Analysis of Bela Bartok's String Quartet No.4 Movement 3

Bela Bartok¡¦s third movement of his fourth string quartet written in 1928 has a highly engaging and emotive effect on the listener as Bartok¡¦s harmonic world reveals a highly sonorous and atmospheric sound-scape. It is difficult to identify any fundamental scale, mode or tonal center. However, based on Bartok¡¦s reputation in the world of ethnomusicology and his penchant for intermingling folk music and traditional western harmonic practices, it would not be any surprise to find that through set theory analysis modes play a functional in the tonal structure of the movement. This analysis focuses on the pitch class collections obtained from segmenting the movement and how it relates to traditional analytical parameters such as articulation and form.

Bartok¡¦s Sting Quartet No.4 comprises of 5 movements. The slow movement (III) is the kernel of the work, with the 4 other movements arranged in layers around it. Bartok employed an arch form when constructing the quartet A...