Christopher Nicklin

Music 604 Advance Music and Analysis

December 7

Bartok Second String Quartet

Bartok stands out as one of the most significant composers of the twentieth
century. His work in ethnomusicology alone helped define what the field was to become.
He was a jack-of-all-trades in music. Bartok was a composer, ethnomusicologist,
pedagogue, and pianist. He exceled at all of these disciplines despite numerous obstacles
in his way. One of the many setbacks was that he was frequently, if not always, sick.
Another problem were the wars going on at the time, especially World War. It devastated
eastern Europe beyond the point that anyone had ever seen so far in the world. This was
particularly disturbing for Bartok because he studied folk melodies from eastern Europe
and with what happened in the war a lot of those folk melodies would be lost to time.
After World War I he was prohibited to study folk music outside of Hungary.1 Somfai,
1996, 18. Bartoks second string quartet was written in 1917. This was in the middle to
late portion of World War I. It was written and dedicated the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet.
They performed it on March 3. 1918.2 This was three years after he started composing the
piece. It features more exploration in terms of pushing the boundaries of tonality.
Bartoks second string quartet does not follow tonality like his previous colleagues.
Beethoven and others would use harmony and cadencial motion to give structure to the
music. This is for the most part thrown out by Bartok in the second string quartet. Instead
he uses rhythm and contrast to bring out the impression of a cadence as well as musical
structure.
1 Joseph Way, Sierra Chamber Society Program Notes, last modified 2000.
http://www.fuguemasters.com/bartok.html
2 Ibid.

The first movement is marked as moderato. Like many string quartets, this one
also starts off as a sonata form. The difference with this is that key centers do not show
when the theme arrives. Because of his progressive way of writing one cannot simply
look for the dominant to find the second theme. Instead themes are found by looking at
the cells that are used and where they are used in relation to the work. There is no
introduction in this work. It starts off with the first theme. The first theme goes all the
way until measure 19. This is marked by a dramatic at forte. It is at the highest register
that one has seen so far in the work. Then the transition comes in. It is marked by the
cello and viola in unison. This continues on until measure 32. It is hard to tell whether
this is the second theme or notit only becomes clear later in the work. Then at measure
61 the closing theme comes in. This is shown with a scalar theme of five notes. The
development starts at measure 70. This is shown through a tempo change as well as with
the amount of voices that start the section at phase one. At measure 82 phase 2 starts and
then measure 94 phase 3 starts. Measure 103 could be considered Phase 4 or more of a
preparation to get back to the recapitulation. At measure 117 the piece enters the
recapitulation. It is marked by a new tempo and the reappearance of the first theme. At
measure 135 the transition comes. It is marked with an a tempo mark. Then at measure
141 the second theme comes in. It again is accompanied with a new tempo. Then at
measure 156 the closing theme comes in. an finally the coda starts at measure 162 and
goes on till the end.
The first theme is made up of around three cells. The first three notes mark the
first cell. The C# to G# marks the second cell and the G# to the Bb marks the third cell in
the theme. The first phrase is seven measures. It is then ends with its cadence and breath

