String Quartet No. 2 (Bartók)

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The String Quartet No. 2 by Béla Bartók was written between 1915, and October 1917 in Rákoskeresztúr in Hungary.

The work is in three movements:

1. Moderato
2. Allegro molto capriccioso
3. Lento

In a letter to André Gertier, Bartók described the first movement as being in sonata form, the second as "a kind of rondo" and the third as "difficult to define" but possibly a sort of ternary form.

The work is influenced by Debussy. It was dedicated to the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet, and it was they who gave the piece its premiere on 3 March 1918 in Budapest. The work was first published in 1920 by Universal Edition.

[edit] References

• 'Bartók Quartet No. 2', lecture by Roger Parker, followed by a performance by the Badke Quartet, Gresham College, 4th December 2007 (available for for download as MP3 or MP4, as well as a text document)

[edit] External links

• String Quartet No. 2 was available at the International Music Score Library Project.

v • d • e String quartets by Béla Bartók String Quartet No. 1 (1909) · String Quartet No. 2 (1915-17) · String Quartet No. 3 (1927) · String Quartet No. 4 (1928) · String Quartet No. 5 (1934) · String Quartet No. 6 (1939) List of compositions by Béla Bartók