his greatest stature as a performer in his position as the first violinist of the Waldbauer–Kerpely Quartet, named after him and cellist Jenő Kerpely. This ensemble premièred Bartók's String Quartets nos. 1, 2 and 4 and his early Piano Quintet. Although Waldbauer's name is mostly mentioned in the Bartók-literature primarily because of his quartet, he was also important for Bartók as a “standalone” violinist as well. Waldbauer and Bartók played numerous sonata recitals from the 1910s to the 1930s, and Waldbauer also played the first performance of important violin works by Bartók: the “One Ideal” from the Two Portraits, (première: Budapest, 12 February 1911), the Violin Sonata no. 2 (première: Berlin, 7 February 1923) and nos. 16, 19, 21, 28, 36, 42, 43, 44 from the Forty-Four Duos (concert hall première: Budapest, 20 January 1932). Although Waldbauer seems like an individual of special importance, very little is known about his relation to Bartók and about his life in general (unlike his violinist contemporaries, e.g. Joseph Szigeti or Zoltán Székely). The present paper focuses on the relationship between the composer and the violinist, using materials from the yet unexplored Waldbauer legacy held in the Budapest Bartók Archives (recent donation from the Waldbauer family).

Berio’s Duetti per due violini: An introduction

This article is the summary of a workshop on the violin duets of Béla Bartók and Luciano Berio, and the pedagogical implications of the works. Bartók’s Forty-Four Duos are based on folk melodies, and in this workshop, we explored how the text of certain melodies are recreated using tone-painting in the music. Luciano Berio’s 34 Duetti were inspired by the Duos of Bartók, and each duet focuses on a specific technique or concept in twentieth-century music. Like Bartók did with his Duos, Berio also intended his pieces to be performed by children as well as professionals. In addition, Berio’s duets are each inspired by a person, story, or event. All duets refer to a person with their surname, including Béla [Bartók] (no. 1), Pierre [Boulez] (no. 14), Edoardo [Sanguinetti] (no. 20), Vinko [Globokar] (no. 22), Igor [Stravinky] (no. 28) or Lorin [Maazel] (no. 33). In this workshop we explored how Berio recreates these inspirations in his music.

The Appearance of the “Ideal” and Other Topoi in Bartók’s Two Sonatas for Violin and Piano nos. 1–2

The early Violin Concerto (1907–1908) dedicated to the young violinist, Stefi Geyer, is regarded as one of the most personal compositions by Béla Bartók. The transparent structure, and the ethereal, unearthly tone of the first movement, probably inspired by Stefi Geyer’s playing, belongs to the warmest and most intimate tone used by the composer. Presumably, its re-emergence in certain passages of the two Violin-Piano Sonatas (1921 and 1922) was not by chance. It might have been the composer’s reaction to Jelly d’Arányi’s violin playing that evoked the memory of the early concerto and its source of inspiration. However, despite their similarities the “ideal” tone of the Sonatas is not the same as that in the Violin Concerto. It is still recognisable, but it has a different, perhaps more mature character and, furthermore, within the material surrounding it, we can detect the kernel of those Bartókian types which gain their definite form only in his 1926 emblematic piano pieces, for instance some elements of his “night music” type, his mourning song type, and some characteristic traits of his “chase” music. In the present article, besides following the process of transformation of the “ideal,” I make an attempt to identify the newly developed musical types, and to find an explanation of all these changes.

The Old Style Song in the Land of the Foresters, Hunedoara. Melodic Types with Refrain Resulted from Melodic Interjections

"Old style songs are the most numerous, varied and widespread folk music productions in the entire Romanian territory. Researchers such as Béla Bartók and Emilia Comișel have conducted collections in the Foresters’ Land in Hunedoara County. In the summer of 2017, together with prof.univ.dr. Ioan Bocșa, we did a lot of research in this area as well. Hundreds of songs belonging to this lyrical genre have been collected, both in previous collections and in our own. The songs are performed, for the most part, by women, in the privacy of their home, on the border or in gatherings. Although it is a mainly individual genre, group interpretations have also been recorded. The vocal emission is similar to ritual songs (metallic, strong, sustained voice); we were amazed, as a performance of the group interpretation, with the unison execution of the ample and complex ornaments. For our study, we selected melodic types that have a very short refrain (two or three syllables), which has been theorized over time as a melodic interjection; due to the extension (up to a melodic line), a consequence of an excessive ornamentation, we consider it to have the status of a refrain. Keywords: Land of the Foresters, Hunedoara, old style vocal song, melodic interjection, refrain. "

