String Quartet No. 3 (Bartók)

The String Quartet No. 3 by Béla Bartók was written in September 1927 in Budapest. It is one of six string quartets by Bartok.

The work is in one continuous stretch with no breaks, but is divided in the score into four parts:

Prima parte: Moderato
Seconda parte: Allegro
Recapitulazione della prima parte: Moderato
Coda: Allegro molto

Despite Bartók calling the third section a "recapitulation" it is not a straight repetition of the music from the prima parte, being somewhat varied and simplified. Although not marked as such, the coda is in fact a telescoped recapitulation of the seconda parte.

The mood of the first part is quite bleak, contrasting with the second part which is livelier and provides evidence of the inspiration Bartók drew from Hungarian folk music, with dance-like melodies to the fore.

The work is even more harmonically adventurous and contrapuntally complex than Bartók's previous two string quartets and explores a number of extended instrumental techniques, including sul ponticello (playing with the bow as close as possible to the bridge), col legno (playing with the wood rather than the hair of the bow), and glissandi (sliding from one note to another).

It has often been suggested that Bartók was inspired to write the piece after hearing a performance of Alban Berg's Lyric Suite (1926) in 1927. The piece is widely considered to be the most tightly constructed of Bartók's six string quartets, the whole deriving from a relatively small amount of thematic material integrated into a single continuous structure. It is also Bartók's shortest quartet, with a typical performance lasting around fifteen minutes.

The work is dedicated to the Musical Society Fund of Philadelphia and was entered into an international competition for chamber music run by the organization. It won the $6,000 first prize jointly with a work by Alfredo Casella. The piece was premiered on February 19, 1929 by the Waldbauer-Kerpely Quartet.

The piece was first published in 1929 by Universal Edition.

External links

String Quartet No. 3: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

String quartets by Béla Bartók

No. 1 in A minor, Sz. 40 No. 2, Sz. 67 No. 3, Sz. 85 No. 4, Sz. 91 No. 5, Sz. 102 No. 6, Sz. 114

List of compositions by Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Operas	Bluebeard's Castle

Ballets	The Miraculous Mandarin The Wooden Prince

Concertante	Piano Concerto No. 1 Piano Concerto No. 2 Piano Concerto No. 3 Viola Concerto Violin Concerto No. 1 Violin Concerto No. 2 Rhapsody No. 1 Rhapsody No. 2

Orchestral works	Concerto for Orchestra Dance Suite Divertimento for String Orchestra Kossuth Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta

Chamber music	44 Duos for Two Violins Contrasts Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion Sonata for Solo Violin String Quartet No. 1 String Quartet No. 2 String Quartet No. 3 String Quartet No. 4 String Quartet No. 5 String Quartet No. 6

Choral works	Cantata Profana

Piano compositions	Allegro barbaro Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs For Children Mikrokosmos Out of Doors Petite Suite Piano Sonata Rhapsody, Op. 1 Romanian Christmas Carols Romanian Folk Dances Slovak Dance Sonatina Suite, Op. 14 Two Romanian Dances, Op. 8a

Arrangements	Hungarian folksongs for voice and piano

Collaborations	Homage to Paderewski

Named for Bartók	Bartók (crater) Béla Bartók Music High School

Related articles	List of compositions List of solo piano compositions List of string quartets Hungarian folk music Magyar Rádió Musical cryptogram Neoclassicism Night music Polymodal chromaticism Suite paysanne hongroise Triptych

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