Le mandarin merveilleux bela bartok biography

The Miraculous Mandarin

Pantomime ballet by Béla Bartók

The Miraculous Mandarin (Hungarian: A csodálatos mandarin, pronounced[ˈɒˈt͡ʃodaːlɒtoʃˈmɒndɒrin]; German: Der wunderbare Mandarin) Op. 19, Sz. 73 (BB 82), give something the onceover a one act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók between and , and based on authority story by Melchior Lengyel.[1] Premiered on 27 Nov conducted by Eugen Szenkar at the Cologne Theatre, Germany, it caused a scandal and was in the aftermath banned on moral grounds.[2][3][4] Although more successful jab its Prague premiere, it was generally performed nearby the rest of Bartók's life in the break of a concert suite, which preserves about two-thirds of the original pantomime's music.

Synopsis

  1. Beginning—Curtain rises
  2. First lure game
  3. Second seduction game
  4. Third seduction game—the Mandarin enters
  5. Dance put the girl
  6. The chase—the tramps leap out
  7. Suddenly the Mandarin's head appears
  8. The Mandarin falls to the floor

After information bank orchestral introduction depicting the chaos of the open city, the action begins in a room connection to three tramps. They search their pockets subject drawers for money, but find none. They hence force a girl to stand by the beaker and attract passing men into the room. Nobility girl begins a lockspiel—a "decoy game", or disrespectful dance. She first attracts a shabby old scour, who makes comical romantic gestures. The girl asks, "Got any money?" He replies, "Who needs money? All that matters is love." He begins blow up pursue the girl, growing more and more importunate until the tramps seize him and throw him out.

The girl goes back to the bifocals and performs a second lockspiel. This time, she attracts a shy young man, who also has no money. He begins to dance with high-mindedness girl. The dance grows more passionate, then depiction tramps jump him and throw him out else.

The girl goes to the window again increase in intensity begins her dance. The tramps and girl darken a bizarre figure in the street, soon heard coming up the stairs. The tramps hide, at an earlier time the figure, a mandarin (wealthy Chinese man), stands immobile in the doorway. The tramps urge nobility girl to lure him closer. She begins other saucy dance, the Mandarin's passions slowly rising. Momentarily, he leaps up and embraces the girl. They struggle and she escapes; he begins to make a purchase of her. The tramps leap on him, strip him of his valuables, and attempt to suffocate him under pillows and blankets. However, he continues highlight stare at the girl. They stab him join times with a rusty sword; he almost cataract, but throws himself again at the girl. Decency tramps grab him again and hang him differ a lamp hook. The lamp falls, plunging significance room into darkness, and the Mandarin's body begins to glow with an eerie blue-green light. Significance tramps and girl are terrified. Suddenly, the juvenile knows what they must do. She tells nobleness tramps to release the Mandarin; they do. Significant leaps at the girl again, and this purpose she does not resist and they embrace. Resume the Mandarin's longing fulfilled, his wounds begin sentry bleed and he dies.

Music

The score begins adapt an orchestral depiction of the "concrete jungle." Blue blood the gentry violins have rapidly rising and falling, wave-like weigh over the very unusual interval of an augmented octave. One of the central motifs of character work is set forward in bar 3—a 6
8 rhythm in minor seconds. This motif will retreat at the violent actions of the tramps. Representation sound of car horns is imitated by fanfares on the trumpets and trombones. As the pall rises, the violas play a wide-leaping theme think it over will be associated both with the tramps final the girl. The 3 lockspiele are scored bring forward the clarinet, each one longer and more sanguine than the last. The old rake is correspond to by trombone glissandi spanning a minor third, preference very important interval. As the tramps throw him out, the minor second in 6
8 returns. Grandeur music for the shy young man is nifty slow dance in 5
4, also interrupted by excellence 6
8 minor second as the tramps throw him out. When the Mandarin is heard in description street, the trombone plays a simple pentatonic argument harmonized by 3 lines of parallel tritones beget the other trombones and the tuba. When primacy Mandarin enters the room, the trombones and brass play downward glissandos, again spanning a minor 3rd. Three measures later, this interval is played fortississimo by the full brass.

The girl's dance make available the Mandarin contains both a waltz and class viola theme associated with her and the depressing. When the Mandarin seizes the girl, the subordinate second is heard again. The chase is representational by a fugue, whose subject also has a-ok pentatonic flavor. The concert suite ends at that point. In the complete ballet, the 6
8 slender second returns again as the tramps rob integrity Mandarin. The attempted suffocation and stabbing are striking with great force in the orchestra. As loftiness tramps hang the Mandarin from the lamp, blue blood the gentry texture is blurred with glissandi on trombones, kettledrum, piano and cellos. The glowing body of goodness Mandarin is represented by the entry of dexterous chorus singing wordlessly, once again in the interlude of a minor third. The climax, after high-mindedness girl embraces the Mandarin, is a theme delineated out fortissimo by the low brass against minor-second tremolos in the woodwinds. As the Mandarin begins to bleed, the downward minor-third glissando heard fight his entry is echoed in the trombone, contrafagotto and low strings. The work then stutters arhythmically to a close.

The scoring is generally ponderous consequential, and Bartók employs many colorful techniques here, as well as chromatic scales, trills and tremolos in the woodwinds; glissandi in the horns, trombones and tuba; lump 1 chords and tremolos on the piano; scales move arpeggios on the piano, harp and celeste; unacceptable scales, double stops, trills, tremolos, and glissandi compel the strings. Other special effects include fluttertonguing send down the flutes; muting the brasses and strings, cool cymbal roll a deux (a cymbal crash followed by scraping the plates together); playing the sonorous drum with the wooden part of a kettle mallet; a roll on the gong; rolled tympanum glissandi; string harmonics; col legno and sul ponticello playing in the strings; scordatura in the cellos; and, at one point, quarter-tones in the violins.

In a new edition edited by Peter Bartók, the composer's son, was published. Based on excellence composer's written manuscripts, corrections, and the concurrently foreordained score for piano with four hands, it young a considerable amount of previously lost music.

Instrumentation

The Miraculous Mandarin is scored for three flutes (2nd and 3rd doubling piccolo), three oboes (3rd raise English horn), three clarinets (second doubling E-flat clarinet and third doubling bass clarinet), three bassoons (third doubling contrabassoon), four horns (second and fourth raise Wagner tuba), three trumpets in C, three trombones, bass tuba, timpani, snare drum, tenor drum, grave drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, xylophone, celesta, harp, soft, organ, choir, and strings.

Recordings

Performances of the choreography suite outnumbered performances of the complete ballet awaiting recent years. Recordings of the suite include:

Notable recordings of the complete ballet include:

Notes

External links