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While that does not seem to be a meaningful assertion, it is perfectly accurate: the movement is in sonata form, but there is an introduction that does not relate thematically to any other parts of the movement (not unheard of in Mozart sonatas), and the recapitulation presents the two themes of the exposition in reverse order.
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We have already mentioned that the first theme group is in F—this is made clear from the onset, both in the melodic line and by the F minor triad that occurs on the downbeat of measure 77.
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While the material occasionally departs from this F in measures 76-94, these departures are all subordinate to the prolonged F.
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E♭ is the tonal center for measures 95-134, although it does not appear as a strong bass note until measure 131.
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Measures 95-130 contain a mostly chromatic descent from C to E♭, where E♭ is anticipated throughout as a goal tone for the bass.
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Example 11 illustrates this structure.
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Immediately following the arrival of E♭ in the bass, C♯ (D♭) is established as the tonal center for the final transition to the second theme.
| 1 |
The trombone motive in measures 134-141, shown in Example 12, is the subject of the fugato section in part 3 of the development, although its importance is downplayed here.
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This motive also contains the intervallic cell of the second head motive of the first theme in the form of G♯-C♯-B-E (with the addition of some passing tones), in addition to consisting largely of motion by perfect fourths.
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Wilson claims that C and E♭ are “local dominants” to F in this first section of the exposition.
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While the strong V-I motion from measures 90-91 does carry a tonal implication of dominant-tonic, such cadential bass motion does not imply anything about structural function in this context.
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The passage from measures 85-89 is centered on E♭ (and the pentatonic set from the opening of the exposition is transposed down a whole step), but its mere presence as local tonic does not signify any sort of dominant function.
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Rather, we can consider this occurrence of E♭ as a middleground-level whole-tone descent that foreshadows the structural descent to E♭ at measure 131 that is represented in Example 2.
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In measures 91-95, the bass descends F-E♭-D♭-C, which might seem to support C’s functioning as structural dominant.
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However, as previously mentioned, C acts as a “fake” dominant that in measures 149-155 actually functions as an upper neighbor to B, the “true” dominant.
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The descent in measures 91-95 in fact participates in the farce by projecting a descent ending on C, which makes the eventual reinterpretation of C and descent to B stronger.
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This creates both a smooth transition to the second theme and a strong sense that a new section is beginning, a combination that is generally rather difficult to forge.
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The second theme is tranquil and harmonically simple, which is in stark contrast to the first theme.
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B dominates as tonal center from measures 155-191 with little or no harmonic motion away from it.
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The “backwards” recapitulation is a technique that Bartók employs frequently because of the formal symmetry it creates.
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Measures 192-197 are in E♭, with the bass notes in the harp, and measures 198-209 are in D♭.
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A♭ intervenes between E♭ and D♭ in measure 195—another instance of the whole-tone being “filled in” by a fourth.
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The return to B in measure 210 is also filled-in in this way by F♯ in measures 208-209.
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Paul Wilson points out that “[i]n substituting for F within an analogous structure, B receives confirmation at this point as the crucial interior center of the movement.”
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“[i]n substituting for F within an analogous structure, B receives confirmation at this point as the crucial interior center of the movement.”
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In our terminology, this is the point at which B is unequivocally established as the structural dominant.
| 3 |
The Development
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As mentioned, the development is divided into three subsections.
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In Example 2, the entire development section is represented by exactly three pitches, and indeed each subsection is associated with one of these three pitches as its tonal center—none of these pitches is involved in the structural whole-tone descent.
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As Paul Wilson states, the development “is, for Bartók’s music, developmental in a relatively conventional way”; the themes from the exposition are expanded and modified, and tonalities other than those expected arise.
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“is, for Bartók’s music, developmental in a relatively conventional way”
| 1 |
For example, the fifth string quartet.
| 1 |
The only slight abnormality, though it is certainly not unheard of even in classical-period sonata movements, is the emergence of a new theme in the second section of the development.
| 1 |
Although Wilson claims that this theme is based on “a transformation in rhythm and contour of the second head-motive of [the first-theme],”
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Also see Bartók’s comments on that (Bartók, 414).
| 1 |
there is no intervallic relationship between the two motives, and it is not clear what elements of a motive remain when rhythm, contour and interval content are changed.
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Before beginning an analysis of any piece by Béla Bartók, one must first decide to what degree tonal analysis will be used.
