Béla Bartók's Viola Concerto: A

Theoretical Analysis (First Movement)

by

Andrei Vîrtosu

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 I

Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók (1881-1945), a Hungarian composer and pianist, was one of the
most notorious representatives of 20th century’s music. His contribution and influence
on the development of the musical creation during the entire century are hard to be
underestimated and they may be sensed even today.
The art of Bartók touches by a unique combination of contrasts, dynamism,
expressiveness and simplicity of the fascinated folk images, which inspired the
composer as they got life in his creations. Discovering the ancient strata of rural folk
became one of the turning points in the composer’s evolution. The innate freshness of
rural music served as stimulus for enriching and renewing the rhythmical, modal and
timbral systems of the music and contributed to forming the sonorities, mostly new, of
Bartók ’s creations.
In the 1920s, the style of Bartók progresses significantly: the constructivist
complexity, the harshness and the rigidity of the musical language of the previous
years are gradually replaced by a more harmonious perception of the world, by the
trend toward clarity of expression and toward a greater accessibility. In the early
1930s, the style of Bartók attended the complete creative maturity, marked by the
appearance of true masterpieces as: Cantata Profana (1930), the two Concerts for
piano (1926 and 1931), the last four string quartets (1927, 1928, 1934, 1939), Sonata
for two pianos and percussion (1937), Music for strings, percussion and celesta
(1936), Concert for violin no. 2 (1936), the collection of piano pieces Mikrokosmos,
Divertissement for string orchestra (1939) and others.
The end of 1930s brings a big change in the life of the composer. The political
situation from his homeland becomes impossible for Bartók, thus Bartók, together
with his family, has to immigrate to USA (1940). The entire period of exile was
difficult for Bartók. As his thoughts, nostalgic and longing, were directed toward his
homeland, but which destroy his health and diminish his productivity. Despite all
these difficulties, a series of masterpieces appear namely in the last period as Concerto
for Orchestra (1943), the Third Piano Concerto (1945), Sonata for solo violin (1944).
During this period, the Concerto for violin and orchestra was created. In fact,
this is the last creation the composer worked on and which remained unfinished.

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 II
Concerto for viola and orchestra by Béla Bartók

This concerto was ordered to Bartók by the great violist William Primrose at
the beginning of 1945, when the composer was seriously ill.
Inspired by the artistry of Primrose, the composer chose as soloist instrument
namely the viola in order to entrust the expression of a new and personal artistic
vision: life and eternity. The summer of 1945 was promising to be for Bartók as a very
pleasant one. Menuhin invited him in California and the composer was preparing
enthusiastically for this trip, but unexpectedly he refuses the invitation by the letter of
June 6th, motivating his decision by health condition. He worked the entire summer on
the concerto, but the illness consumed him too quick and on September 26 th, Bartók
passes away and his concerto for viola remains unfinished. The sketches of the
concerto were so detailed and gathered as the violist, violinist and composer Tibor
Serly, the friend of Bartók, manage to build up carefully the fragments in an entire and
to make the orchestration of the work. (Example no. 1):

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 In 1949, the concerto resonated in the first audition in Minneapolis in the
interpretation of Primrose under the stick of Antal Doráti and in 1950 the score of the
Concerto was published by the publishing company Bossey & Hawkes.
All the editions of the concerto (starting with the one of Serby) contain three
parts – Moderato, Adagio religioso and Allegro vivace – regrouped between them by
two interludes and remark attacca.
The first part, Moderato, is written as sonata with coda and contains passages
of virtuosity. The first appearance of the main theme has a pensive nature, with shades
of sadness and a certain suspicion that speak about the loneliness of the hero, about
his fragile and vulnerable personality, a condition that lasts till the end of his life.
(Example no. 3):

This theme is built on the octatonic scale (a, h, c, es, f, fis, g, as), which
provides it a very specific sonority. We also find in this theme, according to the
observations of B. Suchoff, elements of non-diatonic folk (a, h, c, d, es, f, g, a),
present in the popular music of many East-European1 nations.
The melody, at beginning, is calm, melancholic, but in the fifth measure by
the combination of ternary rhythmic formulas with binary ones, creates the sensation
of accelerando and starts to invigorate on sounds that repeat decreasingly on shorter
values, as it would reflect the soul anxieties of the composer. His subjective world in
its entire abundance is rendered in a concentrated form even from the first tracking of
the main theme (Example no. 4):
1
See Suchoff, B. (ed.) Bela Bartók Essays. London: Faber and Faber, 1976, p. 363

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 The exposition starts from the eleventh value with a dynamic shade of mezzo-
forte, and then followed by shorter expressive shades of crescendo and diminuendo
presented at the realization of arch forms, so beloved by Bartók (Example no. 5):

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 The bridge (values 41-48) contrasts with the main theme through the musical
structure and through its more active and intense nature. In its debut, Bartók
introduces ascending and descending rhythms of whole tones alternating so that their
first and the last sound form an ascending chromatic line (Example no. 6):

