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.

Piano Sonatas I–IV

This volume presents a critical edition of Allen Sapp's four earliest piano sonatas, the first written at just age nineteen while he was a student of Walter Piston at Harvard in 1941. Piano Sonatas II, III, and IV were completed while Sapp was on sabbatical from Harvard and living in Rome in 1957. The three Roman piano sonatas are remarkable in that they were composed using serial procedures, yet they were intentionally written to have strong tonal centers (especially the third sonata). Irving Fine, who gave the premiere performance of Piano Sonata I, composed an ossia of a passage in the second movement, which is included in the edition.

Introduction

IN THE LIVES OF great artists, the late or last works are often considered to be the greatest, the flowering or crowning of all that came before. This phenomenon, the valuing of “late” creations, artistic creations in particular, is perhaps nowhere more obvious than in connection with Beethoven. The late works, especially the late quartets, late piano sonatas, and the last symphony (the Ninth), are much discussed, much performed, and highly prized. In the case of Beethoven’s String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (1826), this canonization is everywhere apparent. The work is not only firmly a part of the scholarly canon, the performing canon, and the pedagogical canon, but also makes its presence felt in popular culture, notably in film (for example, ...

Beethoven “in drei Charakterbildern:” Three Beethoven Images from the Interwar Hungary

In my study, I show how three different figures of the interwar Hungary saw Beethoven. The first of them, Dénes Bartha (1908–1993), was a musicologist and became an international specialist of Viennese Classicism. In the context of contemporary Hungarian literature, his first Beethoven monograph (1939) represents an emphatically anti-Romantic attitude. In the second part, I examine the popular image of the composer, on the basis of the planned operetta Beethoven (1929–1931) by Zsolt Harsányi, an author of popular biographical novels, and Mihály Nádor (1882–1944), a successful operetta composer. This piece follows the example of Das Dreimäderlhaus, and its music was compiled from Beethoven’s melodies by Nádor. In the third part I examine an essay about Beethoven by an important musician of the period, Ernst von Dohnányi (1877–1960), who was, according to Bartók, a leading Beethoven performer of his age. Although the text of his “Romanticism in Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas” was written during his émigré years (draft: 1948, revision: 1955), it summarizes well what the leading figure of the interwar Budapest musical life might have thought about Beethoven’s music.

Sonatas № 2 end № 9 as Milestones in the Evolution of the Piano Style of A. Scriabin

The article is devoted to the consideration of two piano sonatas by A. Scriabin, representing in a complex the peculiarities of his piano style as an integral phenomenon. The two-part sonata No. 2, classified as a musical landscape, is considered in comparison with the performing versions proposed by S. Richter and V. Ashkenazy. The one-part Sonata No. 9, called “Black Mass”, is considered in comparison with the performing interpretations of V. Sofronitsky and V. Horowitz. It is noted that the Scriabin’s piano style is inherently mixed, compositional and performing, and its grandiose macrocycle of 10 sonatas appears as a compendium of the principles of piano thinking for the post-romantic era. The universalism of Scriabin’s writing is confirmed using the comparative method of analysis, for the first time proposed in this article in relation to the works under consideration. It was revealed that the style in music appears as “a system of stable features of musical phenomena, a way of their differentiation and integration at various levels” (S. Tyshko). The style is distinguished by a tendency to identify the individual, unique, “humanistic” in the broad sense of the word and has a hierarchical structure, within which there is a level characterized as “the style of any kind of music” (V. Kholopova), among which the piano style stands out. Scriabin’s piano sonatas combine the categories of “instrument style”, “author’s style” and “performer’s style” at the style level. It was revealed that the figurative and artistic duality of the Second sonata is reflected in the interpretations presented by S. Richter (the “classical” version, focused on the exact observance of the author’s text remarques, sounding in some places even like in Beethoven’s works), and V. Ashkenazy (the “romantic” version containing a whole complex of articulatory means added by the performer, most of all close to Chopin’s “sonic placers”). The main factor that determines the peculiarities of the performance of the Ninth sonata is the transfer of the playing of harmonic timbre-colors, in which the melodic horizontal turns out to be inert in itself and manifests itself only in harmonic lighting in combination with articulatory attributes. It is noted that A. Scriabin creates in the Ninth sonata actually a special type of texture, accentuating the parameter of depth, based on the stereophonic effect “further — closer”. In the conclusions on the article, it is noted that the stylistic “arch” of two Scriabin’s sonatas highlighted in it helps to comprehend the holistic character and contextual connections of the sonata-piano style of the great Russian composer-innovator, to find “keys” to actual interpretations of his other piano sonatas, an example of which is analyzed interpretation samples of such masters as V. Sofronitsky and V. Horowitz (Ninth sonata) and S. Richter and V. Ashkenazy (Second sonata).

