History AwesomeMusic / BelaBartok

Music/BelaBartok is sometimes named alongside the more famous "three [=Bs=]" ([[Music/JohannSebastianBach Bach]], [[Music/LudwigVanBeethoven Beethoven]], and [[Creator/JohannesBrahms Brahms]]) to complete a quartet of great composers of every era from Baroque to early 20th century - and with good reason.

* With due respect to those by Music/MauriceRavel, Music/ElliottCarter, Music/ArnoldSchoenberg, Music/AlbanBerg, Music/AntonWebern, Music/DmitriShostakovich, and [[Music/LeosJanacek Leoš Janáček]], Bartók's six string quartets are collectively regarded as the greatest 20th century quartets, and provide a compact picture of his development as a composer, particularly his lifelong fascination with Hungarian folk melodies.

* With the possible exception of Music/MauriceRavel's String Quartet in F major and the four quartets by Music/ElliottCarter, Bartók's six string quartets are collectively regarded as the greatest 20th century quartets, and provide a compact picture of his development as a composer, particularly his lifelong fascination with Hungarian folk melodies.

* With the possible exception of Music/MauriceRavel's String Quartet in F major, Bartók's six string quartets are collectively regarded as the greatest 20th century quartets, and provide a compact picture of his development as a composer, particularly his lifelong fascination with Hungarian folk melodies.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68SkzGb6Ww Concerto for Orchestra]] is one of 20th century classical music's masterworks, in which Bartók's flair for orchestration is on full display as each section gets time in the spotlight (hence the apparently contradictory title), and his command of the "arch" structure reaches its zenith. The expansive first movement introduces themes which recur throughout the work. The second movement scherzo, subtitled "Presentation of Couples" (or sometimes "Game of Pairs"), sees the woodwind instruments pair off to play parallel melodies, with different pairs separated by different intervals[[note]] The bassoons are a sixth apart, the oboes a third apart, the clarinets a seventh apart, the flutes a fifth apart, and the trumpets a second apart.[[/note]] and side drum accompaniment throughout. The slow, haunting third movement, subtitled "Elegy", is the apex of Bartók's "night music". The grotesquely comic fourth movement, subtitled "Intermezzo interrupted", is another shining example of Bartók's penchant for musical satire[[note]] Though the "interruption" is sometimes claimed to parody the "Invading army" theme from Music/DmitriShostakovich's Symphony No.7 in C major (''Leningrad''), a piece Bartók is known to have hated, his friends insisted that he was instead parodying one of the same tunes used by Shostakovich to fashion said theme, namely "Da geh' ich zu Maxim" from Franz Lehár's comic opera ''The Merry Widow''. Shostakovich himself was not convinced and did not take kindly to the implied criticism, putting a revenge parody of Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion in the second movement of his Symphony No.13 in B-flat minor (''Babi Yar'').[[/note]] and features a passage in which the timpanist must play ten different tones on just four drums in under 20 seconds. Finally, the triumphant finale brings the entire orchestra together in a whirlwind of folk melodies and counterpoint; the opening brass call is one of his more familiar melodies.

** The fast, flighty movement is in the middle of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Sf7TRLMek No.2 in A minor]] rather than at the end, making it an early example of the "arch" structure Bartók went on to use extensively in his long-form compositions.[[note]] The "arch" structure is characterised by symmetrical tempo designations, usually either fast-slow-fast-slow-fast (where the middle three can sometimes be a single slow movement with a fast central episode) or fast-fast-slow-fast-fast. This was not Bartók's invention; among others, Beethoven's String Quartet No.15 is a fast-fast-slow-fast-fast example, while Schubert's ''Trout'' Quintet is a fast-slow-fast-slow-fast example. However, Bartók made it something of a signature of his style in longform works.[[/note]]

** The fast, flighty movement is in the middle of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Sf7TRLMek No.2 in A minor]] rather than at the end, making it an early example of the "arch" structure Bartók went on to use extensively in his long-form compositions.[[note]] The "arch" structure is characterised by symmetric tempo designations, usually either fast-slow-fast-slow-fast (where the middle three can sometimes be a single slow movement with a fast central episode) or fast-fast-slow-fast-fast. This was not Bartók's invention; among others, Beethoven's String Quartet No.15 is a fast-fast-slow-fast-fast example, while Schubert's ''Trout'' Quintet is a fast-slow-fast-slow-fast example. However, Bartók made it something of a signature of his style in longform works.[[/note]]

* With the possible exception of the String Quartet in F major by Music/MauriceRavel, Bartók's six string quartets are collectively regarded as the greatest 20th century quartets, and provide a compact picture of his development as a composer, particularly his lifelong fascination with Hungarian folk melodies.

