Cohn (1991) Bartók's Octatonic Strategies

Bartók's Octatonic Strategies: A Motivic Approach
Author(s): Richard Cohn

Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Summer, 1991), pp.
262-300
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological
Society
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Bart6k's Octatonic Strategies:
A Motivic Approach
BY RICHARD COHN
ECENT WORK BY MUSIC THEORISTS AND HISTORIANS has left little

doubt about the central role of the octatonic collection' in many
compositions from the first half of the twentieth century, including
works of such major figures as Stravinsky, Bart6k, Debussy, Scriabin,
and Dallapiccola.' Yet the question of why this type of pitch-class
collection merited such intense interest on the part of so many
composers has not yet been completely answered. It is well known
that the collection possesses a number of special internal properties.
For example, any octatonic collection maps into itself under four
different transpositional values, and thus has only three distinct
forms; maps into itself under four different inversions, and thus
An octatonic collection is most readily characterized, for mnemonic purposes, as
any set of pitch-classes resulting from the union of two different diminished-seventh
chords. When ordered from bottom to top, the result is an alternation of whole-steps
and half-steps. In this ordering, the term "octatonic scale" is more commonly
employed; "collection" is used in this study out of a preference to avoid any
implication of a canonical ordering of the elements. Thus "collection" as used here is
equivalent
found toformal
in more "set-class," "Tnwriting.
theoretical / TnI set-type," and "class of unordered pitch-class set"
2 Arthur Berger, "Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky," Perspectives of

New Music 2, no. I (1963): i 1-42; Pieter van den Toorn, The Music of Igor Stravinsky
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983); Richard Taruskin, "Chez
Petrouchka: Harmony and Tonality chez Stravinsky," i9th Century Music 10o (1987):
265-86; Joseph N. Straus, Remaking the Past: Musical Modernism and the Influence of the
Tonal Tradition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990), 86-90, I 13-2 1;
Ern6 Lendvai, Bela Bart6k: An Analysis of his Music (London: Kahn and Averill, 197 );
Elliott Antokoletz, The Music of Bila Bart6k (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1984), chap. 7; Mark Nelson, "Folk Music and the 'Free and Equal
Treatment of the Twelve Tones': Aspects of Bela Bart6k's Synthetic Methods,"
College Music Symposium 27 (1987): 59- 116; Joel Eric Suben, "Debussy and Octatonic
Pitch Structure" (Ph.D. diss., Brandeis University, 1980); George Perle, "Scriabin's
Self-Analyses," Music Analysis 3 (1984): 101-22; and Michael Eckert, "Octatonic
Elements in the Music of Luigi Dallapiccola," The Music Review 46 (1985): 35-48. For
two studies of nineteenth-century precedents, see Gregory Proctor, "The Technical
Bases of Nineteenth-Century Chromatic Tonality" (Ph.D. diss., Princeton Univer-
sity, 1978), and Richard Taruskin, "Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic Sorcery, or
Stravinsky's 'Angle,"' this JOURNAL 38 (1985): 72-142.
BARTOK'S OCTATONIC STRATEGIES 263
potentially articulates eight different pitch-class axes of symmetry;3

has an asymmetrical distribution of intervals, concentrating minor
thirds (or, more generally, interval-class 3) more intensely than any
other collection-type of similar size; and has a relatively limited roster
of subset-types, since each of its proper subsets recurs at multiple
levels of transposition and transposed inversion. These properties are
internal in the sense that their determination requires appealing to no
entities outside of the collection itself, except for the universe of
twelve pitch-classes which serves as the background against which all
pitch entities are defined.
In general, however, the success of theorists in identifying these
internal properties has not been matched by equivalent success on the
part of analysts in demonstrating how these properties are exploited
by composers in ways that are syntactically interesting and profound.
The most ambitious octatonic analytic studies to date (including those
of Berger, van den Toorn, Taruskin, and Antokoletz) appeal, in
varying degrees, to another set of properties: the collection's potential
to articulate multiple tonal centers; its abundant possession of seman-
tically rich subsets, like consonant triads, seventh-chords, French
sixths, and minor (02 35) tetrachords; and its ability to "modulate" into
diatonic collections and other modes common to various folk-music
traditions, via elementary voice-leading routines. These qualities are
more properly classified as external, in that they depend on a relation-
ship to other entities and concepts that bear prior privileged status in
the musical tradition.
This is not to say that internal properties and external potential are
completely detached. Indeed, the concentration of minor thirds in an
octatonic collection is clearly related to its plethora of tonal subsets,
while the symmetrical qualities of the same collection ensure the
multiple replication of those subsets and provide the potential for
simultaneous multiple tonal centers. Yet these approaches can be
characterized as external to the extent that they value the internal
properties as agents for securing the rich degree of external reference
that the collection provides, rather than for their own sake.
This study considers the case for adopting a model of octatonicism
that pays attention only to the collection's internal properties, and
withholds assigning analytic priority to those aspects of the collection
that interact with prior musical tradition. The study begins by
3 Or four axes, if we accept George Perle's definition of "axis" as equivalent to

