Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

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Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta Sz. 106, BB 114 is one of the best-known compositions by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Commissioned by Paul Sacher to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the score is dated September 7, 1936. The work was premiered in Basel on January 21, 1937 by the Basel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sacher, and it was published the same year by Universal Edition.

1 Analysis
2 Place in Bartók's oeuvre
3 Popular culture
4 External links

[edit] Analysis

As its title suggests, the piece is written for string instruments (violins, violas, cellos, double basses and harp), percussion instruments (xylophone, snare drum, cymbals, tam-tam, bass drum, timpani) and celesta. The ensemble also includes a piano, which may be classified as either a percussion or string instrument. Bartók divides the strings into two groups which he directs should be placed antiphonally on opposite sides of the stage, and he makes use of antiphonal effects particularly in the second and fourth movements.

The piece is in four movements, the first and third slow, the second and fourth quick:

Andante tranquillo
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro molto

The first movement is a slow fugue. Its time signature changes constantly, and it is written without key signature. It is based around the note A, on which the movement begins and ends. It begins on muted strings, and as more voices enter the texture thickens and the music becomes louder until the climax, positioned exactly 61% through the movement, thus corresponding to the Golden Ratio. Mutes are then removed, and the music becomes gradually quieter over gentle celesta arpeggios. The movement ends with the fugue subject played softly over its inversion. Material from the first movement can be seen as serving as the basis for the later movements, and the fugue subject recurs in different guises at points throughout the piece.

The second movement is quick, with a theme in 2/4 time which is transformed into 3/8 time towards the end. The third movement is slow, an example of what is often called Bartók's "night music", and features timpani glissandi which was an unusual technique at the time of the work's composition, as well as a prominent part for the xylophone. The last movement, which begins with notes on the timpani and strummed pizzicato chords on the strings, has the character of a lively folk dance.

[edit] Place in Bartók's oeuvre

Bartók's next piece was the Sonata for two pianos and percussion, another work which gives a prominent role to percussion and keyboard instruments.

Another work which Bartók composed for Sacher was his Divertimento of three years later.

[edit] Popular culture

The second movement of this work accompanies "Craig's Dance of Despair and Disillusionment" from the film Being John Malkovich. The third movement was also featured in the Stanley Kubrick film The Shining.

The Allegro movement was part of the competitive program for the 1993 Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps (Bloomington, Indiana), leading in to "Dance of Vengeance" from Samuel Barber's Medea.