An Analysis of the Genesis of Motive, Rhythm, and Pitch in the First Movement of the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion by Béla Bartók. Page: 60

                                
Before undertaking the analysis of the first group we should stop for a moment and
consider the role of chromaticism in the introduction. To understand the origin of this type of
music one should be acquainted with Bart6k's Harvard lectures given in the 1940s.61 In one of
them, Bart6k clearly presented his own explanation of chromaticism. The composer confessed
that he instinctively developed chromatic melodies (as in the introduction to the Sonata) without
any artificially made theories. When he was collecting folk songs, he did not find chromatic
melodies in folk music except in the territories of Northern Algeria and in Dalmatia (in the
former Yugoslavia). He heard recorded Dalmatian songs only after having moved to the United
States; but he had known Algerian music since 1913. The chromatic melodies created by Bart6k
are described as follows:
1. Each melody has a basic note, a quasi-tonic, to which every other note leads. The
chromatic notes, D#-E-E#-F#-G-G#-A in m. 2 of the introduction to the Sonata, are balanced
around F#.
2. The ambitus of Bart6k's chromatic melodies becomes wider than in the previously
mentioned folk melodies: about an octave, while the folk melodies' range is only about a fourth
(5, 6, or 7 semitones). Despite this fact, Bart6k in this particular Sonata employs the folk
melody range: the previously mentioned chromatic notes (from D# to A) in the introduction
frame 6 semi tones.
3. The chromatic melodies can be expanded with diatonic notes. Any diatonic step can
be added to the chromatic notes' ambitus. Therefore, the character of the original chromatic
the theme and employs mistuned, mostly diminished fifth imitation when the theme has a traditional - perfect fifth or
fourth-framework.
61B6la Bartdk, Irdsai/1. (Writings) (Budapest: Zenemtikiadd, 1989), 175-178. Three years before his
death (1942) he was asked to summarize his art in eight lectures given at Harvard University, in Cambridge.
Unfortunately he could give only three lectures because of his weak health. Bartdk was very surprised to recognize
the similarity between the chromatic melodies in Dalmatia and his own creations. The Dalmatian chromatic folk
songs are performed parallel by two singers or players. The distance between the parallel moving melodies is the
major second interval (Ibid., 183).

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