Byrne, Cathy (2009) Towards analytical synthesis: folk idioms, motivic integration and symmetry in B61a Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra (1943). Maynooth Musicology: Postgraduate Journal, 2. pp. 190-219.

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Abstract

The Hungarian composer Bela Bartok (1881-1945), unquestionably the twentieth-century’s most authoritative collector and analyst of Eastern European, Asian and Balkan folk music, composed the Concerto for Orchestra (1943) near the end of his career.1 His output was consistently marked by a stylistic synthesis of Western art music and the folk music of Eastern Europe, along with techniques of his own invention, often incorporating musical geometry. He also turned to styles such as neo-Classicism (or more specifically, neo-Baroque) and Primitivism, which, in common with Stravinsky, he explored along with the compositional technique of bitonality. Bartok pioneered the technique of polymodal chromaticism, using diverse modes derived from art music and folk music simultaneously. His use of dissonance never extended to atonality, as his chromatic compositions retained a fundamental pitch, and from the 1930s his compositional style became more tonal.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	analytical synthesis; folk idioms; motivic integration; symmetry; B61a; Bartok’s Concerto; Orchestra; 1943; Maynooth Musicology;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > Music
Item ID:	9479
Depositing User:	IR Editor
Date Deposited:	15 May 2018 10:54
Journal or Publication Title:	Maynooth Musicology: Postgraduate Journal
Publisher:	Maynooth Musicology
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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