Performance and Reception of Bartók’s Violin Music during His First Concert Tour of the United States (1927–1928)

During his first concert tour of the United States (1927–1928) Bartók played primarily his own music in lecture-recitals, orchestra performances, and chamber music concerts in fifteen American cities. Over the course of the tour, he collaborated with violinists Jelly d’Arányi and Joseph Szigeti to present a few of his works for violin and piano to members of musical clubs in New York City and Philadelphia, and before dignitaries at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, D.C. – namely his Sonata for Violin and Piano no. 2 (1922), Hungarian Folk Tunes, for violin and piano (arranged by Joseph Szigeti, 1926), and Romanian Folk Dances for Violin and Piano (arranged by Zoltán Székely, 1925). In Boston and New York, Bartók played on recitals that also included performances of his String Quartets nos. 1 and 2. In this article I document the American reception of Bartók’s violin music during his U.S. recitals of early 1928. Music criticism in American newspapers and music journals, as well as detailed program notes from the string quartet performances, have been taken into account to reveal the assessment of Bartók’s violin music and string quartets and the characterization of the composer in the American press and concert halls. The reviews have also been considered in comparison to later recordings of the violin and piano works made by Bartók and Szigeti.

Tonality or Atonality in Bartók’s Sonata for Violin and Piano no. 2? From Folk Modalities to a Twelve-tone Language

External political circumstances as well as Bartók’s personal activities in the early 1920s were decisive in contributing to the expansion of the basic principles of his musical language. Bartók’s Second Sonata for Violin and Piano (1922) may be considered a focal point in his evolution toward ultramodernism. Concomitant with this tendency, both Sonatas for Violin and Piano of this period have become paradigmatic of the controversial notion set forth by certain scholars regarding the existence of an atonal Bartók idiom. Within the ultramodernist style of the Second Sonata, the essence of Eastern-European folk music is still very much in evidence. The intention of this article is to show how Bartók’s move toward synthesis of varied folk and art-music elements in this work produces a sense of an organic connection between atonality and tonality. The close connection between these two principles was suggested by Bartók in an essay of 1920. I intend to show how both contradictory principles are conjoined within a highly complex polymodal idiom based on the tendency toward equalization of the twelve tones. Within the stanzaic structure of the Romanian “long song,” stylistic elements of recitation, improvisation, and declamation are essential in the gradual unfolding between these two contrasting concepts of pitch organization. Despite tonal ambiguity on both local and large-scale levels, the sense of polymodal tonality is ultimately established as primary.

Bartók’s Sonatas for Violin and Piano nos. 1–2: The Compositional Process

In the focus of this paper a survey of the draft score will disclose major corrections of the concept and discuss deleted and rewritten sections in both Sonatas for Violin and Piano no. 1 (1921) and no. 2 (1922). A close study of the unusual-type preliminary sketches of the First Sonata in his so-called Black Pocket-Book (facsimile edition: 1987) already gave insight into Bartók’s atypical composition when he had to work without a piano at hand for shaping and refining a new major work (see Somfai, “‘Written between the Desk and the Piano’: Dating Béla Bartók’s Sketches,” in A Handbook to Twentieth-Century Musical Sketches, ed. by Patricia Hall and Friedemann Sallis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). The two draft scores (no. 1 = 34 pages, no. 2 = 21 pages, including discarded and rewritten sections) open new vistas in understanding the concept of the individual compositions. The next stage of manuscripts provides a significant source: the score and violin part used at the first performances, the latter with fingering and bowing contributed by the hand of Jelly Arányi and Imre Waldbauer in the First Sonata, Waldbauer, Ede Zathureczky, Zoltán Székely, and Jelly Arányi in the Second. A study of the revision of metronome numbers will conclude the investigation.

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.

SONATA FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO BY C.DEBUSSY: VARIABILITY AND ACCENTS IN CREATING OFF AN MUSICAL IMAGE

Fingerings and accents form the basis of the performer's interpretation, and their correct selection contributes to the most complete comprehension and implementation of the composer's idea. The performer finds the necessary timbre and the accental solutions for creating of artistic image of the musical composition. The questions of the choice of a particular fingering, the variability of accents, the convenience of playing in the process of playing a musical composition are practical and" stand " always before the performers. In this work, they are considered on the musical material of the violin part of the sonata for Violin and Piano by Claude Debussy, and the necessity and importance of performing editionis emphasizedin creating of the interpretation.

Borrowed and Original Techniques in the Trio by Leonid Hrabovsky

Relevance of the study. During several years that preceded the creation of the Trio (1964), Leonid Hrabovsky wrote many other works in various genres and forms, ranging from suites and a sonata for solo instruments, a song cycle, and a cappella choruses, to large-scale compositions for orchestra and for mixed choir with orchestra, and even two one-act operas (piano scores). The composer’s stylistic priorities had been rapidly and strikingly evolving from “social realism with a human face” as evident in the Four Ukrainian Songs, towards a much more radical “sharp” expressionism and constructivism. This evolution caused the necessary changes in the techniques utilized by the composer. Hrabovsky was deeply impressed by the article Genealogia nowej muzyki (Genealogy of the new music) of the Polish musicologist Tadeusz Zieliński that was published in the magazine Ruch muzyczny, n. 20–21, 1963. Zieliński stated that, after historical periods of monody, polyphony and functional harmony, a new sonoric and timbral era had come. These ideas inspired Hrabovsky to move towards the radical avant-garde. The object of this research is the Trio by Leonid Hrabovsky. The purpose of the study is to reveal the inherent features that differentiate the piece from other avant-garde works of the early 1960s. Methods of research include technical analysis of the musical form and its dependence upon the pitch organization of the work, as well as comparative analysis. The results and conclusions. Being composed during several days in the spring of 1964, Trio became the first piece of Hrabovsky’s written in a definitely avant-garde style. It was premiered in 1966 and since then has become one of the composer’s most frequently performed works. The reason for such a success lies in the original concept of the piece that essentially differs from the other avant-garde works of that time. When discussing Trio, Hrabovsky always stresses the influence of the Polish avant-garde music attracting him during that period. Indeed, he borrowed a lot of devices from Miniatures for violin and piano by Krzysztof Penderecki, a score Hrabovsky knew and studied at that time. However, a comparative analysis of the two works reveals serious differences between them. While Penderecki operated with purely timbral (sonoric) objects and did not pay special attention to the pitch organization, Hrabovsky composed almost a classical three movement suite with the first movement in a ternary form and the last movement in the binary form. The classical principles of the pitch organization and the distribution of the pitch structures in Trio are similar to those in tonal music. These principles have been unusually applied to the sound material that has nothing in common with tonality. A combination of the traditional and new approaches to the form provided Hrabovsky’s Trio with unique qualities which made it not only an interesting artifact of the avant-garde period but one of the most valuable and artistically perfect works in the Ukrainian chamber music.

