The Orchestra of Béla Bartók, a Painter of Sound: Approaching the Viola Concerto

Vászka, Anikó and Pintér, Csilla Mária (2025) The Orchestra of Béla Bartók, a Painter of Sound: Approaching the Viola Concerto. STUDIA MUSICOLOGICA: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGY OF THE HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 65 (3-4). pp. 315-325. ISSN 1788-6244

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Abstract

Béla Bartók was a superb orchestrator with an exceptional sense of color. His scorings have fascinating effects with unique timbres that can be both subtle and dramatic. Colors are key components of his style. They do not function merely as a supplementary element of music but as an essential shaping force. Bartók's intense interest in the technical possibilities of the instruments concerning timbres and his constant search for new colors are also important characteristics of his way of thinking about orchestration. An outline of his 6th Harvard Lecture suggests that he would have emphasized the innovative aspect of his orchestration if illness had not prevented him from writing it. The present study, based on Anikó Vászka's Hungarian PhD dissertation Orchestration in Bartók's Workshop: The Expression of Individual Instrumental Timbres in the Orchestral Works, aims to summarize the most important features of Bartók's orchestration, highlighting the types of the orchestral ensembles he has formed or for which he composed, and his efforts to constantly expand and innovate sound possibilities. The investigation pays special attention to the compositions for solo instrument and orchestra, as well as the American orchestral works, in order to help reconstruct the orchestration of the Viola Concerto. Tibor Serly's attempt to assemble the Viola Concerto's ensemble is also discussed in the context of the present research findings.

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