The movement starts with the horn sections in unision presenting some rapid changes in modality. The opening bar suggests C major (or minor) with a rising octave, immediately followed by four descending quavers that that suggest G major with the use of a sharpened F. In bar three it seems like we have returned to C with a run up the scale, but the scale finishes a note early in the fourth bar as it pauses on a Bb. Are we now in F Major I wonder? The next bar the piece takes off and we are presented with a continual pizzicato quavers from the cellos and violas, outlining a cluster chord built on E.
A section that really caught my eye was a simple but effective augmentation of a basic rhythm from Bar 468. Triplet crochets are followed by crochets, which are followed by minims, which are then followed by tied minims. It works especially well as it is a descending phrase, so the lower it gets, the more drawn out it is.
The trumpets announce a considerably lengthy melodic phrase about a third of the way through. It’s drawn out a bit like a sausage dog, with what initially felt like too many repeated quavers in the middle of the material. It is hard to tell if this phrase is composed used the multiple little motifs featured in the work, or if the work is composed using small fragments of this phrase.
I’m wanting to develop my writing for strings more at the moment, and found this score to demonstrate a variety of really effective ideas.
Warren
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