Bartok is amazing, one of the best!

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Agreed!

I'm glad I listened to this first thing in the morning, not just before going to sleep.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Ha! Too creepy for bedtime!

I love Bartok’s Concerto For Orchestra. I heard it in concert in Manchester (Uk) when I was a student. It’s probably my favourite 20th century piece. It really shows off Bartok’s mature style after he moved to America.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

True. His mature style is so different than his early work which was more romantic and almost Strauss-like.

In my opinion, Bartók was even greater than Schönberg and Stravinsky, because he combined emotion with construction. Even his mechanical pieces like the "Allegro barbaro" or the strange fugue in the "Mandarin" are not cold but highly exciting. Moreover, he had an uncomparable feeling for the right chord - think on the bloody cloud with the bad-weather-dissonance and the C-Major in "Bluebeard" or on the cluster-like chords in "Music for String Instruments, Harp and Celesta".

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

I was just listening to "Bluebeard" this morning. Combing emotion with construction is very well said. Personally, I would put him above Schönberg and a close second to Stravinsky.

I completely agree with everything you say here. Bartók is woefully underrated and deserves to be elevated at least to the level of his 20th Century contemporaries. American orchestras should include at least one substantial piece by him every season. “Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta” is absolute genius, for example. (The sync’ing of the “beast” chord to “Frankenstein” worked amazingly well. Thanks for that.)

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Thank for watching. I'm so encouraged by all the Bartok fans out there.

Keith: "Especially the early pieces" Also Keith: "and now, the Concerto!" :) This was a great short vid about this part of the Concerto. My single humble comment is that the metal band and Frankenstein are not the proper associations here. Both examples have an unnatural quality; while Bartók's world is always kind of naturalistically natural. He does not search an effect to shock the audience with something that had been unheard; instead, he is always looking for a more deep and honest depicting of the human soul that ever heard. So it is not about shocking, but about honesty. These night musics are dominantly about the loneliness. A single soul in the center of the creature - either a cosmical view or some night narute picture or anything - which is either amusing or frightening, but does follow its own way, regardless to the presence of any last human being or non-presence at all. And this "rigidness" of the physical world puts the soul in a great segregation and sorrow, This is the general program of the night musics.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Thanks for your thoughts! You might like my metal version of his String Quartet No 4 mvmt V: kzread.info/dash/bejne/aIiX27GEeszSeKw.htmlfeature=shared

Great highlight. Thanks. Love Concerto for Orchestra. I think more people would listen to this kind of music if they imagined it as film music (and these C20th composers did it first!)

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

I think you're right. Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste is possibly his most popular work because of it's use in film (The Shining, Eternal Daughter, etc)

Interestingly simple chord - 8vb doubling of the A minor triad adds so much depth.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Totally - it sounds more complex than it is, I think.

This is a great choice of chord. The passage before this chord sounds to me like a ray of light from above, a hymn or chorale in search of hope: can the suffering of the present and past be redeemed? The chord seems to say no. We have to remember WW2 was raging in 1943 quite apart from Bartok's leukemia diagnosis. - Bartok was very highly regarded in the 1960's, especially by piano teachers (Mikrokosmos was commonly used). I am glad you are mentioning him.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Well said. I love interpreting pieces within their historical context like you suggest.

The muddyness from the overtones clashing is definitely an effect that is definitely unique. Bartok is indeed underperformed and deserves more accolades a d attention. Great video!

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Good point. That’s a lot of overtones. Thanks for your thoughts!

Another incredible harmonic delight to ruminate upon. Thanks for bringing up this “beast of a chord.” I love close played clusters- dark and dirty is sometimes the way and the truth. Bartok is amazing!

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

The way and the truth indeed!

hell yeah

My old bass has the low B. And I love her.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Nice!

The next step in orchestrational analysis are the resultant tones you get from this instrument choices and tessituras. These low-register string tremolos feed off each other by reinforcing overtones, making the Db even more dissonant in contrast. The actual instruments in a live performance, as you can hear, have a much more devastating quality.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Good point. The low E, A, and C would contain hints of B, G#, C#, and G 9among others). I've never heard this live - I don't remember the last time it was programmed her in LA.

I’m huge fan of Bartok’s viola concerto, but even being a musician and huge music appreciator myself I have to admit that Bartok is hard to listen to! I really need to dig deeper into his music more. Great video by the way!

