beating, scraping, shaking, crashing...

18 March 2006

The Golden Section in Bartok's Music

During rehearsal last night for Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra conductor Barbara Schubert gave a brief explanation of Bartok's use of golden section in the third movement, Elegia. I found this article describing the mathematical theory behind the concept a bit better. Basically, the peak of a work is nearly at 2/3 of the length of the piece; more specfically, 61.803% of the way through the work. It's an interesting theory that I've heard applied to classical period composers as well, and it adds a bit of mysticism and science to composition and music, in general.

Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta also uses the concept of the golden section. Look at the score and mark measures 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and 89. What do you see?

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