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Furthermore, this section, being the middle section of the movement, upholds the formal symmetry if interpreted as its own theme.
| 0 |
The first section of the development, measures 231-271, begins with a big D-minor chord which immediately establishes D as the tonal center for the section.
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Although it moves to E♭ minor in measure 239, it returns to D minor in measure 248, which suggests that E♭ is an upper neighbor prolonging D.
| 0 |
Example 1 shows a diagram of the form of the movement; the symmetry is apparent within the seven sections following the introduction.
| 0 |
The passage beginning at measure 248, shown in Example 13, can be considered to be the “theme” of this section, and is a development of the second head motive of the first theme.
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This motive undergoes inversion and extension throughout the section.
| 3 |
While Wilson rightly identifies the resultant set of measures 261-264 as 6-Z50 ([014679]), identifying it as such does not offer much analytical insight until we point out that this is a simple extension of the intervallic sequence (+5, -2, +5) from the original motive.
| 3 |
This section is reproduced as Example 14.
| 0 |
This section returns to the calm simplicity (and tempo) of the second section, though apart from affect there are no references to that section.
| 1 |
The arrival at C♯ was foreshadowed by the first two measures of the development (Example 15), which are almost a direct transposition of the two head motives of the first theme to C♯.
| 3 |
Because of its emphasis here in the development section and its position as leading to B in the second theme group, we could conceive of C# as a sub-dominant in this movement.
| 0 |
As the example shows, the development section is divided into three subsections; the first and third subsections draw their thematic material from the first theme group, and the second subsection involves new material not drawn from the exposition.
| 0 |
As tempting as this interpretation may be, this observation is relegated to the notes section because it constitutes a horrible abuse of terminology—there is only so far that such tonal analogies can go before they begin to hide any true analytical insight behind misused terms.
| 2 |
The tonal center B♭ is established immediately in measures 316-318 by the strong V-I chord progression (Example 16).
| 0 |
As previously mentioned, the fugato motive incorporates the motion by perfect fourths found in the Introduction as well as the intervallic cell found in the second head motive of the first theme.
| 2 |
The resultant set is the pentatonic set F-B♭-E♭-A♭-D♭; the entire passage shown in Example 17 remains within this set.
| 1 |
The second and fourth entrances of the fugato subject are transposed up a perfect fifth, but the first note is B♭ rather than C, which allows Bartók to remain in this pentatonic set (and also to reinforce B♭ as tonal center).
| 3 |
The second instance of the fugato section, not reproduced in its entirety but based on the subject in Example 18, is an exact pitch inversion transposed to begin on C.
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The inversion blends seamlessly back into the original subject in measure 363.
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The following section (measures 363-389) especially brings out the quartal harmonies within the pentatonic set, so much so that B♭ is obscured as tonal center which allows A♭ to emerge as the goal tone of this section—only to be immediately reinterpreted as a leading tone to the A that begins the recapitulation.
| 0 |
Both B♭ and A♭ are chromatic neighbors to A, which intensifies the arrival on A, and brings out the fact that the appearance of A continues the large-scale whole-tone descent that has been left stranded on B for the entire development section.
| 0 |
Hence, on either side of the middle section of the development we have the alternation FTG-STG-FTG which makes the overall form, with the exception of the Introduction, symmetric.
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The Recapitulation
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The recapitulation, as we have seen, presents the themes in reverse order.
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The second theme is initially presented in A, as part of the whole-tone descent, and proceeds directly to G, where it is restated slightly modified.
| 0 |
It is worth pointing out that the arrival on G at measure 425 is led into by D, which constitutes another “filling in” of the whole-step by the intervening fourth.
| 0 |
The A♯ in measure 438 might initially seem to be a new tonal area, but it leads to D in measure 444, which constitutes a V chord still applied to G.
| 3 |
Rather than resolve this D back to G, however, Bartók shifts briefly to F♯ in measure 456 and leads to E in measure 467.
| 3 |
E and F♯ are both active throughout the entire transition from second theme back to first theme (measures 456-487) which brings out their functions as upper and lower chromatic neighbors to F, which returns triumphantly in measure 488 with the much-anticipated recapitulation of the first theme.
| 1 |
The return of the first theme is certainly immediately recognized as such; however, there are some important differences.
| 3 |
Firstly, its initial appearance in the exposition had a minor flare to it; the first chord in Example 9 is an F-minor triad, and the first four notes of Example 8 ascend the F-minor scale.
| 1 |
In fact, the chord progression of the first four measures of Example 19 can be thought of tonally as I-vi-V in F major—while we are reluctant to say that this passage is in major (the conspicuous A♭ in measure 490 easily brings doubt to this interpretation), we can certainly say that the minor flare of the beginning has been replaced by a major flare here in the recapitulation.
| 0 |
Paul Wilson also discusses the inherent symmetry of the movement, although his interpretation is somewhat different.