Valentyn Bibik: reaching artistic maturity

The object of research is the works of V. Bibik written at the beginning of his mature period. The aim of the research is to reveal the main features of Bibik’s style. Methods of research include technical analysis of the works in the context of the innovative tendencies in the Ukrainian music of 1960–70s, as well as comparative research. Research results. Outstanding Ukrainian composer Valentyn Bibik (1940–2003) wrote over 150 works. Mostly they are large-scale symphonic, choral, vocal, and chamber pieces. Among them are 11 symphonies, over 20 concerti for various instruments with orchestra, vocal and choral cycles, chamber compositions (the last group includes 5 string quartets, 3 piano trios, sonatas for string instruments both solo and with piano), 10 piano sonatas, piano solo works (two sets of preludes and fugues – 24 and 34 total, Dies Irae – 39 variations). The composer was born in Kharkiv. In 1966 he completed studies at Kharkiv Conservatory, where he attended the composition class of D. Klebanov. Since 1994, he had been living in St.-Petersburg, and since 1998, in Israel where he died in 2003. Bibik’s formative period coincided with a substantive modernization of Ukrainian culture in the 1960s. During those years, members of the “Kyiv avantgarde” group (L. Hrabovsky, V. Sylvestrov, V. Godziatsky, et al.) sought to utilize modernistic idioms and techniques, such as free atonality, dodecaphony, sonoristic and aleatoric textures, cluster harmony, etc. Unlike the others, Bibik started with a more conservative style, which bore the influences of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Bartók. Bibik’s mature period started several years later in the early 1970s with Piano Trio No. 1 (1972) and the composition Watercolors for soprano and piano (1973). Together with his next piano work 34 Preludes and Fugues, these compositions show extremely individual features of Bibik’s style, such as: 1. Special treatment of the sound, which is considered not just a material for building certain musical structures but a self-valuable substance (Bibik has an original manner of organizing sound). Hence, timbral and textural aspects draw special attention to the composer. 2. The pitch and rhythmic structure of the themes is quite simple. A combination of several simple motives becomes the starting point of long and sophisticated development. These motives are derived from folk music, however, due to rhythmic transformation, they have lost their direct connection with the folk source. 3. Rhythmic structures areal so very simple. They often include sequences of equal rhythmic values (usually crotchets or eights). However, the composer avoids monotony dueto due to variable time signatures and permanent rubato, as well as significant flexibility in phrasing. 4. The development relies mostly on melodic and polyphonic elaboration of initial simple motives. The composer utilizes various kinds of polyphony, such as canonic imitations, various combinations of the main and supportive voices, heterophony, hyper-polyphony. In fugues he employs both traditional and new methods of thematic and tonal distribution. 5. The harmony in Bibik’s works is mostly modal, as well as a combination of modality with free atonality and extended tonality. The structure of the dense chords is close to clusters, while more transparent chords include mostly seconds and fourths (as well as their inversions). He almost never used traditional tonal harmony and chords built up from thirds, and was interested in their color aspect rather than their tonal functionalism. 6. The sonoristic texture is very important. It does not diminish the importance of the melody but gets into special collaboration with it (“singing sonority”). A special “mist” around a clear melodic line is one of Bibik’s most typical devices. Due to special “pedal” orchestration, both the line and the “surrounding” sounds become equally important. 7. Elements of limited aleatoric music may be found in his rhythm and agogics, and sometimes inpitch structures (passages and figurations with free choice of the pitches). His favorite technique is a superposition of two rhythmically and temporally independent textural layers (for instance, a combination of the viola solo and the sonoristic orchestral background in the third movement of the Fourth Symphony). 8. Sonata for mand the fugue were significantly reinterpreted within free atonality and modal harmony. These provisions are the scientific novelty of the study.

The Three Piano Sonatas by José de Almeida Penalva

This research project discusses the three piano sonatas by José de Almeida Penalva (1924-2002), a priest and composer from the southern region of Brazil, who lived most of his life in the city of Curitiba, in Paraná state. Along with overall information about the composer’s life and general output, the reader will find brief discussions of Penalva’s keyboard works, along with comprehensive formal analyses of his three piano sonatas. Sonata no. 1 (1970, chronologically the second to be written) appears in one large movement that reveals two distinct sections. Its language is atonal and its first section displays sonata-allegro form. The work employs twelve-tone technique along with folklore elements from the Brazilian genres seresta and desafio. Sonata no. 2 (1960, chronologically the first to be written) employs free modal language in each of its three contrasting movements. According to Penalva’s own indications, the first movement draws on the styles of George Gershwin and Béla Bartók, the second movement refers to Camargo Guarnieri (Brazilian composer who lived from 1907-1993), and the third evokes Anton Webern. Although no material from these composers is directly quoted, it is possible to recognize their stylistic traits within the respective movements. Sonata no. 3 (1991) is the most complex and technically demanding among the three sonatas. It employs free atonal language and displays three highly contrasting movements. Some folk elements also appear, as for example the third movement's energetic rhythm, which clearly suggests the Brazilian popular genre baião. This research project is the first part of a larger undertaking that the author hopes will eventually include a commercial recording of all three sonatas, along with preparing a new performance edition that takes into account the many discrepancies among the composer’s manuscripts and the currently available editions. It is the author’s sincere hope that this research can help to popularize this repertoire, which is colorful and satisfying, but remains relatively unknown, both in Brazil and beyond.