These four short piano pieces owe their existence to Bartók's discovery of Romanian mourning songs in 1909. Since 1905, Bartók had been collecting folk songs from Eastern Europe, and their exotic scales had soon made their way into the composer's work. The Dirges are in some ways reminiscent of the Fourteen Bagatelles for piano, composed in 1908: both are strongly folk-influenced, and both reflect the same austere, spare aesthetic. The principal difference between the two works is harmonic, as the Bagatelles are decidedly experimental in this respect, at times bordering on atonality; the Dirges, on the other hand, are harmonically quite simple, with melodies often accompanied by open fifths or basic triadic chords. Bartók's melodies and harmonies are constructed largely from lydian and phyrgian modes, octatonic scales (scales consisting of alternating half and whole steps) as well as the usual Hungarian pentatonic (five note) scales. Melodies are simple and unadorned, often presented in bare, parallel octaves. The first of the four Dirges, an adagio, reflects Bartók's interest in Romanian octatonicism, with melodies comprised of octatonic pentachords (the use of octatonic scales would also become an important feature of Igor Stravinsky's music: Stravinsky composed a number of works in the first two decades of the century based on Russian folk music idioms). The second Dirge is perhaps the most harmonically adventurous of the four, as it progresses from relatively simple pentatonic structures to octatonic fragments and arpeggiated ninth chords. The third Dirge is similar in texture and character to the first, while the fourth employs more octatonicism and modal structures.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.