The Role of Narrative Analysis in the Comparative Approach to Performances. The Adagio of Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

Abstract

This paper attempts to synthesize the results of some of my earlier researches. Their
aim was a detailed examination of the strategy of the slow movements of Bartók’s
compositions dealing with “the encounter of Man with Nature” (op. 10 n. 1, In Flowers; op. 12 n. 1, Preludio; fourth Quartet, third movement, Non troppo lento; etc. With the help of these intertextual [comparative] analyses I examine here the
Adagio of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta: namely its strategy (=form) in
the specific use of topics (“intonations”). In the last part of the paper I compare the
performance of six conductors at the key-moments of the fourth section of this
palindromic structure (ABCB’A’)