"sum." Concerning this distinction, see the exchange between Elliott Antokoletz and
Michael Russ in Music Analysis 8 (1989): 205-8.
264 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
outlining some characteristics of B61a Bart6k's approach to pitch

structure, and by abstractly demonstrating that the octatonic collec-
tion possesses properties that endow it with a unique capacity to
respond to these characteristics. The heart of the study presents
analyses of three Bart6k compositions from the 1930os that activate the
octatonic potentials outlined in the abstract study. The conclusion
considers the implications of these analytic findings for some broader
issues pertaining to Bart6k scholarship.
Despite Bart6k's consistent claims that pitch-centricity was fun-

damental to his compositional style,4 examination of several traits
characteristic of Bart6k's compositional idiom may be effectively
carried out without appealing to tonal considerations. One such trait
is the reuse and transformation of motivic materials. A highly valued
aspect of this general tendency involves the combination of inversion-
ally related materials, either simultaneously or in canon.5 Equally
prominent is Bart6k's tendency to combine transpositionally related
entities, either simultaneously (in strict parallel motion), successively
in a single voice (sequential passages), or successively in multiple
voices (transpositional canons).6 A second general Bart6kian trait that
may in principle be divorced from tonal considerations is the consis-
tent concern for intervals, or more generally, interval-classes,7 as
See, for example, Bdla Bart6k, Essays, ed. Benjamin Suchoff (London: Faber and
Faber, 1976), 338, 370-71.
5 For discussions of inversional symmetry in Bart6k, see George Perle, "Sym-
metrical Formations in the String Quartets of Bela Bart6k," The Music Review 16
(1955): 300-12; Elliott Antokoletz, "Principles of Pitch Organization in Bart6k's
Fourth String Quartet" (Ph.D diss., City University of New York, 1975); idem, The
Music of Bila Bart6k; Wallace Berry, "Symmetrical Interval Sets and Derivative Pitch
Materials in Bart6k's String Quartet No. 3," Perspectives of New Music 18, nos. 1-2
(1979-80): 287-380; and Jonathan Bernard, "Space and Symmetry in Bart6k,"Journal
of Music Theory 30 (1986): 185-201. Both Perle and Antokoletz conceptually bind
inversional symmetry to issues of pitch-centricity and tonality, but such a union is
unnecessary and frequently inappropriate. Furthermore, in cases where the axis of
inversion is a semitone-related dyad (i.e. when the inversional sum is odd), claims of
tonality have a considerable metaphorical component, since the ontological status of
the asserted center deviates radically from the status of the center as traditionally
asserted.
6 Richard Cohn, "Inversional Symmetry and Transpositional Combination in
Bart6k," Music Theory Spectrum io (1988): 19-42.
7 Pairs of notes are classified either by interval-class or by dyad-class in this study.
The two classifications are identical, so their distinction is a matter of orientation. As
with interval-classes, names of dyad-classes correspond to the smallest interval,
primary compositional material.8 Early Bart6k scholars referred to the