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68SkzGb6Ww Concerto for Orchestra]] is one of 20th century classical music's masterworks, in which Bartók's flair for orchestration is on full display as each section gets time in the spotlight (hence the apparently contradictory title), and his command of the "arch" structure reaches its zenith. The expansive first movement introduces themes which recur throughout the work. The second movement scherzo, subtitled "Presentation of Couples" (or sometimes "Game of Pairs"), sees the woodwind instruments pair off to play parallel melodies, with different pairs separated by different intervals[[note]] The bassoons are a sixth apart, the oboes a third apart, the clarinets a seventh apart, the flutes a fifth apart, and the trumpets a second apart.[[/note]] and side drum accompaniment throughout. The slow, haunting third movement, subtitled "Elegy", is the apex of Bartók's "night music". The grotesquely comic fourth movement, subtitled "Intermezzo interrupted", is another shining example of Bartók's penchant for musical satire[[note]] Though the "interruption" is sometimes claimed to parody the "Invading army" theme from Music/DmitriShostakovich's Symphony No.7 (''Leningrad''), a piece Bartók is known to have hated, his friends insisted that he was instead parodying one of the same tunes used by Shostakovich to fashion said theme, namely "Da geh' ich zu Maxim" from Franz Lehár's comic opera ''The Merry Widow''. Shostakovich himself was not convinced and did not take kindly to the implied criticism, putting a revenge parody of Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion in the second movement of his Symphony No.13 in B-flat minor (''Babi Yar'').[[/note]] and features a passage in which the timpanist must play ten different tones on just four drums in under 20 seconds. Finally, the triumphant finale brings the entire orchestra together in a whirlwind of folk melodies and counterpoint; the opening brass call is one of his more familiar melodies.

** Perhaps the most popular of the three, the sunny, optimistic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7J7L53b8U0 No.3 in E major]] may be the least technically difficult[[note]] Bartók wrote the concerto for his wife as he was dying of leukaemia so that she would have a potential income stream after his death, but he died before completing the orchestration of the finale, a task that fell to his student Tibor Serly.[[/note]], but it is also the most accessible to listeners. A lyrical first movement with numerous memorable melodies is followed by an almost hymnlike second movement marked ''Adagio religioso'' (another "night music" movement with a brilliantly fast episode at its core, making the concerto another "arch" composition), which leads without a break into a bright finale with a triumphant coda.
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68SkzGb6Ww Concerto for Orchestra]] is one of 20th century classical music's masterworks, in which Bartók's flair for orchestration is on full display as each section gets time in the spotlight (hence the apparently contradictory title), and his command of the "arch" structure reaches its zenith. The expansive first movement introduces themes which recur throughout the work. The second movement scherzo, subtitled "Presentation of Couples" (or sometimes "Game of Pairs"), sees the woodwind instruments pair off to play parallel melodies, with different pairs separated by different intervals[[note]] The bassoons are a sixth apart, the oboes a third apart, the clarinets a seventh apart, the flutes a fifth apart, and the trumpets a second apart.[[/note]] and side drum accompaniment throughout. The slow, haunting third movement, subtitled "Elegy", is the apex of Bartók's "night music". The grotesquely comic fourth movement, subtitled "Intermezzo interrupted", is another shining example of Bartók's penchant for musical satire[[note]] Though the "interruption" is sometimes claimed to parody the "Invading army" theme from Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No.7 (''Leningrad''), a piece Bartók is known to have hated, his friends insisted that he was instead parodying one of the same tunes used by Shostakovich to fashion said theme, namely "Da geh' ich zu Maxim" from Franz Lehár's comic opera ''The Merry Widow''. Shostakovich himself was not convinced and did not take kindly to the implied criticism, putting a revenge parody of Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion in the second movement of his Symphony No.13 (''Babi Yar'').[[/note]] and features a passage in which the timpanist must play ten different tones on just four drums in under 20 seconds. Finally, the triumphant finale brings the entire orchestra together in a whirlwind of folk melodies and counterpoint; the opening brass call is one of his more familiar melodies.

