BÉLA BARTÓK’S PIANO QUINTET

Abstract

The rarely performed Piano Quintet in C major (1904) by Béla Bartók is a major work in the chamber music genre although its individuality and significance seem to have gone unnoticed in the scholarly literature. The piece represents the composer’s early attempts to break from the traditional compositional standards of his contemporaries as well as his early attempts to include folk elements in his works. This document presents a detailed history of the piece and the circumstances surrounding its composition as well as a brief history of the genre of the piano quintet. The author focuses on the musical influences that Bartók acquired during his musical education and how they influenced the Piano Quintet in addition to the folk origins so intrinsic to the Hungarian language and culture that also appear in the piece. A detailed analysis of the slow movement is included due to the extraordinary way in which it simultaneously looks backwards and markedly forward.