capacity of specific intervals to have "constructive functions"9 or serve
as "germinating cells,"'" and Bart6k's tendency to concentrate single
intervals by way of cycles has figured prominently in more recent
analytic literature.I"
The combination of these two traits suggests a generative proce-
dure that is quite typical of Bart6k's music, where a dyad is combined
with its own transposition, resulting in a tetrachord (assuming no
shared pitch-classes between the combined dyads).'" For example,
two whole-step dyads, {C D} and {E F#}, could be united to form the
whole-tone tetrachord {C D E F#}. This procedure may then be
repeated, the tetrachord in turn combining with its own transposition,
resulting in a collection of eight pitch-classes (again assuming no
overlap between the two combined entities). In this way, the tetra-
chordal result of our previous operation, {C D E F#}, could be
combined with one of its transpositions, such as {F G A B}, to form
an eight-note diatonic collection." Because only twelve pitch-classes
are available, further repetition beyond the octachordal level is
impossible without admitting pitch-class duplications between the
combined entities. The general procedure of combining entities with
their own transpositions, which will be henceforth referred to as
"transpositional combination," thus places a premium on sets whose
number of elements (or cardinality) is a power of 2. Because the
measured in half-steps, available between their constituent pitch-classes. Thus

dyad-class I includes pairs of pitches separated by half-step, major seventh, and their
enharmonic equivalents and compounds; dyad-class 2 includes whole-steps, minor
sevenths, and their enharmonic equivalents and compounds, and so forth up to
dyad-class 6, the tritone. Although theorists use interval-class more frequently, the
concept of dyad-class allows for a more natural comparison to larger sets.
8 Antokoletz, Bala Bart6k: A Guide to Research (New York: Garland, 1988), xxiv.
9 Gerald Abraham, "The Bart6k of the Quartets," Music and Letters 26 (1945): 190.
,o Sfindor Veress, "Bluebeard's Castle," Tempo 14 (1950): 28.
" See for example Perle, "Symmetrical Formations" and Antokoletz, The Music of
Bela Bart6k.
" This might be posited equivalently as "a dyad is combined with its inversion."
Although not incorrect, lacking further analytic context it seems preferable to focus
on the transposition operation, in light of its relative theoretical simplicity and
historical and perceptual primacy. For further discussion, see Cohn, "Inversional
Symmetry."
3 An eight-note diatonic mode may be characterized as the combination of any
two diatonic collections which are adjacent on the circle of fifths. The example at
hand combines a C-major collection with a G-major collection.
number 8 is the largest such number smaller than 12, octachords

occupy a special position in this scheme.14
Every transpositional combination may be reversed by what we
might provisionally term an act of "de-combination." The procedure
described in the preceding paragraph would be reversed by de-
combining the eight-note diatonic mode into two whole-tone tetra-
chords, each of which, in turn, would be split into two whole-step
dyads. Only a small number of octachords, however, can be yielded
by transpositional combination from dyads, and thus in turn have the
capacity to be de-combined into transpositionally related dyads. That
is to say, all of the possible operations of transpositional combination,
from dyads through tetrachords, funnel toward a small number of
octachords. Consequently, any octachord which is capable of being
produced by transpositional combination can de-combine in a variety
of different ways. Note, for example, that the eight-note diatonic
mode {C D E F F# G A B} can also be de-combined into two major
seventh chords ({F A C E} and {G B D F#}), which can be in turn be
de-combined into major thirds ({F A}, {C E}, {G B}, {D F#}; or it could
be de-combined into diatonic tetrachords ({C,D,F,G} and
{E,F# ,A,B}), which in turn can be de-combined into perfect fourths
({C,F}, {D,G}, {E,A}, {F#,B}). It is particularly crucial that these
octachords vary considerably in the number of tetrachordal and
dyadic combinations that may yield them, and thus in the degree to
which they may yield different transpositionally related partitions.
The following more systematic exploration demonstrates the
especially powerful capacity of the octatonic collection to participate
in the procedures described above. The exposition attends first to the
capacities of tetrachords to partition transpositionally into dyads,
using for illustration the reference set {C E G B}. The more complex
case of octachords will then follow.'5
Definition I. A partition of superset X is any unordered and disjoint set

of subsets which in union comprise X.
'4 The topic of transpositional combination is approached more formally in Cohn,