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In addition to the “mode”-shift, we notice that the metric dissonance shown in Examples 9 and 10 no longer appears (notice how regular the rhythm of the accompanying figure is in Example 19) and also that the written meter no longer changes.
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In other words, the piece, in becoming more regular, is beginning to drive towards the finish—because of the formal structure, the recapitulation of the first theme also serves as the closing section of the movement.
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Indeed, this section has the feel of a Coda to it—it is much shorter than any other major section or subsection, and the tonic harmony is active throughout.
| 1 |
See Wilson, 168-170.
| 0 |
Bartók is one of the many early-twentieth century composers whose music fits entirely in the gray area between tonality and atonality.
| 2 |
While we know from his writings that he often composed with a tonal centers and relationships in mind, and that he regularly applied tonal structures and forms to his compositions, by merely glancing at any one of his pieces we can see that tonality as it is understood in the common practice period is not at work.
| 0 |
Thanks largely to the work of tonal theorists such as Heinrich Schenker and others, we have a detailed system for analyzing tonal music—their system, however, is virtually useless in analyzing music that falls entirely on the atonal side of the spectrum.
| 0 |
But if we apply it to music such as Bartók’s that is in the middle area, we can come up with some enlightening and perhaps unexpected results.
| 1 |
To do so was the goal of this analysis of the first movement of the Concerto for Orchestra.
| 0 |
By applying our tonal system to music that slips outside of the tonal realm, we not only find the elements of tonality that do remain, but we also pinpoint exactly when and how this music breaks from previous conventions.
| 3 |
It is not disputed that Bartók’s music has great expressive power—perhaps now we can understand why.
| 1 |
References
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Bartók’s music, although it is often difficult to call completely tonal, never entirely sheds itself of tonal elements and structure.
| 0 |
To begin with, the movement is in F.
| 0 |
When we say “in F,” we do not imply F major (or minor, for that matter)—the major/minor tonal system in general does not apply to this piece—but rather that the pitch-class F is the tonal center of the movement, and acts analogously to the tonic in a Mozartian sonata movement.
| 3 |
Using this interpretation, we can map out the local tonics (tonal centers) used throughout the movement, as shown in Example 2.
| 3 |
Tonal Structure and Form in Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra (I)
| 3 |
In this example, the barlines divide the formal sections of the piece (Introduction–Exposition–Development–Recapitulation)—so we can immediately see that the tonic F is not established until the exposition begins.
| 2 |
Beginning with the exposition, the large-scale progression of tonal centers is a whole-tone descent from F to F, represented by the stemmed notes in Example 2, while the Introduction ascends from C♯ to F through D♯ (shown as D♭ and E♭ in the graph) in a quasi-bass Anstieg.
| 1 |
The middle pitch of the descent, B, acts as the “dominant” to F, based on its symmetrical division of the whole-tone scale and the fact that the second theme appears in B in the exposition.
| 0 |
This remains true even with one of his last compositions, the Concerto for Orchestra, written two years before his death in 1943.
| 3 |
See Bartók, 414-415.
| 0 |
In this particular movement, Bartók feigns moving to the tonal dominant, C, for the second theme before reinterpreting C as a chromatic passing tone between D♭ and B—this and other subtleties shown in Example 2 will be explained in detail in later sections.
| 3 |
Our analysis will focus instead on relating the foreground activity to the overarching background structure.
| 0 |
The graph in Example 2 will serve as a point of departure for the subsequent analysis; while we will periodically refer back to some of its specific elements, it should be understood that even when not explicitly referenced, this graph serves as the explanatory goal of this paper.
| 3 |
The Introduction
| 1 |
As Paul Wilson points out, the title “Introduzione” given to the movement as a whole seems to apply only to the first 75 measures.
| 1 |
The discussion that follows analyzes the first movement of the Concerto, focusing on the tonal structures at play throughout the movement.
| 1 |
To begin with, the opening motive in the celli and basses, shown in Example 3, outlines a pentatonic set and strongly presents C♯ as the tonal center.
| 0 |
Indeed, this set can be seen more as a by-product of stacked perfect fourths than a generative element itself.
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