Music/BelaBartok is sometimes named alongside the more famous "three [=Bs=]" (Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms) to complete a quartet of great composers of every era from Baroque to early 20th century - and with good reason.

** The fast, flighty movement is in the middle of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Sf7TRLMek No.2 in A minor]] rather than at the end, making it an early example of the "arch" structure Bartók went on to use extensively in his longform compositions.[[note]] The "arch" structure is characterised by symmetric tempo designations, usually either fast-slow-fast-slow-fast (where the middle three can sometimes be a single slow movement with a fast central episode) or fast-fast-slow-fast-fast. This was not Bartók's invention; among others, Beethoven's String Quartet No.15 is a fast-fast-slow-fast-fast example, while Schubert's ''Trout'' Quintet is a fast-slow-fast-slow-fast example. However, Bartók made it something of a signature of his style in longform works.[[/note]]

* With the possible exception of the Ravel quartet (see corresponding entry), Bartók's six string quartets are collectively regarded as the greatest 20th century quartets, and provide a compact picture of his development as a composer, particularly his lifelong fascination with Hungarian folk melodies.

** The brash, upbeat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z_ICVD4nDU No.2 in G major]] is even more technically demanding than No.1,[[note]] Indeed, it is sometimes named as one of the most difficult concerti in the standard repertoire. Hungarian pianist András Schiff said, "For the piano player, it's a finger-breaking piece. [It] is probably the single most difficult piece that I have ever played, and I usually end up with a keyboard covered by blood." American pianist Stephen Kovacevich also declared that it was the most technically demanding piece he had ever played and that he nearly paralysed his hands while preparing the piece.[[/note]] but is thus even more exhilarating to listeners (the simpler melodic language also makes it more accessible), and once again shows Bartók's skill with orchestration. The energetic first movement features just woodwinds, brass, and percussion accompanying the piano, while the "night music" second movement places two ethereal chorale-like slow passages with muted strings and timpani either side of a frantic virtuoso whirlwind for the pianist accompanied by all sections of the orchestra (but never all at once), and the third movement completes the "arch" by re-working the themes of the first movement as Bartók finally brings the entire orchestra together with the soloist for a brilliant conclusion.

** The brash, upbeat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z_ICVD4nDU No.2 in G major]] is even more technically demanding than No. 1,[[note]] Indeed, it is sometimes named as one of the most difficult concerti in the standard repertoire. Hungarian pianist András Schiff said, "For the piano player, it's a finger-breaking piece. [It] is probably the single most difficult piece that I have ever played, and I usually end up with a keyboard covered by blood." American pianist Stephen Kovacevich also declared that it was the most technically demanding piece he had ever played and that he nearly paralysed his hands while preparing the piece.[[/note]] but is thus even more exhilarating to listeners (the simpler melodic language also makes it more accessible), and once again shows Bartók's skill with orchestration. The energetic first movement features just woodwinds, brass, and percussion accompanying the piano, while the "night music" second movement places two ethereal chorale-like slow passages with muted strings and timpani either side of a frantic virtuoso whirlwind for the pianist accompanied by all sections of the orchestra (but never all at once), and the third movement completes the "arch" by re-working the themes of the first movement as Bartók finally brings the entire orchestra together with the soloist for a brilliant conclusion.

** Perhaps the most popular of the three, the sunny, optimistic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7J7L53b8U0 No.3 in E major]] may be the least technically difficult[[note]] Bartók wrote the concerto for his wife as he was dying of leukaemia so that she would have a potential income stream after his death, but he died before completing the orchestration of the finale, a task that fell to his student Tibor Serly.[[/note]], but it is also the most accessible to listeners. A lyrical first movement with numerous memorable melodies is followed by an almost hymn-like second movement marked ''Adagio religioso'' (another "night music" movement with a brilliantly fast episode at its core, making the concerto another "arch" composition), which leads without a break into a bright finale with a triumphant coda.

