Fans of Rózsa's film noir scores will feel right at home in the first movement of this twenty-minute work, a concerto for orchestra in all but name. Called Intrada, the opening is strongly rhythmic and menacing, music of dark action with jagged thematic material hurrying over bass ostinati. The movement displays every division of the orchestra to good effect, although the brass give the music an especially sinister tone, while the lavish percussion section provides both urgency and color. Next comes the Intermezzo Arioso, a somber Hungarian nocturne-one of Rózsa's most effective efforts in this genre. Themes in the style of Hungarian folk song writhe through the woodwinds, and the strings, with brass support, gradually carry the material to a higher emotional pitch. This is the sort of music with which Rózsa defined the suspense film style, and yet when employed here it is full of Hungary rather than Hollywood; it has much in common with the brooding Elegia movement of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra.

In spirit though not in technique, the last movement, called simply Finale, initially recalls the Giuoco delle coppie movement from Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra. But soon the joke turns a little vicious, and the volcanic tremors of the first movement rumble again. The movement's central section harks back to the mood of the Intermezzo and builds to a tragic climax, which subsides to make way for a new pummeling from the movement's initial material. Tension mounts, and the music rises to a frenzy; but instead of ending in the chaos that seems imminent, the work concludes with a series of brutal, quick-punching chords. Despite the score's violence, the Tripartita is defiantly tonal, and its dissonance is no greater than that found in the late works of Bartók. It might be thought of as mid-period Prokofiev with a thick Hungarian accent, an urban Scythian Suite.

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