{"id":5010,"date":"2018-07-02T08:00:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T06:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.henle.de\/blog\/en\/?p=5010"},"modified":"2018-07-02T07:51:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T05:51:08","slug":"more-or-less-%e2%80%93-bartok%e2%80%99s-well-regulated-markings-of-his-piano-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2018\/07\/02\/more-or-less-%e2%80%93-bartok%e2%80%99s-well-regulated-markings-of-his-piano-works\/","title":{"rendered":"More or less \u2013 Bart\u00f3k\u2019s well-regulated markings of his piano works"},"content":{"rendered":"
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D\u00e9nes V\u00e1rjon<\/p><\/div>\n

To continue my last blog with an overview of our Urtext editions of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s piano works<\/a>, I am devoting today\u2019s posting to a small but very significant aspect of these editions: their fingering and performance markings. And I am very happy that this time not only the great Hungarian Bart\u00f3k scholar L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Somfai<\/a> but also the great Hungarian pianist \u2013 and Bart\u00f3k specialist! \u2013 D\u00e9nes V\u00e1rjon<\/a> shared their opinions with me.<\/p>\n

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L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Somfai<\/p><\/div>\n

In the opening chapters of his just being prepared complete-edition volume with the Piano Works<\/em> 1914\u20131920<\/em> (HN 6202)<\/a>, L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Somfai details how in those years Bart\u00f3k developed two quasi systems of piano notation: on the one hand, there is the more pedagogically motivated, instructive marking with meticulous directives for phrasing and articulation, pedalling, and fingering, such as is met with in the Romanian Folk Dances<\/em><\/a> or the Sonatina<\/a>; on the other, marking supplied for concert performance (and for advanced pianists), in which pedal information and fingering usually appear only where they are decisive for the desired sound impression \u2013 an example of this is his Suite op. 14<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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No. 5 of the Romanian Christmas Songs with instructive fingering<\/p><\/div>\n

Interestingly enough, the Romanian Christmas Songs<\/em> (HN 1406)<\/a> provide an example of both \u201cstyles\u201d, for here we have the special case of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s first explicitly creating a work for children\u2019s hands (doing, accordingly, \u201cwithout octave spans\u201d) in 1918, and later publishing a revised edition with so-called \u201c\u00c4nderungen f\u00fcr den Konzertvortrag\u201d (alterations for concert performance), with some numbers growing to the point of being veritable second versions. Compare, for example, No. I\/5 marked in the \u201cinstructive\u201d and in the \u201cconcert-version\u201d styles.<\/p>\n

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Concert version of No. 5 of the Romanian Christmas Songs<\/p><\/div>\n

Bart\u00f3k allocated a major role to the fine and most subtle nuances of accents and phrasing in the performance of his works and developed very precise ideas in terms of their notation during the course of his pianistic life, all of which must be accounted for in our Urtext editions as well as in the Complete Critical Edition. So, each volume of the Critical Edition contains a comprehensive chapter on \u201cNotation and Performance\u201d filling more than a page on just the question alone of \u201cArticulation and Accents\u201d.<\/p>\n

But even within our Urtext editions we have incorporated for Bart\u00f3k a separate extra chapter with \u201cEditorial Notes for the Performer\u201d dealing with phrasing and fingering as well as with questions of tempo and pedalling. Bart\u00f3k shows how both intermesh in a few, but special places of limited fingering in the Suite op. 14 (HN 1403)<\/a>. So, in the second movement he marks only the final marcatissimo<\/em> measures in triple forte with 1+2<\/em> for every single tone and guarantees there the desired percussive effect.<\/p>\n

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End of 2nd movement of the Suite op. 14 with Bart\u00f3k's fingering<\/p><\/div>\n

In the Suite\u2019s third movement at the beginning of the two parts <\/strong>in the right hand (m. 34), there is a fingering that can be interpreted as indicating the desired phrasing in this technically demanding passage. In the complete edition, editor L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Somfai states: \u201cEven if his fingering might not be ideal for pianists with smaller or larger hands or with a different technique than Bart\u00f3k\u2019s, it helps us imagine his own performance in difficult passages.\u201d<\/p>\n