"Inversional Symmetry," and more formally still in idem, "Transpositional Combi-
nation in Twentieth-Century Music" (Ph.D. diss., Eastman School of Music, 1987).
In these studies the concept of transpositional combination is released from the
constraint, adopted here, that the transpositionally combined entities are non-
intersecting.
S5 The following formalism relies in part on Robert Morris and Brian Alegant,
"The Even Partitions in Twelve-Tone Music," Music Theory Spectrum io (1988):
74-101.
Accordingly, {C E} {G B} and {C E G} {B} are some of the partitions

of the reference set. Note, however, that {C E G} {E G B} is not a
partition, since the two subsets are not disjoint; they share elements. i6
Definition 2. The cardinality of a set refers to the number of elements it

contains.
The cardinality of the reference set is 4.
Definition 3. An even partition is one whose subsets are all of the same
cardinality.
The reference set has five even partitions:

I. {CE G B}
2. {C E} {G B}
3. {C G} {E B}
4. {C B} {E G}
5. {C} {E} {G} {B}
All sets have the capacity to partition into themselves, and into a
set of single-element subsets (as shown in partitions I and 5 respec-
tively of the above list). Only sets of non-prime cardinality are able to
evenly partition at some intermediate cardinality. Thus the reference
set, whose cardinality of 4 is non-prime, has three additional parti-
tions, numbered 2-4. The following distinction is useful:
Definition 4. Even partitions may be classified as trivial and non-trivial. In

a trivial even partition, the cardinality of the subsets is equal either to the
cardinality of the superset, or to i. All other even partitions are
non-trivial.
The following exposition is concerned exclusively with non-trivial

even partitions. Definition 5 arrives at a formal accounting of what
was called "transpositional de-combination" above.
Definition 5. A transpositional partition is a non-trivial even partition

whose subsets are related by transposition.
Of the three non-trivial even partitions of the reference set, {C E}

{G B} and {C G} {E B} are transpositional, but {C B} {E G} is not.
16 The definition of partition adopted here is therefore more constrained than the
one used in van den Toorn, The Music of Igor Stravinsky.
Not all sets are susceptible to transpositional partitioning. Since

transpositional partitions are by definition non-trivial even partitions,
it follows that sets of prime cardinality, such as trichords or penta-
chords, are incapable of transpositional partitioning. Furthermore,
many sets of non-prime cardinality are incapable of transpositional
partitioning. For example, a dominant seventh chord cannot be
partitioned into two transpositionally related dyads. This situation
suggests the following distinction:
Definition 6. A fertile set has at least one transpositional partition; an

infertile set lacks transpositional partitions.
Of the twenty-nine tetrachord-types, thirteen are fertile. These

are listed in Table i, by Forte-name, by integer prime form, and by
prime form translated into note names. Column 4 gives all of the
transpositional partitions of the prime form, and Column 5 gives the
dyad-class constituency of these partitions." The table demonstrates
that all fertile tetrachords yield at least two different transpositional
partitions, but that several special sets yield three different such
partitions. This suggests the following measuring stick:
Definition 7. The degree of fertility of a set is the total number of

transpositional partitions it yields.
Most of the tetrachords listed in Table I thus have a degree of

fertility of 2, but the degree of fertility for 4-9, 4-25, and 4-28 is 3.
The case of octachords is somewhat more complex, since they may
be evenly partitioned into both tetrachordal and dyadic subsets. Of
the twenty-nine octachord-types, only twelve are completely infertile.
The remaining seventeen, which are listed in Table 2, may be evenly
partitioned into transpositional partitions at the tetrachordal level.
The degree of fertility varies widely at this level, however, as Table
2 illustrates: two octachords have a particularly high degree of
fertility. One of these, 8-28, is the octatonic collection.
Seven of the fertile octachords feature a further property: their
transpositional partitions yield tetrachord-types that are themselves
fertile, and hence partition into transpositionally related dyads. In a
sense, these seven octachords are doubly fertile, partitioning not only
7 Note that every pair of dyad-classes appears as a unit in Column 5 of Table i.