@Keith_Horn

17 күн бұрын

You're right - some of his music can be hard to listen to. Some of the string quartets are challenging to the ears. His earlier works are more tonal and arguably more listenable. Maybe you would like Kossuth or Suites 1 and 2.

Bartok's music is emotionally difficult. It's expressivity confronts you with the darker aspects of life: fear, bitterness, hate, etc. But not only - listen to the solar ''Rhapsody for violin and orchestra''

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Very true. I will give that another listen - thanks for the recommendation!

Totally agree

I'm glad I found your channel with this video :) I think most people can get a connection to Bartok through Kubrick's shining. Maybe it's worth a video? It's really awesomely used by Kubrick!

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

That’s a great idea. Was it Strings, Perc, and Celeste that was in The Shining?

@guotesuoze

Ай бұрын

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_for_Strings,_Percussion_and_Celesta

Bartok is a monster... In all the good ways

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Agreed!

If you ask me, Rick Beato looks more like Villa-Lobos than Bartok. :-) Anyway, the entire Concerto for Orchestra is amazingly evocative. The start of the third movement always makes me think of descending into deep, dark water, with sharks circling around, so perhaps not a bad idea to end up with a beast of a chord.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

You're so right about Villa-Lobos! I never saw that before. It's cool how Bartok's music can evoke imagery so easily.

Chord can be built off the tonic of any major mode #2, i.e Ionian #2 etc. Thas the R b3 (enharmonic #2) 3 5 I hear it as 7#9 chord, without the b7 *but is it a dominant chord without the b7, depends if it goes to 4 of the possible western logical places like major or minor, some form of B, Ab, F, or D* or Aadd#9 I haven't listened to the whole piece, so I am eager to see where it goes! Thanks for exposing this beast of a chord man. Love it.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

It does have that 7#9 quality, I suppose. Any variation of a mM triad is always interesting to my ears.

@Arycke

Ай бұрын

@Keith_Horn oh yes absolutely @

At the time Bartok wrote this, he knew he was dying from leukemia. That chord is a deep, heart-felt pang of his foreboding of the overwhelmingly sad inevitability of his approaching death. How you equate THAT to a headbanger's sensibility of a "beast" - is beyond me. Though there are indeed plenty of beasts and other dark figures to be found elsewhere in Bartok's music, this is not one of them. Like many European composers of his day, he had been forced to flee his beloved homeland because the Nazis were systematically exterminating his people and considered music like his to be "degenerate" art. In a heroic act, Bartok spent many years combing the countryside of his region recording - and basically rescuing for posterity - his people's folk music. He was directly embroiled in one of the most heinous acts of the 20th century, and probably all time - Naziism. Though you trivialize and equate this profoundly sad music by equating it with the bogeyman and heavy metal is misinterpreting this music for maybe millions of unknowing fans, I am still glad you are exposing this magnificent music to a new audience. For you folks out there, check out: Divertimento, Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, the Miraculous Mandarin Suite, Dance Suite, Concerto for Viola and many others. Though Bartok delved deeply into the darkest regions of the human psyche, he also emerged triumphant, powerful and hopeful in the end.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

You're right that in this period he was very sick and nearing the end of his life. It's also well documented that he fled Hungary to escape the horrors of the war. But do we know for certain that this work is programmatic or autobiographical? You raise a fascinating and ancient conversation concerning what art is "about". Meaning is sometimes in the ear of the beholder, I suppose. Of course there are innumerable pieces that have a narrative or personal nature (i.e La Mer, Le Sacre, Sleeping Beauty, Mahler's symphonies etc.) so we can be certain what they are about. But if there's a lack of certainty about the narrative or personal nature of art are we not free to interpret the work as we hear it? Did Bartok speak or write about the autobiographical nature of this piece? If so I would love to read it so I can deepen my knowledge of his work. Those are all amazing works that you cited. I first discovered Bartok through his string quartets. Thanks for your thoughts.

@lauterunvollkommenheit4344

Ай бұрын

Just two corrections: "At the time Bartok wrote this, he knew he was dying from leukemia" - he wrote the Concerto in 1943, while his leukemia was diagnosed in 1944. "he had been forced to flee his beloved homeland because the Nazis were systematically exterminating his people" - the Nazis weren't systematically exterminating the Hungarians. They were systematically exterminating the Jews, but even that happened later.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

@@lauterunvollkommenheit4344 Good to know the date of his diagnosis compared to the composition of this piece.