marks. It should be noted that the first measure has the intervallic structure of a major
third and a perfect fourth from Bb (Bb, D, Eb). In the second beat of sixth measure that
same interval structure is inverted in the bottom three voices before they resolve. The
second phrase starts at measure 7. The cello takes the first iteration of the first cell. This
time the intervals are expanded but the rhythm stays the same. Instead of a major seventh
in range it is a 12th. Then the 1st violin takes over the first cell in bar 8. Like the cello the
cell is expanded. More important is Bartoks second cell in measures 8-18. It is a
diminution in rhythm from the first appearance of the second cell. The interval is first
expanded to a fifth in measure 9. Then in the next two measures it is a minor seventh. In
measure twelve it is expanded again to a major seventh and then is inverted in the second
part of the measure. Finally in measure 14 it is expanded to an octave. Throughout this
section the register is climbing until it reaches its climax at measure 18 on the G#.
Another important point in the first theme is the rhythm that is going on. There are not
many strong down beats. It is further complicated in measures 14-17 when is syncopated
in the accompaniment. This all leads to the preparation of the cadence in measure 18
when it falls on a strong beat.
The first theme ends on a G in the 1st violin. When the transition comes in the
cello on viola have their themes start on C. This helps move the piece in a dominant tonic
relationship. The transition uses the first cell as its thematic material. In this Bartok uses
stretto to contrast the earlier section that was mainly homophonic. In measure 24 F# starts
entering as an important note along with the C that was earlier in the transition. Through
the use of repetition of the second cell inverted the F# becomes an important pitch.3 In
3 Jamers N Bennett The First Movement of Bartoks Second String Quartet: Sonata
Form and Pitch Organization (MM diss., University of Lousiana, 2002).

measures 28-29 A becomes an important note through the use of a pedal and then Db or
enharmonically C# becomes important in measure 30, through the same method. This is
all pushing to the note of C# in the second theme at measure 32. It should be noted that
the sixteenth note triplets that start entering at measure 21 are from the accompaniment in
measure 4. The difference is that it is a diminution of measure 4s gesture.
The second theme starts with an inversion of both pitch and rhythm on the second
cell in the violins. This section starts to establish the importance of thirds. Measure 35
shows that minor and major thirds are important with the C# to E# and A to C. At
measure 38 the second theme changes and is developed till measure 60. This idea is
developed out of previous material from measure 5 and 26. Bartok uses a three note
scalar pattern. Then he starts inverting it as well as making it longer. The five note
patterns that show up at measure 39 are actually referencing material that is to come. It is
a variation on the closing theme, which is part of the folk melody. If the first two notes on
this theme are inverted it would be the folk melody. This helps prepare the listener for
that theme when it comes. The cello and viola are referencing the violin from measure 15.
This shows that Bartok was using an additive process when composing this piece. In
measure 43 the cello and viola are using the idea from measure 4 and 5 in the violin.
They are using a chromatic scale but are instead inverting it. At measure 50 Bartok has all
the strings play together. They play A, C, A#, and C#. This does two things. First it shows
the importance of thirds, being that there is both a major and minor 3rd in there. It also
helps the listener understand the juxtaposition in the piece between diminished and
augmented, which is one of the main themes of the piece.

At measure 61 the most important theme of the piece enters as the closing theme.
Every thing in the piece is moving toward this five note melody. It is clearly folk tune.
There are two major clues. One is that it is the first singable melody in the piece. The
other and more important reason is that parallel fifths become extremely prominent in the
cello. Considering that the fifth is not one of the main interval structures in the piece it
would make one draw the conclusion that its just to reference folk music. It should also
be noted that the two most important notes in this section are C# and F#, which also make
a perfect 5th.
At measure 70 the development starts. This brings the entrance of the first two
cells again. As would be expected Bartok develops these ideas further. From measure 70
to 82 he starts with just one instrument and slowly starts putting them all together to add
tension. Along with this he is also extending the range between the instruments. This is
mirroring the first 19 bars of the piece in terms of the register. Once he gets to measure
82 he starts the second phase with the third cell, which has previously not been developed
in this work. This area is marked by a tempo change, which is similar to a lot of Bartoks
sections in this piece. He also starts using a two-note semitone figure in this section. This
is citing a figure in measure 8 that becomes more and more important in the piece. This
figure is also a reference to the accompaniment in measure 4 that is constantly going up
and down by step. This continues until measure 94. Measure 94 is the start of the third
phase. Register becomes important in this section again as there is a vast space between
the 1st violin and cello. The motivic material also comes from the semitone material from
the accompaniment and measure 8. The difference that Bartok uses to disguise this as
octave displacement. The rhythm is similar to the second cell. Sixteenth notes become

