Sonic Asymmetry

Bela Bartok: “Duo for Two Violins – Transylvanian Dance op.44”

ベラ・バルトーク：「2つのヴァイオリンのデュオ – トランシルバニア・ダンスop.44」

TIME COMMITMENT: 2 minutes

This perfectly fractured, fiddly ditto betrays the composer’s voyeurist addiction to folk inspirations.   Bartok’s folk song collection later helped him introduce novel percussive textures into western music (after which, we had to wait for Edgar Varèse and Moondog to do more work in this direction).  The second version here showcases cello, yet the dance really originated as a solo piano piece, some two decades earlier.

MUSIC

INFO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonatina_(Bart%C3%B3k)

A REFLECTION

Oh, Orlando!

Remember the night we danced

quietly on the sands where music

was played? Your words were

wonderers, said quietly

in the pockets of my ears.

Sheema Kalbasi: “Dancing Tango”