Dohnányi's Orchestrations of Schubert's Fantasy in F Minor and the Moments musicaux Piano Cycle

Ernst von Dohnányi's brilliant instrumentation skills were already recognized by his contemporaries. His former disciple and first monographer Bálint Vázsonyi published an anecdote, according to which Béla Bartók considered the orchestral version of Ruralia hungarica (op. 32) as the first truly “orchestrated” Hungarian symphonic work. Nevertheless, neither Dohnányi's own orchestration practices nor the transcriptions he prepared for symphony orchestra from the works of other composers have been studied. This paper examines two of these orchestrations, made in 1928 on the occasion of the Schubert Centenary – Dohnányi's orchestral transcriptions of the Fantasy in F Minor, originally written for piano four hands, and the piano cycle Moments musicaux – both being virtually unknown to the public. The analysis also provides an insight into Dohnányi's interpretation of Schubert, including his approach to the Austrian composer.

Music as Formal and Signifying Feature in García Márquez’s Mature Fiction

Music has played a varying role in García Márquez’s work since the passing reference to traveling troubadour “Francisco el Hombre” in One Hundred Years of Solitude and the novel’s concealed presence of Colombian vallenato song. In The Autumn of the Patriarch music becomes more prominent, with such musical traits as romantic bolero formulas, quotations from folk tunes, children’s jingles, and allusions to Caribbean pop rhythms. These musical insertions help provide markers to the relentless verbal flow of the work. In addition, the larger form of the novel is, by admission of the author, modeled after the string quartets of Bela Bartok. Classical music, moreover, contributes some black humor, as in the refined, cultured thug José Ignacio Sáenz de la Barra’s attachment to Mozart and Bruckner. A vallenato serves as the epigraph to Love in the Time of Cholera and also foreshadows crucial events. Musical references, moreover, furnish chronological and character markers in that novel, with Florentino and Juvenal employing music to captivate Fermina, the first communicating directly with his self-trained violin playing and the other hiring a professional to perform on a grand piano under her balcony. During their one encounter, the two men turn from the economic issue at hand to a discussion of music. García Márquez’s last novel fuses Florentino and Juvenal into a modernist musical voice in his narration of Memories of My Melancholy Whores. Punctuating his recollections with “high art” musical allusions, he also communicates directly by singing a medieval Spanish ballad to his sleeping beauty.

Was ist "echte" ungarische Volksmusik?

Schon Béla Bartók und Zoltán Kodály haben versucht, das ungarische Volk musikalisch zu "erziehen", indem sie dem Volk nur besonders ausgewählte Lieder darboten. Doch dieser Versuch blieb, wie auch spätere, erfolglos, da das Volk die Volkslieder nur zur Entspannung und Unterhaltung gebraucht. Dies findet es insbesondere in der Zigeunermusik, die auch echte ungarische Volksmusik ist. Ungarische Volksmusik kennt man seit langer Zeit überall auf der Welt durch die Zigeunermusik, die ihre Ursprünge in Ungarn im 15. Jahrhundert hat. bms online (Mano Eßwein)

A arte pianística de Barbara Nissman

Barbara Nissman é uma pianista norte-americana conhecida por suas gravações de Alberto Ginastera e Sergei Prokofiev. O compositor argentino dedicou a ela a última obra que escreveu, sua Sonata n. 3. Em 1989, ela realizou a primeira gravação integral das Sonatas para Piano de Prokofiev. É autora do livro Bartók and the piano: A performer´s view, além de uma extensa discografia e de DVDs que combinam performance pianística e conferências educativas sobre compositores e suas obras. Atua intensamente em palestras e master classes. Sua formação ocorreu da graduação ao doutorado na Universidade de Michigan, sob orientação do pianista Gyorgy Sandor, discípulo de Béla Bartók.