Béla Bartók : composition, concepts, and autograph sources / László Somfai.

Author/creator Somfai, László
Format Book
Publication InfoBerkeley : University of California Press, ©1996.
Descriptionxxii, 334 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm.
Subjects
Bartók, Béla, 1881-1945--Criticism and interpretation.
Bartók, Béla, 1881-1945--Manuscripts.

Series[The Ernest Bloch lectures in music ; 9]
Ernest Bloch lectures 9. ^A19935
Contents Bartok on composition, his concepts, and works -- A survey of the sources. The existing sources ; The function of different types of manuscripts ; Reconstructing the chain of sources -- Sketches and the plan of a work. Terminology ; Destroyed and lost sketches or no sketches? ; Separate preliminary memos ; Preliminary memos in context ; Side sketches in drafts ; Memos extended into continuity sketches; Working with a sketch-book ; Partial sketches for the final texture or the instrumentation ; "Plans" and "calculations"? -- Fragments, unrealized plans -- Paper studies and the micro-chronology of the composition -- The key manuscript: the draft. General characteristics ; Formation of a work. String quartet no. 3, Ricapitulazione della prima parte ; Piano Sonata, the beginning of movement I ; String quartet no. 4, the beginning of movement I ; Violin concerto, the 12-tone melody ; Recapitulation strategies in piano concerto no. 2, movement I ; Development section strategies ; Formation of the coda in piano sonata, movement I ; Draft complex of piano pieces from 1926 ; Corrections in the draft of string quartet no. 6, movements III & I, and string quartet no. 5, movements III & II -- Reorganization of the form. String quartet no. 5, scherzo ; Deleted movements and episodes ; Endings for the violin rhapsody no. 1 and the violin concerto ; New retransition in the 2-piano sonata ; Endings for the concerto for orchestra and for the violin rhapsody no. 2 -- Final copy, orchestration, reduction, arrangement. Autograph fair copy and copyist's copy ; The Bartok copyists ; Working with Lichtpausen ; Orchestration ; Piano reduction ; Arrangements, authorization of arrangements made by others -- Editing and correcting process. Introduction ; Maturing the final version ; Editing and proofreading ; Corrected and revised editions -- On Bartok's notation and performing style. Tempo, metronome, duration ; Selected problems of Bartok's notation ; The significance of Bartok's own recordings.
Abstract This long-awaited, authoritative account of Bartok's compositional processes stresses the composer's position as one of the masters of Western music history and avoids a purely theoretical approach or one that emphasizes him as an enthusiast for Hungarian folk music. For Bela Bartok, composition often began with improvisation at the piano. The author maintains that Bartok composed without preconceived musical theories and refused to teach composition precisely for this reason. He was not an analytical composer but a musical creator for whom intuition played a central role. These conclusions are the result of Somfai's three decades of work with Bartok's oeuvre of careful analysis of some 3,600 pages of sketches, drafts, and autograph manuscripts and of the study of documents reflecting the development of Bartok's compositions. Included as well are corrections preserved only on recordings of Bartok's performances of his own works. Somfai also provides the first comprehensive catalog of every known work of Bartok, published and unpublished, and of all extant draft, sketch, and preparatory material. His book will be basic to all future scholarly work on Bartok and will assist performers in clarifying the problems of Bartok notation. Moreover, it will be a model for future work on other major composers.
General noteSeries statement from jacket.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (pages 297-320) and indexes.
LCCN 95006043
ISBN0520084853 (alk. paper)

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Music Music Stacks ML410.B26 S59 1996 ✔ Available Place Hold