** The brash, upbeat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z_ICVD4nDU No.2 in G major]] is even more technically demanding than No. 1,[[note]] Indeed, it is sometimes named as one of the most difficult concerti in the standard repertoire. András Schiff said, "For the piano player, it's a finger-breaking piece. [It] is probably the single most difficult piece that I have ever played, and I usually end up with a keyboard covered by blood." Stephen Kovacevich also declared that it was the most technically demanding piece he had ever played and that he nearly paralysed his hands while preparing the piece.[[/note]] but is thus even more exhilarating to listeners (the simpler melodic language also makes it more accessible), and once again shows Bartók's skill with orchestration. The energetic first movement features just woodwinds, brass, and percussion accompanying the piano, while the "night music" second movement places two ethereal chorale-like slow passages with muted strings and timpani either side of a frantic virtuoso whirlwind for the pianist accompanied by all sections of the orchestra (but never all at once), and the third movement completes the "arch" by re-working the themes of the first movement as Bartók finally brings the entire orchestra together with the soloist for a brilliant conclusion.

** The brash, upbeat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z_ICVD4nDU No.2 in G major]] is even more technically demanding than No. 1,[[note]] Indeed, it is sometimes named as one of the most difficult concerti in the standard repertoire. András Schiff said, "For the piano player, it's a finger-breaking piece. [It] is probably the single most difficult piece that I have ever played, and I usually end up with a keyboard covered by blood." Stephen Kovacevich also declared that it was the most technically demanding piece he had ever played and that he nearly paralyzed his hands while preparing the piece.[[/note]] but is thus even more exhilarating to listeners (the simpler melodic language also makes it more accessible), and once again shows Bartók's skill with orchestration. The energetic first movement features just woodwinds, brass, and percussion accompanying the piano, while the "night music" second movement places two ethereal chorale-like slow passages with muted strings and timpani either side of a frantic virtuoso whirlwind for the pianist accompanied by all sections of the orchestra (but never all at once), and the third movement completes the "arch" by re-working the themes of the first movement as Bartók finally brings the entire orchestra together with the soloist for a brilliant conclusion.
** Perhaps the most popular of the three, the sunny, optimistic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7J7L53b8U0 No.3 in E major]] may be the least technically difficult[[note]] Bartók wrote the concerto for his wife as he was dying of leukemia so that she would have a potential income stream after his death, but he died before completing the orchestration of the finale, a task that fell to his student Tibor Serly.[[/note]], but it is also the most accessible to listeners. A lyrical first movement with numerous memorable melodies is followed by an almost hymn-like second movement marked ''Adagio religioso'' (another "night music" movement with a brilliantly fast episode at its core, making the concerto another "arch" composition), which leads without a break into a bright finale with a triumphant coda.