@lauterunvollkommenheit4344

Ай бұрын

@@Keith_Horn Yes, facts are always useful.

how interesting

I haven't listened to this piece in way too long. Time to dig it out! Editing that snippet into Frankenstein worked beautifully. And speaking of basses, fwiw, the bulk of electric basses have four strings, tuned EADG like a double bass, though 5-string basses are not uncommon, similarly with a low B added.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

I think he could’ve been a great film composer in the early days.

@SO-ym3zs

Ай бұрын

@@Keith_Horn I'm glad your video prompted me to listen to this piece again for the first time in too many years. It's a work of exceptional imaginative fecundity. And speaking of film music, I was struck by how well some of it would work in the Harry Potter films' darker and more mysterious moments.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

@@SO-ym3zs That would be a fun experiment to lay in some Bartok over scenes from HP. Also: Fecundity - great word choice.

It's "fünfsaiter" and just means having five strings. And mostly, the lowest string is tuned to C not B. Thank you for your interesting videos!

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Ich stehe korrigiert! Thanks for clarifying that.

3:24 It‘s not "Fünfstaiger Bass" but "fünfsaitiger Bass" which literally translates to five (= fünf) stringed (= saitig + suffix -er) base (= Bass).

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

You're correct - ich muss brush up on my German.

May I suggest if you can do a video about the chord around the ending of Mark Anthony Turnage's "Three Screaming Pope".

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

I’ll give it a listen. Thanks for the recommendation!

Which sound libraries do you use in your mock-up videos? Especially the brass? They are fiiiiine 👍

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Thanks! I use Cinebrass mostly but I have a few instruments from Opus Brass, Samplemodeling, and V Horns. For strings I use all the libraries - a few patches from here and a few patches from there. Cinematic Studio Strings, NI Symphony Strings, Symphobia, etc.

and a tribute to Beethoven!

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

That would be a deep dive!

Correct if wrong, but it’s moving lines that create the sonorities, not chords as a jazz pianist would think of them. Right?

@Keith_Horn

26 күн бұрын

You're right about that when it comes to melodic lines interweaving and creating fleeting incidental harmonies. This piece has plenty of that. But in this specific spot it's more of a static vertical sonority.

Bartok is my favorite of that time period. j.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

One of my favorites as well. He wrote so much amazing music.

Thanks again. Another good one. Taken as a whole, these notes seem derived from an octatonic pitch collection. Taking enharmonics into account: A Bb C C# D# E F# [G] G# The bracketed G note is not present -- the violas' G# is not from the octatonic set I'm proposing. The sonority is like something from Strauss "Elektra," especially since the prominent C# is above all those Cs. There's no G note, however, which (if I recall correctly) would make the chord more like the "Elektra" chord. On paper the A minor triad dominates, but it's so muddy that the violin and the other non-Am lines are more prominent. That G# makes sense because (1) it resolves up to A, and (2) all the instruments are moving up a whole step (E to F#, F# to G#, A# to B#, and C# to D#). Wow! Am I reading this correctly?! Pretty crazy.

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

And THAT is why I love music nerds! You're right - the octatonic scale (minus G) is present in this section. And yes, if the G was added to the first chord it would be a respelling of the Elektra chord (Db7/E). Bartok was a big fan of Richard Strauss so I'm sure his influence is found here and there in his work. Great analysis - thanks for your thoughts!

@Rando_Djinnsen

Ай бұрын

@@Keith_Horn My pleasure!

I was here to escape Beato's rants... then you show him...

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Ha! My apologies - that dude is everywhere

@misterguy9051

Ай бұрын

@@Keith_Horn m tired of his rants as i am tired of Rick Rubin holy advices.... ;)

i like your eyes halo

You should feature some Prokofiev chords

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Great suggestion! I've been combing through "Love for Three Oranges"

Great video, just found your channel and hit subscribe before it was through...Bartok, at least for me, is the 3rd B (Sorry Brahms)=and the 4th B is the Beatles=but anyway, I've always loved that moment in the 3rd movement and its nice to see it publicly receive the stank face!!!

@Keith_Horn

Ай бұрын

Thanks! I agree that Bartok should be one of the Bs. He’s well deserving of the stank face.

Dude: your video is great. But move your ring light so it doesn’t reflect in your glasses; very distracting.

@Keith_Horn

27 күн бұрын

Good tip! Thanks for the feedback.

@macleadg

27 күн бұрын

@@Keith_Horn Meant as helpful input. I love this piece, and I wrote a paper about it in college. (Well, it was an undergrad paper so you could imagine how bad it was.)