See Cohn, "Inversional Symmetry," for further discussion.
TABLE I
Fertile tetrachords
transpositional
Name Prime form in note names partitions dyad-type
4-I {0123} {C CO D DI} {C C} {D DI} I

{C D} {C- DO} 2
4-3 {o 0134} {C C# E EE} {C C} {E6 E} I

{C E} {C# E} 3
4-7 {0145} {C C E F} {C C#} {E F}
{C E} {C# F} 4
4-8 {o 156} {C CO F F#} {C C} {F F#}
{C F} {C F#} 5
4-9 {0167} {C C F# G} {C C} {FI G} I
{C F#} {C G} 6
{C F#} {G C} 5
4-10 {0235} {C D E F} {C D } {E F} 2
{C E} {D F} 3
4-17 {0347} {C EC E G} {C E6} {E G} 3

{C E} {E G} 4
4-20 {0158} {C DI F Ab} {D6 F} {Ab C} 4

{i6D Ab} {F C} 5
4-21 {0246} {C D E F} {C D} {E F} 2
{C E} {D F#} 4
4-23 {o0257} {C D F G} {C D} {F G} 2
{C F} {D G} 5
4-25 {0268} {C D F1 G#} {C D} {F# G#} 2

{C F#} {D G#} 6
{D F#} {GO C} 4
4-26 {0358} {C E F Ab} {C E} { Ab} 3

{CAF} {EbA} 5
4-28 {0369} {C E, F#{C A}
F#}{C E6}
{E A} 6 {F# A
{E F#} {A C} 3
into transpositionally related tetrachords but int

related dyads as well. This property suggests the
category:
Definition 8. Potent octachords have dyadic transpositional partitions.

The number of such partitions for a given octachord is its degree of
potency.
TABLE 2
Fertile octachords
degree of degree of
Forte-name Prime-form fertility potency
8-1 {o01234567) 3 3
8-3 {01234569} x
8-4 {o 01234578} x
8-6 {01235678} 4 3
8-7 {0o234589} I
8-9 {o236789} o10 5
8-io {o2345679} 2 3
8-13 {01234679) 2
8-14 {01245679} 1
8-17 {ox345689} 4 3
8-18 {ox235689} 2
8-20 {0o245789} x
8-21 {ox 23468A} x
8-23 {xI23578A} 3 3
8-25 {x024678A} 4
8-26 {ox 34578A} x
8-28 {ox 34679A} 11 9
The right column of Ta

chords, and shows that their
all potent octachords posse
partitions at the dyadic lev
the octatonic collection, ho
partitions.
Table 3 focuses on the partitioning properties of the octatonic
collection in greater detail, listing the eleven tetrachordal partitions of
the source collection, numbered i through ii, and the nine dyadic
partitions, numbered I2 through 20. The middle column of Table 3
gives the Forte-name and prime form of each partition. The eleven
tetrachords represent seven different classes of tetrachords.'8 Most of
these classes have familiar nineteenth-century contexts, arising either
as diatonic fragments or as the result of standard chromatic routines.
o0 34 is familiar as a fragment of a harmonic minor collection; 0235 is
the lower half of a minor scale; 0347 is a triad with both major and
minor third simultaneously; and 0268, 0358, and 0369 are French
sixth, minor seventh, and diminished seventh chords respectively.
Among this group of seven tetrachords, only or67 resists such a
traditional interpretation.
'8 Antokoletz lists only four of these seven in The Music ofBila Bart6k, 76n.
BARTOK'S OCTATONIC STRATEGIES 27 I
TABLE 3
Transpositional Partitions of an Octatonic Collection
Source collection: {C D E, F GI A, A B}
Partitions into
Tetrachordal partitions Tetrachord-type dyads #
i. {B
2. {D C.D
E F E,}
GI}{F aG'
{A' A' A}
ABC} 4-3
12,16 [0134] I2
3. {B C F G'} {D E A' A} 4-9 [oi67] 12,19,20
4. {CD E F} {G' A6' A B} 4-10 [0235] 13,14
5. {E F G Ab} {A B C D} 13,17
6. {B D E I G'} {F A6 A C} 4-17 [0347] 17,18
7. {D F G, A} {A BC E1} 14,18
8. {C D G6 Ab,} {E F A B} 4-25 [0268] I3,18,20
9. {C EF F Ab} {Gb AB D} 4-26 [0358] 15,19'
io. {E1 G A B} {A C D F} 16,19
ii. {C E, G, A} {D F A6 B} 4-28 [0369] 1
Combines
into
Dyadic partitions Dyad-type tetrachords #
12. {B C}{D E,}{F G6,}{A A} I 1,2,3
13. {C D}{EI F}{G, Ab}{A B} 2 4,5,8
14. {C E}{Gk A}{D F}{A, B} 3 4,7,11
15.
16. {C
{A EI}{.G A}{F AH}{B
C}{E G.}{D D} 3
Fj{A' B} 3 1,9,11
2,10,11
17. {B
18. {AE~}{D
C}{E G}{F
G.}{FA}{A,
A,}{BC} D} 3 5,6,ii
4 6,7,8
19. FC f'{E AKG BH}{ D} 5 3,9,10o
20. {C H}{D AE AF B} 6 3,8,11
The lower half of Table 3 also brings out a p