** With the possible exception of the Ravel quartet (see corresponding entry), Bartók's six string quartets are collectively regarded as the greatest 20th century quartets, and provide a compact picture of his development as a composer, particularly his lifelong fascination with Hungarian folk melodies.
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6j8z-H4DYs No. 1 in A minor]] moves without break across three movements from solemnity to life-affirming energy, hurtling full tilt toward the open fifth chords in its final measure.
*** The fast, flighty movement is in the middle of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Sf7TRLMek No. 2 in A minor]] rather than at the end, making it an early example of the "arch" structure Bartók went on to use extensively in his longform compositions.[[note]] The "arch" structure is characterised by symmetric tempo designations, usually either fast-slow-fast-slow-fast (where the middle three can sometimes be a single slow movement with a fast central episode) or fast-fast-slow-fast-fast. This was not Bartók's invention; among others, Beethoven's String Quartet No.15 is a fast-fast-slow-fast-fast example, while Schubert's ''Trout'' Quintet is a fast-slow-fast-slow-fast example. However, Bartók made it something of a signature of his style in longform works.[[/note]]
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_AUleJ4XLU No. 3 in C-sharp major]] is in one tightly constructed movement that expertly presents and develops its melodic ideas, and also provides an early example of another Bartók hallmark: a slow "night music" passage characterised by dissonantly ethereal accompaniments to nature-like noises and isolated melodies. Like the first quartet, No.3 gallops full speed toward a final chord that is all fourths and fifths.
*** The harmonically forward-looking [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS-Q8ua-33k No. 4 in C major]] sees the "arch" structure more fully developed into five movements, with a slow "night music" central movement framed by two thematically linked scherzi and two thematically linked outer movements; the two scherzi, one played entirely with mutes and the other entirely pizzicato (in some passages, Bartók specifies that the strings should be plucked with enough force to strike the fingerboard as they rebound, a technique now known as "Bartók pizzicato"), are highlights.
*** The intensely virtuosic [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMjRjLHbacw No. 5 in B-flat major]] was written several years after No.4, and is another "arch" quartet in five movements with a scherzo inspired by Bulgarian folk music at its centre and two slow "night music" movements either side of it, while the first and last movements are arches within arches as they present melodic ideas and then re-visit them in reverse order (inverting them in the process in the first movement). The finale ties up the quartet neatly by finding new ideas in the first movement material, and the banal "mistuned" scalar passage just before the end - marked "Allegretto con indifferenza" - is a gleefully vicious satire of how a less talented, more reactionary composer would have treated the same material.
*** And finally, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMFW7AmHLng No. 6 in D major]] finds Bartók still experimenting with form; each of the four movements opens with the same melodic idea, marked "Mesto" ("Sadly"), and each time the introduction is longer and adds an extra contrapuntal voice until, in the finale, it becomes the entire movement, bringing us back to earth with a crash after the sonata allegro, march, and burlesque of the first three movements.[[note]] This wasn't Bartók's original plan; sketches for the quartet reveal the finale started out as a dance inspired by Romanian folk music, but he re-worked it as an elegy, possibly out of grief at his mother's terminal illness and the war engulfing Europe as he began the quartet.[[/note]]
** Bartók's three piano concerti are among the best the first half of the twentieth century has to offer.
*** The jagged, percussive [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97HvdYjOYrY No. 1 in E]][[note]] Though E is clearly the tonal centre of the concerto, whether it is major or minor is ambiguous until the major mode emerges triumphant in the final bars.[[/note]] is perhaps the least popular of the three due to its less accessible melodic and harmonic structure, but its huge technical demands on both the soloist and the orchestra make it exhilarating to hear, and the eerie second movement (another piece of "night music") for piano, woodwinds, and percussion shows Bartók's mastery of almost melodic, rather than purely rhythmic, use of drums, cymbals, and gongs.
*** The brash, upbeat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z_ICVD4nDU No. 2 in G major]] is even more technically demanding than No. 1,[[note]] Indeed, it is sometimes named as one of the most difficult concerti in the standard repertoire. András Schiff said, "For the piano player, it's a finger-breaking piece. [It] is probably the single most difficult piece that I have ever played, and I usually end up with a keyboard covered by blood." Stephen Kovacevich also declared that it was the most technically demanding piece he had ever played and that he nearly paralyzed his hands while preparing the piece.[[/note]] but is thus even more exhilarating to listeners (the simpler melodic language also makes it more accessible), and once again shows Bartók's skill with orchestration. The energetic first movement features just woodwinds, brass, and percussion accompanying the piano, while the "night music" second movement places two ethereal chorale-like slow passages with muted strings and timpani either side of a frantic virtuoso whirlwind for the pianist accompanied by all sections of the orchestra (but never all at once), and the third movement completes the "arch" by re-working the themes of the first movement as Bartók finally brings the entire orchestra together with the soloist for a brilliant conclusion.
*** Perhaps the most popular of the three, the sunny, optimistic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7J7L53b8U0 No. 3 in E major]] may be the least technically difficult[[note]] Bartók wrote the concerto for his wife as he was dying of leukemia so that she would have a potential income stream after his death, but he died before completing the orchestration of the finale, a task that fell to his student Tibor Serly.[[/note]], but it is also the most accessible to listeners. A lyrical first movement with numerous memorable melodies is followed by an almost hymn-like second movement marked ''Adagio religioso'' (another "night music" movement with a brilliantly fast episode at its core, making the concerto another "arch" composition), which leads without a break into a bright finale with a triumphant coda.
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68SkzGb6Ww Concerto for Orchestra]] is one of 20th century classical music's masterworks, in which Bartók's flair for orchestration is on full display as each section gets time in the spotlight (hence the apparently contradictory title), and his command of the "arch" structure reaches its zenith. The expansive first movement introduces themes which recur throughout the work. The second movement scherzo, subtitled "Presentation of Couples" (or sometimes "Game of Pairs"), sees the woodwind instruments pair off to play parallel melodies, with different pairs separated by different intervals[[note]] The bassoons are a sixth apart, the oboes a third apart, the clarinets a seventh apart, the flutes a fifth apart, and the trumpets a second apart.[[/note]] and side drum accompaniment throughout. The slow, haunting third movement, subtitled "Elegy", is the apex of Bartók's "night music". The grotesquely comic fourth movement, subtitled "Intermezzo interrupted", is another shining example of Bartók's penchant for musical satire[[note]] Though the "interruption" is sometimes claimed to parody the "Invading army" theme from Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 (''Leningrad''), a piece Bartók is known to have hated, his friends insisted that he was instead parodying one of the same tunes used by Shostakovich to fashion said theme, namely "Da geh' ich zu Maxim" from Franz Lehár's comic opera ''The Merry Widow''. Shostakovich himself was not convinced and did not take kindly to the implied criticism, putting a revenge parody of Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion in the second movement of his Symphony No. 13 (''Babi Yar'').[[/note]] and features a passage in which the timpanist must play ten different tones on just four drums in under 20 seconds. Finally, the triumphant finale brings the entire orchestra together in a whirlwind of folk melodies and counterpoint; the opening brass call is one of his more familiar melodies.
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFTGdFuUdAU Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta]] is another showcase for Bartók's gift for orchestration, particularly for percussion, as well as his mastery of counterpoint, with the fugal subject of the first movement providing the germ for many of the melodic and counter-melodic ideas in the other three movements.