important in this phase to reach the transitional section at measure 103. The sixteenth
note material has the same contour as the folk song theme in the closing theme. He uses
rearticulations of the notes to make it more ambiguous. Bartok also uses inversions of it
so that it goes back and forth. At measure 103 the strings are playing together again. It is
similar to measure 50 in intervallic structure, but not identical. At measure 109 the
accompaniment is diminished chords. This helps strengthen his idea of the juxtaposition
of diminished and augmented chords in this piece.4 Measure 103 to 116 as similar to
regular sonata pieces that have pedal tone in the dominate to return to the tonic. In this
case Bartok uses B as an important note in preparation to go to F.
The recapitulation starts at measure 117. This is not an exact copy of the first
theme. Most notable is that the third cell was taken out. This is probably due to the fact
that it was just extensively worked out in the development. Besides the first phrase the 1st
theme is note all that similar.5 By measure 119 it already is working out other ideas. One
of these ideas is the three-note figure in the first violin. It is a reference to the
accompaniment in the exposition. This is important because the accompaniment in the
recap does not use the three-note figure so the melody could take it instead. Similar to the
exposition the 1st theme lasts 19 bars. Also in contour it is similar to the first theme. At
the end of the 1st theme it reaches its highest point. This shows that Bartok was trying to
help the listener know at what point of the piece they are in by these landmarks. At
measure 136 Bartok gets to the transition. It is not all that similar to the previous
transition in any way. At measure 138 the 2nd violin has an interesting line. It is a
combination of the semitone cell. He alternates between inversions and regular ideas of
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.

it. Then all the parts take it at measure 140. However, this time the rhythm is augmented
to eighth notes.
At measure 141 the 2nd theme returns. Besides gesture and general sonorities of
this section it does not have much similarity with the 2nd theme in the exposition. Breath
marks in the score help the listener with identifying that it is the 2nd theme. At measure
145 Bartok works out a bit more of the sixteenth note triplet idea. At measure 149 he
starts bringing back the 1st cellmotive. This is interesting because it does not happen in
the exposition. It in a way acts as a transition to the next section, which is the most
important section within the piece. He uses the 1st cellmotive in an expanded form and
not the original interval of a 7th. He also starts inverting it at measure 152. He overlaps it
to gain intensity. Finally at measure 154-154 Bartok states the theme completely
unaltered. All the strings are playing in complete unison. This the only time in the piece
that they play in unison so it must mean that this is one of the most important if not the
most important points in this movement.
The closing theme starts at measure 156. The key center of this area is A. One
important note of this area is that the melody has C while the accompaniment has C#.
This brings prominence to the juxtaposition of major and minor 3rds in this movement.
The closing theme is the folk tune in its entirety. The eighth notes against the triplets are
reminiscent of folk music. All the instruments work together in this section compared to
the rest of the piece where everything is in constant struggle with each other. Almost
nothing lines up in the entire piece until this section. This is another reason why this is
the most important section in the entire movement.

Finally the coda is reach at measure 162. This section starts with a stretto of the
folk melody theme. At measure 164 he starts work out a bit of the 1st and 2nd cell of the
piece. At measure 169 the 1st violin is referencing the ideas from measure 103. At
measure 171 all the strings are playing off the interval structure of 103. This is important
because Bartok in this section makes a big point to reference the intervallic structure of
this movement in the coda. At measure 175 until the end he furthers this idea bringing in
an F augmented chord. The strings having this chord rise in many different voicings until
the end. While this is going on the cello is playing the folk theme in a minor. He does this
because A is the central note in this movement. Then F, F#, C, and C# are the other
important notes.6 It is no coincidence that these notes were also key centers in other
themes and sections of the work. This is how he ties the entire piece together because the
piece is based off of minor and major.

Joseph Way, Sierra Chamber Society Program Notes, last modified 2000.
http://www.fuguemasters.com/bartok.html

6 Ibid.