Product Description

This text analyzes the major aspects of Bartok's music - his harmonies, melodies, forms and rhythms.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #418758 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-01
• Original language: Hungarian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781871082753
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

This book changed my musical life.
This is the most concise musical analysis I have ever read. The examples are clear and without ambiguity. The logical progression of discussing the simple building blocks of Bartok's style leading on to the complex aspects of his writing is perfect. However, the pinnacle achievement of this book is the section that explains the natural progression of harmonic structures from Bach through Bartok that dispells any rumors or theories that 20th century music is merely a mathematical aberration or a gratuitous construct. If you want to discover why modern Jazz owes much of it's theory to Bartok, read this book.

Fundaments of post-romantic music
I have been a lifelong student of composition, and this book opened up a whole new realm of musical thought for me. There are brilliant observations regarding chromatic tonality, atonality, and structure that (although they are presented largely in the context of an analysis of Bartok's music) shed light on the development and future of modern music in general.

The book serves also as a fitting tribute to Bartok, a genius who all too often is written off as merely the modern adaptor of Hungarian folk-song. In this book the author demonstrates how the folk-song interest, and other fundamental Bartok building blocks, have a deep basis in the fundaments of life and the world.

If you've known Bartok's music speaks to you in ways you can't explain or understand, or if you just want to wrap your head around one of the most important contributions to the development of music in the modern era, then this book is for you.

I hope this review is more helpful than the one below, which seems to be more of a jumble of random thoughts, most of which appear to be associated with some other, more biographical work.

If you like Bartok's music, buy this!
Lendvai is an expert on Bartok and he has insights that make compositional sense too, so not just any old reviewer.