* Music/BelaBartok is sometimes named alongside the more famous "three [=Bs=]" (Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms) to complete a quartet of great composers of every era from Baroque to early 20th century - and with good reason.

*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6j8z-H4DYs No.1 in A minor]] moves without break across three movements from solemnity to life-affirming energy, hurtling full tilt toward the open fifth chords in its final measure.
*** The fast, flighty movement is in the middle of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Sf7TRLMek No.2 in A minor]] rather than at the end, making it an early example of the "arch" structure Bartók went on to use extensively in his longform compositions.[[note]] The "arch" structure is characterised by symmetric tempo designations, usually either fast-slow-fast-slow-fast (where the middle three can sometimes be a single slow movement with a fast central episode) or fast-fast-slow-fast-fast. This was not Bartók's invention; among others, Beethoven's String Quartet No.15 is a fast-fast-slow-fast-fast example, while Schubert's ''Trout'' Quintet is a fast-slow-fast-slow-fast example. However, Bartók made it something of a signature of his style in longform works.[[/note]]
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_AUleJ4XLU No.3 in C-sharp major]] is in one tightly constructed movement that expertly presents and develops its melodic ideas, and also provides an early example of another Bartók hallmark: a slow "night music" passage characterised by dissonantly ethereal accompaniments to nature-like noises and isolated melodies. Like the first quartet, No.3 gallops full speed toward a final chord that is all fourths and fifths.
*** The harmonically forward-looking [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS-Q8ua-33k No.4 in C major]] sees the "arch" structure more fully developed into five movements, with a slow "night music" central movement framed by two thematically linked scherzi and two thematically linked outer movements; the two scherzi, one played entirely with mutes and the other entirely pizzicato (in some passages, Bartók specifies that the strings should be plucked with enough force to strike the fingerboard as they rebound, a technique now known as "Bartók pizzicato"), are highlights.
*** The intensely virtuosic [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMjRjLHbacw No.5 in B-flat major]] was written several years after No.4, and is another "arch" quartet in five movements with a scherzo inspired by Bulgarian folk music at its centre and two slow "night music" movements either side of it, while the first and last movements are arches within arches as they present melodic ideas and then re-visit them in reverse order (inverting them in the process in the first movement). The finale ties up the quartet neatly by finding new ideas in the first movement material, and the banal "mistuned" scalar passage just before the end - marked "Allegretto con indifferenza" - is a gleefully vicious satire of how a less talented, more reactionary composer would have treated the same material.
*** And finally, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMFW7AmHLng No.6 in D major]] finds Bartók still experimenting with form; each of the four movements opens with the same melodic idea, marked "Mesto" ("Sadly"), and each time the introduction is longer and adds an extra contrapuntal voice until, in the finale, it becomes the entire movement, bringing us back to earth with a crash after the sonata allegro, march, and burlesque of the first three movements.[[note]] This wasn't Bartók's original plan; sketches for the quartet reveal the finale started out as a dance inspired by Romanian folk music, but he re-worked it as an elegy, possibly out of grief at his mother's terminal illness and the war engulfing Europe as he began the quartet.[[/note]]

