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With or Without the B-A-C-H Motive? Bartók’s Hesitation in Writing His First String Quartet

Somfai, László (2019) With or Without the B-A-C-H Motive? Bartók’s Hesitation in Writing His First String Quartet. STUDIA MUSICOLOGICA: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY OF THE HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 60 (1-4). pp. 15-22. ISSN 1788-6244 (print); 1789-2422 (online)

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Abstract

Considering the appearance of the musical cryptogram “B-A-C-H” (B-flat–A–C–B-natural) in well-known works up to the time of his First String Quartet (1908/1909), Béla Bartók knew Liszt’s Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H, presumably also Schumann’s Sechs Fugen über den Namen Bach, and Reger’s Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H for organ. Such compositions quoted the celebrated motive, typically as a starting point, with the relevant (aforementioned) pitches because the musical cryptogram in this way allowed immediate recognition of the reference to the name of the Leipzig composer. However, Bartók’s planned “B-A-C-H” quotation in the development section of the sonata-form second movement of his First Quartet was not a typical homage to Johann Sebastian Bach but rather a vision: a distorted reference to the symbolic “B-A-C-H” motive. Undoubtedly Bartók liked this episode. There is reason to believe that his friend Zoltán Kodály advised him to leave out the inorganic and distorted “B-A-C-H” allusion.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: MTA KFB támogatási szerződés alapján archiválva
Uncontrolled Keywords: Béla Bartók; “B-A-C-H” motive; First String Quartet; composition history; Zoltán Kodály
Subjects: M Music and Books on Music / zene, szövegkönyvek, kották > M1 Music / zene
M Music and Books on Music / zene, szövegkönyvek, kották > M1 Music / zene > M10 Theory and philosophy of music / zeneelmélet, muzikológia
SWORD Depositor: MTMT SWORD
Depositing User: MTMT SWORD
Date Deposited: 23 Jul 2021 08:22
Last Modified: 23 Jul 2021 08:22
URI: http://real.mtak.hu/id/eprint/127669

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