LISTENING GUIDE RTÓK (1943) One of artók s last works, the was premiered by the oston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall on December 1, 1944. The score was a commission from Serge Koussevitsky, the orchestra s conductor, and artók dedicated it to Koussevitsky s late wife, Natalie. lthough other composers in the early twentieth century had written works in this genre, it was artók s that served as the inspiration for many later examples. Timpani Percussion Horns Trumpets Trombones Clarinets assoons Tuba 2nd Violins Flutes Oboes Cellos asses Harps 1st Violins Violas This diagram shows the seating plan for the erliner Philharmoniker performance of this work with conductor David Zinman on October 25, 2008. 2017 The Juilliard School. ll rights reserved. 1
RTÓK I. INTRODUZIONE Introduction mm. 1 75 mm. 76 230 Development mm. 231 396 mm. 397 521 Intro PT TR ST D ST TR PT Coda Development Introduction 00:26 Introduction The cellos and basses present three successively more developed statements of a slow, legato figure, punctuated by quiet interpolations in the violins and flutes. The last of these is followed by an improvisatory flute solo, which prefigures the trumpet theme in the next section. 02:17 Introduction The figure from the lower strings becomes regularized as an accompaniment to the trumpet theme, itself a more well-defined variant of the preceding flute melody. 03:11 Introduction The upper strings and woodwinds present a forceful, elaborate variant of the trumpet theme. t the end of the section, the full orchestra plays an accelerating pattern that transforms gradually into the primary theme. 04:05 Primary Theme The violins start the primary theme. Like the bass melody of the introduction, the theme has elements of palindrome - the second phrase group inverts the contour of the first. The irregular meter suggests the rhythms of a ulgarian folk dance. 05:09 Secondary Theme The music slows down considerably for the secondary theme, marked as Tranquillo. folk-like theme is played first by the oboe and then spreads to the other woodwind instruments. The melody shares characteristics with folk melodies from iskra, North frica, that artók collected. 06:41 Development The first section of the development focuses on the primary theme, passing the main motive around the orchestra. 07:15 Development The middle of the development returns to the Tranquillo character of the secondary theme. gain, solos in the wind instruments guide the music. 08:02 Development This final section of the development focuses on imitation. The trombone s melody from the transition is passed around the orchestra. Leading to the recapitulation, artók uses this imitation technique heavily in the brass; the texture becomes so complex it is hard to follow a single instrument s line. 09:02 Secondary Theme artók liked to create palindromes in his pieces. In order to do this with sonata form, he placed the secondary theme before the primary theme in the recapitulation. 10:33 Primary Theme The primary theme is recapitulated and increases in energy to the end of the movement. 10:50 Coda The brass loudly declare the theme from the trombone solo in the exposition transition. The quality of the line is much more confident with all of the brass doubling. 2017 The Juilliard School. ll rights reserved. 2
RTÓK II. GIOUCO DELLE COPPIE ( GME OF COUPLES ) mm. 1 122 mm. 123 164 mm. 165 263 00:41 fter a short introduction by the side drum, the section features each of the wind instrument pairs in turn, starting with the bassoons and moving through the oboes, clarinets, flutes, and trumpets. The pairs always play together in harmony. Each instrument is accompanied in a different way by the strings. 01:05 The middle section of the movement features the brass section playing chorales. 01:28 When the section returns, each of the duos gains extra decoration. For example, a third bassoon is added to the bassoon duet, and the clarinets join the oboe duet. III. ELEGI Section mm. 1 33 (a) Section mm. 34 61 (b) Section mm. 62 83 (a) Section mm. 84 100 Section mm. 101 128 (a) (b) (c) Section Section Section 17:28 The section contains multiple parts. The bass melody at the opening is reminiscent of the first movement's introduction. Following this is some of artók's characteristic "night music," featuring the woodwinds and harps over tremolo strings. Mysterious interweaving scales in the flutes and clarinets make way for a piccolo solo. 19:27 (a) The violins loudly announce the start of the section, which has a recitative-like character. The violins play in heated dialogue with the first trumpet. The rest of the orchestra provides dramatic swooping gestures between declarations by the violins. 21:06 (b) The violas continue this more speech-like style of playing, now with more subtle accompaniment in muted strings and harps. The music reaches a climax before the repeat of the (a) section. Notice that the form of the movement is a palindrome, and (b) is the center. 22:18 (a) The violins assert themselves loudly again, this time with more active, melodic music accompanying them. The violins painfully descend to a lower register as a transition back to the section. 23:11 The bass melody appears again, introducing the return of the section. Most of the music from the orginal section returns, but artók removes the interweaving, ascending wind scales. In place of this material, he includes another occurrence of the opening melody, this time played by the violins. 2017 The Juilliard School. ll rights reserved. 3