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mm. 31\u201340 of the 3rd movement of the Suite op. 14<\/p><\/div>\n

The Hungarian pianist D\u00e9nes V\u00e1rjon fully agrees here: \u201cWe are very lucky that at some places we have fingerings from Bart\u00f3k himself. They are extremely important. I also use his fingerings whenever we have them. For me it\u2019s a message from him, bringing us closer to understanding his music. Besides his recordings, everything that he wrote is a most important source of inspiration for the performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

V\u00e1rjon also based his fingering for several of our Bart\u00f3k editions on this. For in good Henle Urtext tradition, we supply a modern fingering in the works of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s that are originally only slightly fingered. (For this reason, additionally placed in the second example from the Suite are, besides the italicised figures by Bart\u00f3k, also figures by V\u00e1rjon.) And immediately D\u00e9nes V\u00e1rjon is also all on fire for Bart\u00f3k: \u201cI was very happy and excited when I got the invitation from the Henle publishers to do the fingering for 3 of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s piano works in their new Urtext edition. It was a great honour and also a great responsibility. Bart\u00f3k, as a composer, but also as a pianist and human being, has been extremely important to me since my childhood. I grew up with his music and his playing is a constant inspiration for me as a pianist. I also admire the great Bart\u00f3k researcher Prof. L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Somfai, with whom, fortunately, I have often had the chance to talk about Bart\u00f3k and his music.\u201d<\/p>\n

For V\u00e1rjon, too, the marking of a work goes far beyond a purely mechanical task: \u201cTo do fingerings is always a very tricky task. First of all, because I myself sometimes use various fingerings, and as with a performance where I never feel that \u2018this was the final version\u2019, it\u2019s the same way I feel as well about my fingerings. We also all have different types of hands, so it\u2019s not easy to find a solution that could work for many pianists. Fingerings, though, are not only practical issues, but show a lot about the performer\u2019s approach, how he or she musically solves a certain passage in the piece. This was for me the most important principle and point of departure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Beginning of No. 2 of the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs with V\u00e1rjon's fingering<\/p><\/div>\n

Examples of the fingering as a messenger of musical design are numerous in V\u00e1rjon\u2019s markings. Be it the portato<\/em> in the left hand at the start of No. 2 from the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs<\/em> (HN 1404)<\/a> or the dying away of the first melody section in m. 40.<\/p>\n

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mm. 35\u201342 of No. 2 of the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs with V\u00e1rjon's fingering<\/p><\/div>\n

The Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs<\/em>, <\/em>op. 20<\/a>, like the Suite, one of Bart\u00f3k\u2019s most demanding pieces, are unusually heavily marked. L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Somfai told me: \u201cThe edition of the Improvisations, <\/em>op. 20, was a real headache. […] Although it is a work appealing to listeners of modern music, preferably in Bart\u00f3k\u2019s own interpretation, the score \u2013 except for the fingering \u2013 is full of detailed instructions about touch, phrasing, tempo changes, etc., including errors still remaining in the most recent editions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whereas the correction of errors lay in the best hands with Bart\u00f3k philologist L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Somfai, Bart\u00f3k interpreter D\u00e9nes Var\u00f3n supplies here the \u201cmissing\u201d fingering. At one spot in the opening of No. V, he even goes so far as to alter Bart\u00f3k\u2019s distribution of hands (1st<\/sup> chord left, 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> chords right) as indicated by the stemming of the chords, by changing the fingering so that the first chord is played with the 3rd<\/sup> fingers of the right and left hands.<\/p>\n

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Beginning of No. V of the Improvisations with V\u00e1rjon's fingering<\/p><\/div>\n

In the musical sense, of course, he follows the composer, because the gradation of the accentuation is also guaranteed by this \u201cartifice\u201d. At the same time, the fingering shows his personal access to a work that is one of the pianist\u2019s favourites: \u201cThe Improvisations and Suite, op. 14, are my all-time favourite pieces, and I have also performed the 15 Hungarian Peasant songs many times. I just hope to have the chance of continuing this exciting work from which I have also learned so much and which helps me to see even more clearly the complexity and richness of these wonderful works.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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