Tabea Zimmermann about her reconstruction of Bartók's Viola Concerto

Concerning the discussion of Bartók's "uneven" metrum that she discovered in the autograph, she partly contradicts herself.

The asymmetric rhythm is very common in Romania, Bulgaria and large parts of the Balkans, and Bartók as composer can only be understood as someone who studied composition not just in an academic context (which he did), but to a much more amount by his other profession as a carefully listening ethnomusicologist. He also learnt music by listening to fieldwork, by doing fieldwork which had a strong technical impact on his compositions. Everybody who learnt piano with his Microcosmos exercise books understands, it is not folklore, but it is a composer speaking his own musical language, but also developed going through the school of traditional music which might offer more than the Music Academy of Budapest (although it was later influenced by him, Zoltan Kodály, and György Kúrtag a. o.).

Of course, it matters how you had been socialised to music, but it is visible in Bartók's own prejudice who had a problem to acknowledge the musical genius of nomadic people. As an ethnomusicologist you might find Albanian people at the Black Sea coast of Ukraine who went first to Bulgaria where they learnt the Bulgarian way of using asymmetric rhythm singing in their language.

Using local techniques and growing up with them has an impact, but it does not depend on the state and its political régime. lt belongs usually to minorities who need to be protected against them and their invasive acts done in the name of a "greater good"!

You need to be a member of Musicologie Médiévale to add comments!

Join Musicologie Médiévale

Comments

Oliver Gerlach February 4, 2026 3:17

Concerning the discussion of Bartók's "uneven" metrum that she discovered in the autograph, she partly contradicts herself.

The asymmetric rhythm is very common in Romania, Bulgaria and large parts of the Balkans, and Bartók as composer can only be understood as someone who studied composition not just in an academic context (which he did), but to a much more amount by his other profession as a carefully listening ethnomusicologist. He also learnt music by listening to fieldwork, by doing fieldwork which had a strong technical impact on his compositions. Everybody who learnt piano with his Microcosmos exercise books understands, it is not folklore, but it is a composer speaking his own musical language, but also developed going through the school of traditional music which might offer more than the Music Academy of Budapest (although it was later influenced by him, Zoltan Kodály, and György Kúrtag a. o.).

Of course, it matters how you had been socialised to music, but it is visible in Bartók's own prejudice who had a problem to acknowledge the musical genius of nomadic people. As an ethnomusicologist you might find Albanian people at the Black Sea coast of Ukraine who went first to Bulgaria where they learnt the Bulgarian way of using asymmetric rhythm singing in their language.

Using local techniques and growing up with them has an impact, but it does not depend on the state and its political régime. lt belongs usually to minorities who need to be protected against them and their invasive acts done in the name of a "greater good"!
Geert Maessen February 3, 2026 11:29

Interesting: "I think I can be more myself and relax and free, if my mind focuses on something outside myself", "The ear is the most important organ of the musician, not the hands” ... “reading, imagining, doing” ... and: “making bridges and working together, finding through music that our passport and nationality is not important.”
Oliver Gerlach January 19, 2026 14:48

Performing the Nelson Dellamaggiore / Peter Bartók version together with her husband David Shallon on 8 May 1998 (Teatro Real, Madrid)

This reply was deleted.

Videos

Tabea Zimmermann about her reconstruction of Bartók's Viola Concerto

Comments

Popular Videos