String Quartets Nos 1 and 2 - Softcover

Bartok, Bela

Softcover

ISBN 10: 048643799X ISBN 13: 9780486437996

Publisher: Dover Publications Inc., 2004

Synopsis

The stirring first quartet captures the composer's great stylistic rebirth, from the Romanticism of the opening movement to a finale inspired by Hungarian folk tunes. The second quartet combines disparate influences into a work of astonishing force and originality.

About this title

Product Description

Acclaimed as the most important quartets since Beethoven, the six string quartets of Béla Bartók offer a summation of the composer's compositional style and development, and they constitute one of the great monuments of twentieth-century music. This outstanding new volume unites the first two of Bartók's chamber masterpieces.
The stirring first quartet, written in 1908, captures the composer's great stylistic rebirth, as the intense Romanticism of the opening movement gives way to a propulsive finale reflecting the composer's growing interest in Hungarian folk music. The second quartet, written during World War I, finds Bartók's creativity unimpeded by wartime privations. The three-movement work echoes the meditative qualities of the first quartet in its outer movements, but its lively central movement suggests the traditional music of North Africa. A combination of boldly disparate influences, it remains a work of astonishing force and originality.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dover Publications Inc.
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 048643799X
• ISBN 13: 9780486437996
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 88