String Quartet No. 1, Op.7 (Sz. 40) (parts) by Bela Bartok
Edited by Quartetto Italiano. Published by International
Bela Bartok (1881-1945) was one of Hungary's greatest composers and one of the most outstanding composers of the 20th century. He was a committed modernist, applying the contrapuntal rigor of Bach and Brahms to the broader tonal sensibilities of Debussy and Schoenberg. He was also one of the first ethnomusicologists; he recorded folk music across Eastern Europe with fellow composer Zoltan Kodaly, later incorporating folk song into his own music. He wrote much in the way for strings, including string quartets, concertos, and folk suites.
Bartok's six string quartets form one of the most fascinating and unique cycles of the quartet literature. By 1909, he had become exposed to the music of Debussy and began collecting and recording folk music. His extraordinary String Quartet No. 1, Op.7 (Sz. 40), completed that year, was born from these influences and contains characteristics that would recur in his later quartets: rigorous, though flexible Brahmsian counterpoint, heightened harmonic tension, extended tonality, and a vibrant, rustic, and earthy sensibility redolent of Carpathian folk music. It is an early masterpiece in Bartok's oeuvre. Parts only. Master level, Grade 6.