property of the octatonic collection: its dyadic
each of the six available dyad-classes. Among a
available in the I2-pitch-class universe, the only
can transpositionally partition its elements
dyad-classes is the I2-pitch-class aggregate.
The right-hand column of Table 3 shows t
transpositional partitioning and transpositional com
between the dyads and tetrachords in the
tetrachordal partitioning no. i of the octatonic col
positionally partitions into dyadic partitions n
larly, dyadic partition no. i2 transpositionally c
chords nos. i, 2, and 3. Each tetrachord in the ta
partitions into at least two dyads, and each dy
combines to form exactly three tetrachords. Ideally, all such connec-

tions could be collated in a graphically displayed network, but
unfortunately such a network is cumbersome to read in two dimen-
sions. The right-hand column of Table 3 reports all of the links that
would compose such a network.
In summary, although the octatonic collection is not unique in its
ability to partition transpositionally into tetrachords and dyads, it is
exceptional in the diversity of materials that it can generate through
these procedures. I know of no single composition in which Bart6k
takes advantage of all of the possible transpositional combination/par-
tition schemes that the octatonic makes available. As the following
analyses suggest, however, Bart6k does take substantial advantage of
the multiplicity of materials that the octatonic collection generates
under transpositional partitioning.
"From the Island of Bali," composed in 1937 and included in Book

IV of the Mikrokosmos, provides a clear introduction to Bart6k's
octatonic strategies.'9 The composition, given as Example i, contains
four sections, of which the last is a modified reprise of the first. A
single octatonic collection controls the first two sections (except for a
single "non-collection tone" at measure i5, circled in the example), as
well as the final section (except for the circled notes in measures
34-35). The third section contains a deviant Bb throughout, tempo-
rarily breaking the octatonic monopoly.
The primary partition of the octatonic collection, throughout the
composition, is into two o 67 tetrachords.2' As mentioned above, of
the seven tetrachordal transpositional partitions, this is the least likely
to invoke associations with the tonal tradition."1 (Although D-natural
eventually emerges as a tonal center, it is achieved through the
assertion of a low pedal point, rather than through any properties
inherent in the pitch-materials of the composition.) A special property
'9 The dating of Mikrokosmos is taken from John Vinton, "Toward a Chronology
of the Mikrokosmos," Studia Musicologica 8 (1966): 41-69.
2o The prominent position of o 167 (a.k.a. "Z-cell," "1:5 model") in Bart6k's music
is well known. See Leo Treitler, "Harmonic Procedures in the Fourth Quartet of Bla
Bart6k,"Journal of Music Theory 3 (1959): 292-97, Lendvai, Bila Bart6k: An Analysis,
and Antokoletz, The Music of Bila Bart6k.
" The tetrachords are abstractly related by inversion as well as by transposition.
Bart6k takes considerable advantage of both of these potentials, exploring inversional
relations in the first section, but switching to a transpositional emphasis at mm.
i6-i8, and again at the opening of the final section.
Example i
Bart6k, Mikrokosmos Book IV: "From the Island of Bali." MIKROKOSMOS. ? Copy-
right 1940 by Hawkes & Son (London) Ltd.; Copyright Renewed. Reprinted by permis-
sion of Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.
(SECTION 1)
4 3 2 3 2 3 4 3 2 3 3 4 32 2 3 4 3
11 (SECTION 2) 8
S It Li ! - . .
Risoluto, =w96
y I-- Iit
(SIEC-TON 3)
F I ._ -I I-
Example i (continued)
27
poco allarg. -- - -
(prol. L.)
(SECMION 4)
31 Andant dolce
dim . - . . . . . . ..I 1" % -
36 a terno __
FC.7,T' 36 poco rit. a temo -
x 7 ) ~
(pro(. b.) *
of this partitioning is that the available melodic intervals within each
form of o167 belong to only three interval-classes, I, 5, and 6, while
the harmonic intervals available between the two forms of the
tetrachord belong exclusively to the remaining three classes, 2, 3, and
4.22 (These harmonic interval-classes are indicated in a Fuxian manner
beneath the opening measures of Example i.) The special distributi
of melodic and harmonic interval-classes here results from the pr
compositional selection of the collection and its partitioning, rath
than from the specific deployment of the pitches within the lines, o
the alignment of the voices. Very few pitch-class collections have the
capacity to generate such a rigorous control over composition
22 This was first pointed out by Gary Wittlich, "Some Applications of Se

