In his small piano suite Out of Doors (1926), Béla Bartók explored a number of elements that would become fundamental to his subsequent works. Out of Doors marks the composer's first use of the arch principle, brought to fruition in the String Quartets Nos. 4 and 5 (1928, 1934) and the Concerto for Orchestra (1943/45); likewise, it represents the earliest manifestation of Bartók's characteristic "night music," in which nocturnal sounds—wind, insects, distant revelries—are heard in a setting of dark introspection.

At first glance, Out of Doors is a collection of five character pieces depicting various aspects of Hungarian peasant life. Indeed, the music is based on Hungarian folk elements, but their treatment represents Bartók at his most "modern." The first piece, "With Drums and Pipes," even now maintains its power to startle; deep bass notes hammer out a rude drumbeat as pipes are evoked in the middle register of the keyboard. The chromatic "Barcarolle," marked by strands of irregularly rocking melody drifting from voice to voice, is sinuous and unsettling. "Musettes" was originally an episode in the finale of the composer's Piano Sonata of the same year. Bartók removed it from that score, perhaps feeling that its moderate tempo was inappropriate to the finale's motoric drive; in Out of Doors, it functions as the keystone of the overall arch structure. True to its title, "Musette" is a graphic, burlesque caricature of a bagpiper and his instrument, from the creaking of the bag as it fills with air to the plangent skirling of the dual pipes, complete with cunning evocations of the instrument's "out-of-tune-ness." "The Night's Music" is the longest of the pieces, evoking first a nocturnal silence, then the sounds of crickets and frogs via wisps of tone clusters and croaking figurations. The human element enters with a thoughtful, inward melody, followed by the sounds of distant music, as if from a tavern or encampment. The inward and distant melodies intertwine briefly before the tiny creatures of the night return and darkness subsumes the movement. The finale, "The Chase," recalls the third movement of Bartók's Suite, Op. 14 (1916), but here flight is more graphically depicted, with a suggestion of pursuers in the fierce, explosive chords that punctuate the pell-mell course of the music.

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1.With Drums and Pipes

Despite their collective title, these five pieces are not programmatic. Moreover, Bartók suggested they be published separately, and in his own recitals did not play them as a set. Still, today they often appear complete in recitals and on record. With Drums and Pipes is a typically percussive Bartók work, having something in common with the 1926 Piano Sonata, both opening with rhythmic percussive themes in the bass regions of the keyboard.



That said, With Drums and Pipes is more primal, less sophisticated, its rhythms more dominant than its melodic elements, which are rather fragmentary and closely tied to the rhythmic character of the piece. The thumping beat heard at the opening accrues greater momentum and power as it proceeds, and soon a theme, reminiscent of the opening of the cadenza in the finale of the 1930-31 Second Piano Concerto, is presented. The music takes on more color as it proceeds, even rising briefly into the upper register. The ending to this minute-and-a-half gem is a race to the finish line, the thumping bass rhythm driving frantically forward until its energy flags, yielding to a more deliberate though emphatic close.



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2.Barcarolla

Out of Doors is collectively quite compelling even if, as a set, it has little unity or other factors relating its individual pieces. This Barcarolla, however, is related to another work in Bartók's large canon, the Notturno, No. 97 in his Mikrokosmos. The latter piece features the same lilting accompaniment and theme but is a bit slower, less ominous-sounding and about half as long as this three-minute-plus work. The Barcarolla is a dark piece that inhabits a world not far removed from the late music of Franz Liszt, specifically the Funeral Gondolas I and II.

Barcarolla exhibits, in fact, features of a gondolier's song at the outset, but eventually takes typically Bartókian thematic turns. The accompaniment has a dark, rhythmic soothing character in the opening, but gradually becomes anxious and restive. The melody is more than vaguely reminiscent of Liszt's morbid creation in the Funeral Gondola No. 1, although Bartók's has a slightly mechanical, somewhat brittle quality. Toward the middle the music begins to intensify, but a satisfying resolution to the accumulating unrest is never reached and the piece ends after a somewhat agitated reprise of the main theme.

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3.Musettes

The middle three pieces in the Out of Doors set of five feature music of slow or moderate tempos, though this one serves as a somewhat spirited interlude between the dark No. 2, Barcarolla, marked Andante, and the spooky No. 4, The Night's Music (Lento). At least, both the second subject and alternate theme in Musettes are lively and exhibit music which, if not sunny, at least moves away from the shadows heard in the gloomy opening. The title of this piece is not a reference to a form of Baroque dance, but rather to the 17th-century bagpipe dance, popular in France well into the 18th century.



Bartók originally intended to use this piece, albeit somewhat altered, in his 1926 Piano Sonata. Marked Moderato, Musettes opens with a slow, fragmentary rhythmic theme that soon turns dance-like and ghostly. A second theme of playful character is then heard briefly. Thereafter the thematic material alternates and is developed, the whole leaving a sardonic, dark impression. Lasting about three minutes, this piece has the stamp of Bartók's best folk flavors and will appeal to those with an interest 20th-century piano music.



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4.The Night's Music

Of the five pieces comprising Out of Doors, "The Night's Music" is generally considered the finest. At about five and a half minutes, it is also the longest, and one can confidently observe that it is the first significant appearance of a new style of music—"night music"—in Bartók's output. The dark music heard in the middle movement of the Second Piano Concerto (1930 - 1931), for instance, has roots traceable to this brilliant piece. In a sense, "The Night's Music" uses a subtle form of Impressionism, presenting an evocative portrait of nocturnal Hungarian nature.

The piece opens with sounds that many hear as crickets or birds or other nocturnal animals. Yet, others hear depictions of the dark sky, the stars, or other products of the night. A somber, almost hymn-like theme is soon heard and pushes aside any sense of specific scenes for the moment. A second theme, playful and lonely and played in the upper register, follows shortly and enlivens the atmosphere. It unites briefly with the somber melody, after which the nocturnal sounds from the opening close the piece quietly. In sum, this is quite simply one of Bartók's most important solo piano works.

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5.The Chase

While the five pieces comprising Out of Doors are not program music, strictly speaking, the last two, The Night's Music and The Chase, have been heard as depicting scenes or events. Marked Presto, the latter work has been likened to the music in the chase scene in Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin ballet. It is exciting in its frantic, rhythmic onrush of notes and sense of building keyboard momentum, but for all its racing about, it does not evoke any images of a chase. Rather, it conveys a general sense of desperate pursuit.

The Chase opens with several dramatic, dissonant chords, then gradually works up a driving ostinato pattern that serves as the rhythmic underpinning throughout the piece. The main theme then appears, with its frantic, machine-like character and rapid repetition of certain key notes. The chords from the opening return periodically to punctuate the sense of drama, the sense of pursuit. There is no clear climactic point anywhere—no feeling that any pursuit is decisively resolved—the manic activity reaching a semblance of a resolution only with its abrupt ending. This colorful, difficult piece lasts about two-and-a-half minutes.

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