The Percussive Character and the Lyrical Quality in Bartók’s Piano Music

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the percussive character and the lyrical quality in Bartók’s piano works. Bartók realized the nature of the piano as a percussion instrument. He used this idea in his piano works, and through different accents, accent displacement, various rhythmic patterns, and metrical shifts the percussive character emerged as one of the prevalent features of his piano works. The percussive character emphasizes vertical aspects of a phrase. Bartók’s recordings of his own pieces display a lyrical quality in addition to the percussive character. His performances are not completely consistent with the detailed indications that he marked on the score. Bartók believed that composers’ recordings of their own work could supplement the notated scores, which might not completely convey the ideas of the composer. Therefore, I argue that Bartók’s lyrical performances are another presentation of his musical ideas alongside his scores, and it is worthwhile to explore the lyrical quality and percussive character in his piano music. This paper will include three chapters to discuss the lyrical quality and percussive character in his piano works. The first chapter will examine the percussive character in his piano works. I will analyze the rhythmic variety and the different markings Bartók used to depict the percussive character. The second chapter will explore the lyrical quality in Bartók’s piano music. This chapter will include three sections. The first section will discuss the lyrical quality in Bartók’s piano music. The second section will discuss articulation marks that Bartók used to portray the accentuation of the folk music. The third section will discuss modes and different scales in Bartók’s piano music. The third chapter will discuss characteristics of Bartók’s recordings on his own pieces, and apply ideas from previous chapters to the interpretation of Bartók’s piano works. In particular, I will discuss the performance practices and possibilities of modern pianists approaching Bartók’s piano works in a more lyrical manner.