What do you consider to be the main items of change in Bartk's concerto from the practice of the baroque composers in the Concerto Grosso?

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Elizabeth Morgan.

What do you consider to be the main items of change in Bartók’s concerto from the practice of the baroque composers in the Concerto Grosso?

        The Bartók model is more dissonant, harmonically ambiguous in places, and more interesting rhythmically.  It is written for a large full orchestra with no set concertino group and involves more use of percussion instruments.  Bartók uses short, narrow melodic phrases with a strong contrapuntal texture in places.  He uses scales other than major and minor, and there is extreme chromaticism and virtuoso handling of a wide range of instruments, with specific and direct instructions for the playing of those instruments.

        In the first movement, the wedge figure which appears frequently is very chromatic.  The Serbo-Croat melody in bar 76 is based on the germinal motive:  F, G, Aflat, Bflat, Bnatural, C.  The F – Bnatural of which is based on the octatonic scale made up of alternating tones and semitones, it is also an augmented fourth, tritone.  In this section, the time signature changes very frequently.  The clarinet and oboe parts at 118 play a whole tone scale, with the interval of a tritone between the parts.

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        The theme at 155 in the oboe is based on an Arab melody, with a narrow range, with a drone in the bass.  There are often parallel moving chords, such as in the violins at bar 192, and the trumpets and harps at 462.  These parallel moving chords are reminiscent of Debussy and impressionistic elements.

        In the recapitulation, all of the subjects are brought back in the wrong order.  At 424, like 192, the chords between the flutes and oboe are spaced out, with the oboe between the flute parts, and the second flute playing very low.  At this point, ...

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