Re: Bartok conceptual art and improvisation/Abstract vs. concrete

["Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T)" <emile@foryourhead.com>]

At 2:37 PM -0500 9/24/01, jim palmer wrote:
>  >have you checked out webern's string quartet music?
>
>i'm not too familiar with webern.
>i know most of these guys only from studying music theory in college.
>i kind of got it backwards, studying it first, then listening.
>i come from the rock and roll side of things.
>this led to some interesting clashes with "jazzers" and "classical" types.
>
>
>  >btw, i'd say that, even though scheonberg was "demolishing 
>tonality," he was really just extending the late romantic tradition 
>to one logical extreme.
>
>totally agree.
>i think that it is easier to study it than to hear it, if you know 
>what i mean...
>
>  > i believe that bartok also had a tonality system, though i don't 
>know much about it and it seems like too much for my little brain
>
>love bartok.
>listen to the string quartets regularly.
>i think his system is somewhat geometric as well.
>a very bartokian sonority is to superimpose major and
>minor triads with the same tonic in a way that results in a vertically 
>(pitch)
>symetrical shape (ex. E3 G3 C4 Eb4: minor third, perfect fourth, 
>minor third). 
>very cool...
>
>he also used hungarian folk melodies as source
>material to manipulate in sonically new ways.
>so he was quite the "remixer," too.
>i'd love to hear what he would have done with modern electronics.
>

His first string quartet continues to amaze me -- the cello parts 
feel like a precursor to punk/funk bass playing.  I keep wondering 
how he managed to notate those sounds.

-- 

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"
      --  Charles Dickens

                Emile Tobenfeld, Ph. D.
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