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The imitation of the subject progresses in an unorthodox way. Rather than initially remaining within a home key, the motion away from the starting point is accelerated: The voices enter in pairs, fanning out symmetrically above and below the original statement, until the subject has been played on all twelve notes of the chromatic scale. Here is the fugue statement, followed by the first two imitations, one above and one below the original entry.

The music gets louder and louder as the entrances progress, culminating in a powerful arrival at the twelfth and final entrance. Instead of the complete subject, Bartok only plays fragments and—climactically—dwells on the note E-flat—the pitch on which the symmetrically arranged entrances have converged.

At the climax, Bartok flips the theme upside down—or i nverts it. He then retraces his steps back to the work’s starting point.

In the excerpt that follows, you will hear the two penultimate inverted entries, which overlap, followed by the return to the original transposition. At the return, Bartok plays the theme right side up and inverted simultaneously. To reinforce the return, the celeste—a bell-like keyboard instrument—enters for the first time.

At the close of the movement, the texture thins. Finally, the second phrase of the theme is played right side up and upside down, note against note in slow motion:

By doing so, Bartok makes explicit an implicit feature of his theme: The second phrase is made up of a chromatic cluster that spans half of an octave. Its mirror is made up of the other half of the octave. Play the two clusters together and you get the complete chromatic scale. Not only that, but the note-against-note voices are combined so that they reproduce exactly the paired transpositions of the theme. Thus, this final statement reproduces the entire movement in microcosm.

Describing the ending, Joseph Kerman writes: “When the celesta fades away, all that remains is a thinning group of string instruments...They seem to be searching or yearning for a resting point. In the cadence at the very end, which has become famous for its sense of simple, hushed relief, they find just that.”

The soft dynamic, as well as the slowness and spareness of the music contribute to the feeling of “simple, hushed relief.” The fact that the final phrase begins and ends on the pitch with which the movement opened—A-natural—contributes to the sense of a final “resting point.”

But what about Kerman’s word “famous”? Cadences in classical music tend to follow well-established formulas. For this work, Bartok has designed a cadence that applies uniquely to this work. If the final phrase began and ended on a different pitch than A, it might seem arbitrary:

If the phrase were played in unison rather than in mirror, it might sound incomplete:

Bartok’s ending is a perfect summary of the musical action that has preceded it. The final phrase even expands to the pitch E-flat—the same note with which the whole movement climaxed. Consciously or unconsciously, we acknowledge the union of material and form in our emotional response. If the concluding cadence were different, it would not seem as true.

Bartok adopted a traditional technique— fugue —but applied it with an unusual way. The more chromatic nature of his theme altered the way the fugue would normally progress. As in the Mozart, the identity of the material had an impact on the life of the material: The theme engendered its form. Bartok encapsulates this correspondence in his final cadence.

Thus, form can amplify the identity of a material, projecting it on a larger time-scale. It can magnify irregularities, making them more tangible. It can allow time for the implicit to become explicit.

A fulfilling piece of music is a model for a fulfilling life: In showing us how identity can shape form, music can give us direction about how to compose own destinies.

Throughout “Sound Reasoning,” we have focused on how much you can hear, even at a first listening. Connecting material to form requires repeated listening and careful reflection. This topic thus places us on the threshold of more advanced study, where analysis takes place outside of time and studying the score is a great aid. One of the best motivations for close analysis is that it can reveal how material and form are interconnected.

Conclusion

In the Introductory portion of “Sound Reasoning,” we postulated that musical intelligibility is rooted in repetition. The most basicpopular music is primarily expository: Repetition is literal and complete. Art music tends to be much more developmental: Repetitionis often varied and transformed. Therefore, in order to understand more fully understand the content of music that develops, you must beconversant in the “language of transformation.” The preceding modules have explored the means with which dynamic repetition iscreated.

To write music that is primarily expository, composers take on the challenge of creating memorable material; that takes great skill andinspiration. To write music that develops, composers must not only work to createcompelling material: Like Dr. Frankenstein trying to breathe life into inanimate matter, they strive to bring the material moreactively to life. Dr. Frankenstein pinned his hopes on a bolt of lightning; composers depend on dynamic repetition. The largerfeatures of a piece of music—its balance of expository and developmental sections, its continuities and contrasts, the placementand character of its recurrences, its overall destiny—are all produced through the layout, progress and effect of dynamicrepetition. In the final module of this section, “How Material Engenders Its Form,” we studied how the “fate” of the material—whathappens to it in the course of the composition—can be drawn from the nature of the material itself.

Once you speak the language of transformation, you will be able to follow the action in music that develops. Alert to the intensity ofits motion and change, this music should never again sound dull or staid.

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Source:  OpenStax, Sound reasoning. OpenStax CNX. May 31, 2011 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10214/1.21
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