At the end of the bridge (values 47 and 48), there are heard capricious intonations
with oriental shades in the alternation of Lydian and Phrygian modes with the F-sharp
fundamental, which anticipates the theme of secondary group (Example no. 7):

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 The theme of the secondary group has a milder character and denotes features
of a popular dance that contrasts strongly with the main theme. Bartók keeps the
traditional tonal link for the themes of a Sonata Allegro, the fundamental being in E-
major (Example no. 8):

The conclusion contains a new theme based on combination of the movement through
entire tones with the chromatic one, the descending movement with the ascending one.
Numerous chromaticism need a considerable effort from the side of the interpreter regarding
the accuracy of intonation (Example no. 34):

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 The techniques of development used predominantly during the processing are
polyphonic, the composer refers to imitating counterpoint and to contrasting
counterpoint, combining them simultaneously. During the processing, the soloist will
show fully his virtuosity and interpreting mastery, overpassing numerous intonating
and rhythmic impediments. Similarly with many classic sonatas, the processing starts
namely with the theme of the conclusion, providing in this way the continuity of the
speech, and during the processing, dominated, as a matter of fact, by the development
of the main group, its theme will be combined in counterpoint with the theme of the
secondary group. At the same time, the theme of the conclusion will not resound at the
end of the reprise. (Example no. 9):

In the value 120, there are heard the intonations of a theme with popular nature
that might seem to be a continuation of the secondary theme and it is perceived as a
state of tranquillity, contrasting with the cadence placed between processing and
reprise. The cadence has double notes that hide latent polyphonies (Example no. 10):

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 The reprise begins with tracking the theme of the main group for orchestra,
while the viola seems to continue the cadence, intonating motives that look like being
taken from an orchestral accompaniment. In comparison with the exposition, where
the soloist viola resounded preponderantly in all the three tracks of the main theme, in
reprise it resounded only once and only in orchestra. The other structural-thematic
formations were resumed according to the rules of classic sonata form without
modifications (except the conclusion, where a new melodic-rhythmic counterpoint
appears in the part of viola, example no. 11), the secondary theme and the conclusion
are transposed in fundamental modal-tonal zone A. We want to draw your attention to
the rhythmical difficulties of new counterpoint present here. (Example no. 11):

The first part of the Concerto for viola ends with a Coda where we can here the
intonations of the main theme, strongly transfigured. The tensioned intonations from

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the exposition are replaced here with some of them affirming in C major-minor. Thus
we observe the open tonal structure of the form: A E (exposition) – A A C (reprise and
coda). As there was mentioned above, two interludes are placed between the parts of
the concerto. The first of them is Lento (parlando), situated between part I and II,
begins with the modified intonations of the main theme from the part I. If in coda of
part I, the main theme was diatonicised, here, contrarily, we observe its stronger
chromatization (example no. 12). In general, the entire interlude is dominated by the
chromatic movement, preponderantly descending, concentrated in the part of viola,
thus the interlude is perceive din fact as the second soloistic cadence. The interlude
ends with an intoned monody in the lower register of bassoon that sounds like a
contrasting replica toward the passages of viola. (Example no. 12):

The interlude ends with an intoned monody in the lower register of bassoon
that sounds like a contrasting replica toward the passages of viola.

As conclusion, the concert for viola and orchestra of Béla Bartók impresses by
a unique combination of strong contrasts: the primordial force, the emancipation of
the feelings is combined naturally with a rigorous intellect; the expressiveness and the
dynamism stay next to the concentrated detachment and the simplicity of folk images
complete with the refinement of philosophical meditation.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Ştefănescu, I. O istorie a muzicii universale. Bucureşti: Editura Fundaţiei Culturală

2. Asbell, S. A. Bela Bartók's Viola concerto: a detailed analysis and discussion of

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3. Béla Bartók Facsimile Edition of the Autograph Draft with a Commentary by
Laszlo Somfai & Fair Transcription of the Draft with Notes Prepared by Nelson
Dellamaggiore. Bartók Records, 1995

4. Dalton, D. The Genesis of Bartók's Viola Concerto. In: Music and Letters, arpril,
1976, Volume LVII, No. 2

5. Gillies, M. Bartók Bela. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
London: Oxford University Press, 1990, Vol.II

6. Suchoff, B. (ed.) Bela Bartók Essays. London: Faber and Faber, 1976

7. Heartz, D., Brown, B.A. Classical. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians. London: Oxford University Press, 1990, Vol.IV,

8. Hutchings, A., Talbot, M., Eisen, C., Botstein, L., Griffiths, P. Concerto. In: The
New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Oxford University Press,
1990, Vol. II

9. Badura-Skoda, E. Cadenza. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and

10. Greenberg R. The Concerto. The teaching company.

11. Wikipedia Online

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