› › Commentary On The Revision Of Bela Bartok S Viola Concerto


Bartok's Viola Concerto

Author : Donald Maurice

Publisher : Oxford University Press

Page : 240 pages

File Size : 43,63 MB

Release : 2004-03-04

Category : Music

ISBN : 0190288930

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Book Description

When Bela Bartók died in September of 1945, he left a partially completed viola concerto commissioned by the virtuoso violist William Primrose. Yet, while no definitive version of the work exists, this concerto has become arguably the most-performed viola concerto in the world. The story of how the concerto came to be, from its commissioning by Primrose to its first performance to the several completions that are performed today is told here in Bartók's Viola Concerto:The Remarkable Story of His Swansong. After Bartók's death, his family asked the composer's friend Tibor Serly to look over the sketches of the concerto and to prepare it for publication. While a draft was ready, it took Serly years to assemble the sketches into a complete piece. In 1949, Primrose finally unveiled it, at a premiere performance with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. For almost half a century, the Serly version enjoyed great popularity among the viola community, even while it faced charges of inauthenticity. In the 1990s, several revisions appeared and, in 1995, the composer's son, Peter Bartók, released a revision, opening the way or an intensified debate on the authenticity of the multiple versions. This debate continues as violists and Bartók scholars seek the definitive version of this final work of Hungary's greatest composer. Bartók's Viola Concerto tells the story of the genesis and completion of Bartók's viola concerto, its reception over the second half of the twentieth century, its revisions, and future possibilities.







Bartok's Viola Concerto

Author : Donald Maurice

Publisher : Oxford University Press

Page : 246 pages

File Size : 26,6 MB

Release : 2004-03-04

Category : Music

ISBN : 9780195348118

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Book Description

When Bela Bartók died in September of 1945, he left a partially completed viola concerto commissioned by the virtuoso violist William Primrose. Yet, while no definitive version of the work exists, this concerto has become arguably the most-performed viola concerto in the world. The story of how the concerto came to be, from its commissioning by Primrose to its first performance to the several completions that are performed today is told here in Bartók's Viola Concerto:The Remarkable Story of His Swansong. After Bartók's death, his family asked the composer's friend Tibor Serly to look over the sketches of the concerto and to prepare it for publication. While a draft was ready, it took Serly years to assemble the sketches into a complete piece. In 1949, Primrose finally unveiled it, at a premiere performance with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. For almost half a century, the Serly version enjoyed great popularity among the viola community, even while it faced charges of inauthenticity. In the 1990s, several revisions appeared and, in 1995, the composer's son, Peter Bartók, released a revision, opening the way or an intensified debate on the authenticity of the multiple versions. This debate continues as violists and Bartók scholars seek the definitive version of this final work of Hungary's greatest composer. Bartók's Viola Concerto tells the story of the genesis and completion of Bartók's viola concerto, its reception over the second half of the twentieth century, its revisions, and future possibilities.







Bela Bartok

Author : László Somfai

Publisher : Univ of California Press

Page : 434 pages

File Size : 49,67 MB

Release : 2023-12-22

Category : Biography & Autobiography

ISBN : 0520914619

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Book Description

This long-awaited, authoritative account of Bartók's compositional processes stresses the composer's position as one of the masters of Western music history and avoids a purely theoretical approach or one that emphasizes him as an enthusiast for Hungarian folk music. For Bèla Bartók, composition often began with improvisation at the piano. Làszló Somfai maintains that Bartók composed without preconceived musical theories and refused to teach composition precisely for this reason. He was not an analytical composer but a musical creator for whom intuition played a central role. These conclusions are the result of Somfai's three decades of work with Bartók's oeuvre; of careful analysis of some 3,600 pages of sketches, drafts, and autograph manuscripts; and of the study of documents reflecting the development of Bartók's compositions. Included as well are corrections preserved only on recordings of Bartók's performances of his own works. Somfai also provides the first comprehensive catalog of every known work of Bartók, published and unpublished, and of all extant draft, sketch, and preparatory material. His book will be basic to all future scholarly work on Bartók and will assist performers in clarifying the problems of Bartók notation. Moreover, it will be a model for future work on other major composers.



Challenges and Creative Solutions in Performing Béla Bartók's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Sz. 120, BB 128

Author : Rossana Cauti

Publisher :

Page : 0 pages

File Size : 41,89 MB

Release : 2021

Category : Music

ISBN :

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Book Description

ABSTRACTPerforming Bela Bartók's Concerto for Viola and Orchestra poses myriad technical hurdles. The initial approach to studying this work must include practice strategies that isolate its numerous technical challenges and work through them. This is why forging a targeted practice plan is vital in order to avoid inefficient and counterproductive methods of study. To that end this treatise provides a practical guide for violists interested in learning and performing this concerto. Chapter 1 describes the purpose and need for this study. The chapter also provides a brief background on the difficult genesis of the work and the ongoing debate on the accuracy of the existing editions. Chapters 2 and 3 introduce the methodology chosen for this study and its delimitations. Chapter 4 offers some insight on existing research to be used as complementary material. Chapters 5 and 6 present aspects of Ivan Galamian and Otakar Ševčík's pedagogical output that relate to this treatise. Chapters 7 to 12 introduce newly created exercises, directed to the violists performing the piece and conceived to overcome technical challenges encountered in the concerto. This treatise acknowledges the contribution to the advancement of violin pedagogy of Otakar Ševčík, Ivan Galamian and Simon Fischer. While my research is comprised of original exercises for viola, it is based on principles that are complimentary to the technical approach of Otakar Ševčík and Simon Fischer. Footnotes and Appendix C will provide further guidance on this. INDEX WORDS: Bela Bartók, viola, viola technique, viola pedagogy, viola concerto, viola study, viola etude, Bartók Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, Otakar Ševčík, Ivan Galamian, analytical study.