646
PARTISAN REVIEW
beard's Castle
in its melodic distortions reminds the listener of Schoen·
berg's
Pierrot Lunaire,
but the whole sound effect is nearer Debussy's
Pelleas and Melisande.
For a long time, until after 1930, Bartok remained
independent, relying upon enlarged folk-music forms and the intensive
development of his earlier frictive-percussive technique to produce such
major compositions as the two Violin Sonatas, the Piano Sonata (much
influenced by Liszt), two of the three Piano Concertos, and the first four
of the String Quartets.
Though his style from beginning to end varied less than that of any
other major twentieth-century composer except Erik Satie, until this time
it was plainly stronger as a whole in its texture than in its form. Con·
tributing to this texture was a taste for heavily percussive, dissonant
chords, moving in rhythmic blocks, occasionally arpeggiated or orna·
mented by fantastic acciaccaturi, melodically independent and dynamo
ically directed by displacement of a semitone or by structural alteration
within the chord. Typical of Bartok's extreme integrity and lack of false
creative pride is the letter he wrote to Henry Cowell asking permission
to borrow that composer's new technic of tone-clusters. Needless to say,
the permission was graciously granted. The technic was first fully used
by Bartok
in
the Piano Sonata.
Around the central chordal body the lighter obbligato melodies, cease·
lessly fragmented and recombining in new rhythmic patterns, go their
individual ways. The lack of a fully organized melodic polyphony was
compensated for, as in Stravinsky's music, by heightening the rhythmic
interest. The rhythmic texture, more deeply piled than in any other
twentieth century music, is set off by the very careful coloring and
linear displacement of individual tones. Like a weaver of fine rugs Bar·
tok intensifies the color refinement of his sound by sharply contoured,
angular rhythmic and melodic outlines. His most original compositions,
as Joseph Szigeti testifies, are intricately worked mosaics of fragmented
folk-themes. Bartok, unlike many of his contemporaries, never disclaimed
his use of authentic folk material. He did not need to protest he was
original. His power was not in the material itself but in his use of it.
Like Debussy he relies upon the heard tone, the sound-shape of tones
within the chord, avoiding the structural rigor which makes Hindemith's
art academically more plausible but less audibly real. The inimitable
beauty of Bartok's music, freed of any false formalism in his smaller
pieces, does not thrust itself upon the ear but reticently emerges from
his larger compositions as whole texture.
From the early Bagatelles to the final Piano Concerto the art of
Bartok requires of the performer virtuoso assurance, flexibility, and