RTÓK IV. INTERMEZZO INTERROTTO Coda mm. 145 151 mm. 136 144 mm. 1 41 mm. 42 61 mm. 62 74 C mm. 75 119 mm. 120 135 Intro C Coda 25:11 Intro The strings begin the movement with a dramatic introductory gesture. 25:16 The section music is characterized by woodwind solos. It begins with an oboe solo, followed by clarinet and flute, and then horn. The melody has a folk-like quality. 26:14 The violas play a vocal melody, accompanied by the harps. The drama is enhanced by the violins in the following phrase. 25:56 The oboe plays one more statement of the theme and the music gradually transitions. 27:16 C This interruption quotes Shostakovich s Seventh Symphony, first heard in the clarinet solo. The sour wrong notes suggest that this reference may not be out of admiration. 28:08 Following the interruption, the music continues as it was, first recapitulating the theme. 28:43 When the section returns, it has been fragmented, as if it cannot figure out how to return to the beginning of the movement. The flute embellishes its solo this time with a cadenza. 29:20 Coda The movement concludes with a few more fragments of the theme in the winds. The theme has been inverted, so that it now falls instead of rises. 2017 The Juilliard School. ll rights reserved. 4
RTÓK V. FINLE mm. 1 255 Development mm. 256 383 mm. 384 625 Intro PT TR ST D PT TR Fanfare 1 ST Development 29:44 Intro The horns begin the movement with a triumphant fanfare. This gesture returns at important moments throughout the movement. 29:52 Primary Theme The violins begin the primary theme by playing rapid perpetual-motion scales. The scales build to a climax, at which point an important motive appears. ll of the music in the primary theme refers to Romanian folk dance styles, as can be heard in the cellos strumming effect at the start. 30:28 Primary Theme The orchestration becomes thicker here, with the winds adding to string scales. Listen for the horns providing the dance-like rhythm beneath the surface of rapid notes. 31:06 Primary Theme Here the winds trade off short melodies. The harps enter and combine in an interesting way with the trills and harmonics in the low strings. 31:25 Primary Theme The rapid scales emerge again and crescendo, only to disintegrate by the end of the section. 31:50 Transition The transition takes the opening horn fanfare and rescores it as a fugue for the winds. Notice how the different lengths of notes help to differentiate the instruments as more join the texture. slower section ensues before the secondary theme. 32:01 Secondary Theme The secondary theme has a folk-like quality. It builds from a few winds to a loud climax by the full orchestra. Here another fanfare in the brass appears. The repeat of the melody is actually an inversion, meaning the contour of the line flips downward leaps become upward leaps and vice versa. 33:39 Development The development starts with an intriguing new texture featuring the harps and string harmonics. This introduces a fugato section featuring the fanfare from the preceding section. 34:40 Development This section of the development features extensive use of imitation, based on motives heard earlier in the piece. This continues for quite some time, contrasting different groups of the orchestra. 35:42 Primary Theme The running violin scales from the exposition return to signify the start of the recapitulation. 36:11 Primary Theme This time, when artók reaches the climax of his scales, he changes how the motive is presented. Instead of placing it as a cap at the end of the phrase, he spins it out freely, as a transition. 36:42 Transition The slow transition from the exposition appears again. This time the violins melody is presented in octaves, rather than chords, giving it a thinner, more sharply cut, sound. 37:25 Fanfare 1 The running string scales return, transformed to a different rhythm and using the sul ponticello technique, in which the string player places the bow close to the bridge for an icy, mysterious sound. Individual instruments emerge from the texture, playing the introduction s fanfare theme. 38:14 Secondary Theme The brass enter to push the piece to the end. They recall the fanfare from the secondary theme, even louder and more insistent than before. 2017 The Juilliard School. ll rights reserved. 5