More Music Not For You
Here is the promised 2nd movement of Béla Bartók's 2nd String Quartet from Quatuor Végh. Aren't these guys good -- I mean
really good.
This middle movement is considered a
rondo by musicologists. A rondo expresses the notion of music returning to a central theme, for example ABACABA is a 7 part roundo, where A is the central theme around which other episodes play out and then return to A. Rondo is also a dance, sometimes a simple circle of joined hands, sometime choreography with the same idea of a central theme surrounded by satellite movements.
This 2nd movement is high energy, I daresay it borders on the percussive -- Bartók loved percussion instruments and here in spots the strings are almost beating on one another. Bartók invented a type of pizzacato called the "snap pizzacato" where the performer pulls the string up rather than sideways which causes it to bounce off the fingerboard, yielding a percussive sound. I read that this movement was inspired by his to trip to Algeria.
The music is propulsive, dynamic and joyful and contrasts with the more contemplative 1st movement and the near tragic 3rd. The beginning of the 20th Century saw a 'weakening' of tonality coming out of the romantic slant of the late 19th. The composer did not need melody and completion to express himself.
I find it truly amazing that someone (Bartók) could write these string quartets and find it equally amazing to experience the talent of the performance.
Béla Bartók Les Six Quators
Quatuor Végh
Valois CMB 23 Box Set
1972
Some may see the background lighting jitter, mea culpa, which 'enhances' the general nervous character of the music. This is from an LED light on the other side of the room. Not on the same circuit as the stereo.