Sketches on the creative portrait of the composer A. B. Mulear

This article attempts to present sketches of the compositional creativity of Alexandr Boris Mulear (1922–1994), who is one of the most important figures of the music culture in the Republic of Moldova and belongs to the older generation of composers, as his glory years were between 1950 and 1980. The composer’s record contains a valuable artistic heritage that is appreciated by performers but the study of his works is not in the center of interest of musicologists yet. However, the article will present some examples of the Mulearian creativity. Analyzing the composition portfolio of A. Mulear, the author shows that chamber works predominate for the most part in his creativity, including suites, quartets, sonatas, miniatures and musical pieces, with a wide range of instrumental groups: from the duo (violin and piano, piano and voice) to the symphony orchestra. In conclusion, it is noted that the composer manifested himself in an original way in chamber music, which is more innovative and bright and reveals diverse forms of classical music in terms of style and genre.

Violin sonata fis-moll by Paul Natorp in the context of genre development

Исследуется творчество композитора-философа Пауля Наторпа, фигура которого в русскоязычном музыкознании практически не представлена. Отдавая себе отчет в том, что его творчество может вызывать интерес с самых разных точек зрения, мы фокусируем свой научный интерес на Сонате fis-moll для скрипки и фортепиано, созданной в период активного формирования новых художественных течений в музыке начала ХХ века. На примере произведений так называемого «второго ряда» Соната fis-moll может служить довольно ярким примером процессов обновления музыкального языка, в том числе на основе переосмысления классического наследия. Музыковедческий анализ Сонаты для скрипки и фортепиано fis-moll осуществляется в опоре на историко-стилевой метод и интертекстуальность. Доказано, что, будучи созданной в русле традиций Бетховена, Шумана и Брамса, Соната fis-moll для скрипки и фортепиано отмечена самобытностью и оригинальностью. Теоретическая значимость работы определяется заполнением лакуны в истории становления жанра скрипичной сонаты в немецкой композиторской школе. Практическая значимость связана с возможностью обогатить скрипичный репертуар за счет знакомства с камерным жанром, представленным в творчестве немецкого музыканта-философа. This work is dedicated to the work of the composer-philosopher Paul Natorp, whose figure is in practice not represented in Russian-language musicology. Realizing that P. Natorp's work can arouse interest from a variety of points of view, we focus our scientific interest on the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano, created during the active formation of new artistic trends in music at the beginning of the twentieth century. Using the works of the so-called “ second row” as an example, the fis-moll Sonata can serve as a vivid example of the processes of updating the musical language, including on the basis of rethinking the classical heritage. The musicological analysis of the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano is based on the historical-stylistic method and intertextuality. It is proved that, being created in line with the traditions of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, the fis-moll Sonata for violin and piano by P. Natorp is noted for its musical identity and originality. The theoretical significance of the work lies in filling a gap in the history of the formation of the violin sonata genre in the German school of composition. Practical significance is associated with the opportunity to enrich the violin repertoire through acquaintance with the chamber genre presented in the works of the German musician-philosopher.

Sonata for violin and piano as a Serafim Orfeyev’s creative views

The purpose of the article is to identify the intonation-content complex of the Sonata for Violin and Piano by the representative of the Odesa School of Composers Serafym Orfeyev in the area of the performer's interpretation of the symbolism of the sonata, comparison of similar works of Ukrainian composers in a specific historic period and identifying the original artistic concept of Orfeyev's work in accordance with his mindset. The scientific novelty is based on the fact that for the first time the work of Orfeyev, which has not yet been the subject of scientific research, is considered, and the significance of the composer's contribution to the development of the instrumental sonata of the XX century is revealed. Methodology. The personal features of the artist's creative preferences are determined through a complex of musical symbolism and reflection of the multiple meaning of the Orthodox church tradition of choral art, mythological information of folk-historical archaism in combination with professional achievements in the development of the chamber sonata genre. Conclusions. Sonata's analysis points to the signs of S. Orfeyev's stylistic search, which was expressed in the spread of the specifics of choral writing, to the comprehension of which (on the example of the works of Mykola Leontovych and Anatolii Lyadov) the composer paid great attention; in instrumental thinking, which was reflected in the saturation of the fabric of the ensemble work with a polyphonic plexus of voices, and especially hidden polyphony. The connection with folk art influences the reproduction of an expressive dynamic picture of a folk holiday. A rather complex synthesis of the dramatic and the lyrical creates a unique, deeply emotional concept of a musical work, which vividly complements the genre of the instrumental sonata with new features in the traditional romantic color.