A Tribute to Zoltan Kodaly

Program:

Bartok Sonata for Solo Violin

Ligeti Selections from Sonata for Solo Viola

Kodaly Duo for Violin and Cello

Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, and educator. His compositions were highly influenced by his study of Eastern European folk musics, and he in turn was to influence his colleague Bartók, whom he mentored. Kodály is perhaps most well known for his liberal attitudes towards music education. His philosophies were the inspiration for the Kodály Method, which includes the famous Do-Re-Mi method of learning melody. He is one of the most respected figures in the Hungarian arts.

The Acadia Chamber Ensemble was founded by a group of young musicians dedicated to performing lesser-known works in conjunction with the great standards of the chamber music repertoire. In addition to its performance projects, ACE is developing an outreach program centering around short-term residencies in small communities that aims to inspire new audiences with performances, presentations and workshops.

About the program:

Bartok's sonata for solo violin has long been known as one of the greatest and most difficult works in the violin repertoire.  Its difficulty, which forced Yehudi Menuhin to ask Bartok to rewrite many of the sections, makes one want to quit the violin at times, but its scope and grandeur certainly puts it on par with the sonatas of J.S. Bach.  It was not until many years later that the original version was "rediscovered", and recorded by my former teacher Robert Mann, whose recording of the work was hailed by the great violinist and friend of Bartok, Joseph Szigeti, as the "best recording of Bartok that he ever heard in his life".

The sonata is very deeply influenced by the solo works of Bach.  From the first notes that are played the relationship is clear - they are an exact copy of the first chord of Bach's g minor solo sonata.  The entire structure of the first movement is an homage to Bach's Chaccone from the d minor partita, which is shown in part by its title "Tempo di Ciaccona".  Both Chaccones consist of a set of variations in 3/4 time, with the overall structure being that of three large sections, each subdivided into three smaller ones. 

The second movement is Bartok's take on the Bach fugues, and Bartok shows himself equally up to the task.  It is not until the third movement that Bach's influence wears a little, and Bartok instead starts the movement with Hungarian folk-influenced melodies.  The middle section consists of some "night music", and finally, the movement concludes with a more ornamented version of the opening melodies.

The fourth movement was the most altered of the movements, and it is here that Bartok rewrote the running fast sections to remove the quarter tones.  However, it has become near-standard practice today to play this movement with the quarter tones, which give the opening a buzzing, bee-like quality before it breaks out into a country dance.  The quarter tones return again before the dance takes over again for the final time, remeniscing occasionally on the tunes of the third movement.

++++++++++

Gyorgy Ligeti’s Sonata (composed 1991-94) consists of 6 movements, the first three of which are performed here as independent character pieces.  Ligeti writes the following in his preface to the sonata: 

1^st movement Hora lunga:  It evokes the spirit of Romanian folk music which, together with Hungarian folk music and that of the Gipsies, made a strong impression on me during my childhood.  However I do not write folklore or use folkloristic quotations, it is rather allusions which are made.  Hora lunga literally means “slow dance” but in the Romanian tradition this is not a dance but are sung folk melodies (in the northernmost province of the country, Maramures, in the centre of the Carpathian mountains), nostalgic and melancholy, richly ornamented.  There is a striking similarity to the “Cante jondo” in Andalusia and also folk music in Rajastan.  Whether this has something to do with the Gipsy migration or is a common, old indo-european, diatonic melodic tradition is hard to decide.  This movement is played exclusively on the C-string and in it I make use of natural intervals (pure major third, pure minor seventh and also the 11^th harmonic). 

2^nd movement Loop:  The title refers to the form; the same melodic figures are repeated, continually varied rhythmically and played progressively faster in tempo.  Double-stoppings are played throughout with one of the notes always being an open string.  The performer is therefore compelled to carry out daring position changes which in the fast section of the movement creates a “dangerous virtuosity”.  In addition this movement must also be played in the spirit of jazz:  elegant and “relaxed”. 

3^rd movement Facsar:  The title is a Hungarian verb meaning “to wrestle” or “to distort”.  In Hungarian this word is also associated with the bitter sensation felt in the nose when one is about to cry.  It is also a double-stopping movement, a type of measured dance with displaced twisted modulations:  pseudo-tonal.    

++++++++++

Kodaly was born on November 16, 1882, and it is his 125th anniversary year that we celebrate here.  He is known not only as one of Hungary's greatest composers, but also as one of the first ethnomusicologists.  Together with Bartok, he trekked through the Hungarian countryside to collect recordings of folk music on phonograph cylinders.  It is much to Kodaly that we owe the preservation and analysis of Hungarian folk music.  Of course, the effect of this research had a huge impact on Kodaly's compositions.  Whole phrases seem to be taken straight from these songs, and he combines them in a way that creates truly unique colors. 

The Duo for violin and cello, written in 1914, is one of Kodaly's most famous and frequently performed works.  Folk melodies abound throughout all three movements, and both instruments are pushed to their limits in terms of range, dynamic, and color.  It also shows an affinity to the music of Claude Debussy, especially his sonata for flute, viola, and harp.  Debussy's music strongly influenced Kodaly during the year he spent studying in Paris (1906-1907).