*** The jagged, percussive [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97HvdYjOYrY No.1 in E]][[note]] Though E is clearly the tonal centre of the concerto, whether it is major or minor is ambiguous until the major mode emerges triumphant in the final bars.[[/note]] is perhaps the least popular of the three due to its less accessible melodic and harmonic structure, but its huge technical demands on both the soloist and the orchestra make it exhilarating to hear, and the eerie second movement (another piece of "night music") for piano, woodwinds, and percussion shows Bartók's mastery of almost melodic, rather than purely rhythmic, use of drums, cymbals, and gongs.
*** The brash, upbeat [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z_ICVD4nDU No.2 in G major]] is even more technically demanding than No. 1,[[note]] Indeed, it is sometimes named as one of the most difficult concerti in the standard repertoire. The Hungarian pianist András Schiff claims that his keyboard is often covered in blood when he plays it, and the American pianist Stephen Kovacevich has said he nearly paralysed his hands learning it.[[/note]] but is thus even more exhilarating to listeners (the simpler melodic language also makes it more accessible), and once again shows Bartók's skill with orchestration. The energetic first movement features just woodwinds, brass, and percussion accompanying the piano, while the "night music" second movement places two ethereal chorale-like slow passages with muted strings and timpani either side of a frantic virtuoso whirlwind for the pianist accompanied by all sections of the orchestra (but never all at once), and the third movement completes the "arch" by re-working the themes of the first movement as Bartók finally brings the entire orchestra together with the soloist for a brilliant conclusion.
*** Perhaps the most popular of the three, the sunny, optimistic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7J7L53b8U0 No.3 in E major]] may be the least technically difficult[[note]] Bartók wrote the concerto for his wife as he was dying of leukaemia so that she would have a potential income stream after his death, but he died before completing the orchestration of the finale, a task that fell to his student Tibor Serly.[[/note]], but it is also the most accessible to listeners. A lyrical first movement with numerous memorable melodies is followed by an almost hymnlike second movement marked ''Adagio religioso'' (another "night music" movement with a brilliantly fast episode at its core, making the concerto another "arch" composition), which leads without a break into a bright finale with a triumphant coda.
** The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68SkzGb6Ww Concerto for Orchestra]] is one of 20th century classical music's masterworks, in which Bartók's flair for orchestration is on full display as each section gets time in the spotlight (hence the apparently contradictory title), and his command of the "arch" structure reaches its zenith. The expansive first movement introduces themes which recur throughout the work. The second movement scherzo, subtitled "Presentation of Couples" (or sometimes "Game of Pairs"), sees the woodwind instruments pair off to play parallel melodies, with different pairs separated by different intervals[[note]] The bassoons are a sixth apart, the oboes a third apart, the clarinets a seventh apart, the flutes a fifth apart, and the trumpets a second apart.[[/note]] and side drum accompaniment throughout. The slow, haunting third movement, subtitled "Elegy", is the apex of Bartók's "night music". The grotesquely comic fourth movement, subtitled "Intermezzo interrupted", is another shining example of Bartók's penchant for musical satire[[note]] Though the "interruption" is sometimes claimed to parody the "Invading army" theme from Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No.7 (''Leningrad''), a piece Bartók is known to have hated, his friends insisted that he was instead parodying one of the same tunes used by Shostakovich to fashion said theme, namely "Da geh' ich zu Maxim" from Franz Lehár's comic opera ''The Merry Widow''. Shostakovich himself was not convinced and did not take kindly to the implied criticism, putting a revenge parody of Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion in the second movement of his Symphony No.13 (''Babi Yar'').[[/note]] and features a passage in which the timpanist must play ten different tones on just four drums in under 20 seconds. Finally, the triumphant finale brings the entire orchestra together in a whirlwind of folk melodies and counterpoint; the opening brass call is one of his more familiar melodies.