DCCCXII. BARTÓK, Béla (1881-1945)
Out of Doors (1926)
1. With Drums and Pipes -- Pesante
2. Barcarolla -- Andante
3. Musettes -- Moderato
4. The Night's Music -- Lento -- (Un poco) più andante
5. The Chase -- Presto
Mark Taratushkin, piano
(13:57)
Bartók's compositions from the mid-20s comprise some of the most adventurous and exciting works of that era -- the middle three string quartets (#3 1927, 4 1928, and 5 1934); the Piano Sonata; and the first Piano Concerto.
Having heard Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (1923-24), Bartók began to think of the piano as more of a percussion instrument.
The work calls for a talented pianist. This is difficult music. Taratushkin plays from memory.
1. With Drums and Pipes -- Pesante
This astonishing music is the only movement based on a specific folk song -- Gólya, gólya, gilice:
A Turkish child cut it, a Hungarian child cured it.
With a whistle, with a drum, and with a reed violin.
Bartok named the movement Sippal, dobbal -- literally with a whistle and a drum, froms bars 9 and 10.
The movement begins with the "drums and pipes" motif -- in the piano's lowest register -- and gradually introduces a less percussive, legato section.
A soft rolling motion and a continuous flow of 1/8th-notes in the left hand while the right plays high rhythmically-disjointed notes ...
3. Musettes -- Moderato
Bartók had been studying Baroque music. He must have come across Couperin's famous keyboard piece, Fastes de la grande, et Ancienne-Mxnxstrxndxsx. [The unpronounceable last word is actually Ménétriers. The story is fascinating!]
A musette is a weird bagpipe:
An omnipresent clever cluster chord (E-Sharp, F-Sharp, G, G-Sharp and A) serves as a springboard for Bartók's imitation of the sounds of a Hungarian summer night.
This idea of "night music" (qv Mahler) would fascinate him from here on forward.
Related to the chase scene in The Miraculous Mandarin (1918-24) and very similar to the second movement of the Fourth Quartet.
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