Theory in the Analysis of Non-serial Music" (Ph.D. diss., University of Iowa, 196
44. I am grateful to Marianne Kielian-Gilbert for calling my attention to th
reference.
dimensions in this manner."3 This special property further t

the wealth of potentials inherent in the internal structu
octatonic collection.24
Conflicting with the salient o167 partition is a more subtly invoked
partitioning of the octatonic collection into 0358 tetrachords, which is
clearly brought out only at the final cadence. (See Example i, where
the two 0358 tetrachords are marked as X and Y.) Although appar-
ently anomalous, the 0358 partitioning has been latently present
throughout the piece. In the opening measures, the members of the X
chord (G# and EF in the left hand, B and 0C in the right hand) are
emphasized, both metrically and by virtue of their position as first and
last, highest and lowest. By the first cadence at measure I I, however,
the emphasis has been shifted to the members of the Y collection (A
and D in the left hand, C and F in the right hand). The opening
phrase thus describes a middleground X to Y motion. A similar X to
Y motion is apparent at a still larger scale: in the reprise, the members
of the Y chord occupy the grouping boundaries and are emphasized
metrically, transforming the X-emphasis of the opening measures into
a Y-emphasis. Thus the entire composition charts a course from
X-prolongation to Y-prolongation, which the X to Y gesture of the
final cadence brings to the surface. As a consequence, the final
cadence resembles both a middleground sketch of the opening ii
measures, and a background sketch of the piece.
The emergence at the final cadence of the previously latent 0358
partitioning conjoins two traits integral to Bart6k's octatonic strate-
gies: the interaction of different transpositional partitions of the
octatonic collection, and the process of emergence itself. Mark Nelson
has shown that, in the Third and Fifth Quartets, Bart6k postpones
appearance of the complete octatonic collection until near the end of
a movement or complete composition."s In those cases, and in several
others to be considered later in this study, what emerges is the
octatonic collection itself. In "From the Island of Bali," the emergent
element is a particular partitioning and distribution of its pitch-classes
which had previously been concealed by the more salient oI67
partition.
23 This situation serves as a reminder that the expansion of compositional

resources in the twentieth century makes possible not only the "unity of musical
space" (see John Rahn, Basic Atonal Theory [New York: Longman, '979], 8), but also
their complete disunity, in a way that was not possible using traditional materials.
24 In fact, two other transpositional octatonic partitions, 0268 and 0369, fulfill the
same condition.
25 Nelson, "Synthetic Methods," o101-13.
Example 2
Bart6k, Mikrokosmos Book VI: "Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths"

(a) mm. 53-55
53
cresce do - - -
y x y x y x y
(b) mm. 1-2
Molto adagio, mesto =5 6
18I
" ~ rp I I ( ( (&m I - -Ll
ines
".1: , -it
The par
chords
1933 and included in Book VI of the Mikrokosmos. Th

represents a class of Bart6k's atonal compositions in slow
known as "Night Music.""6 Example 2a shows the only consp
octatonic moment of the piece, beginning in measure 5
seventy-measure composition. The collection is achieved by
ing between two different forms of the o167 tetrachord, label
Y. (A third event, the A/ G# dyad, reiterates the two
pitch-classes of the X chord.) The two chords are distinct with
not only to pitch-class content but also to registral disposit
partitioning: whereas X is in closed position and is registrall
tioned into two perfect fourths, Y spans more than four octav
partitioned into two major sevenths. In tracing the origins
octatonic outburst, it will prove useful to refer to these f
of X and Y independently: X represents both the pitch-
{Et G# A D} and the partitioning of o 167 into perfect fourths i
position; Y likewise represents the set {C F F# B} and the parti
of o 67 into major sevenths in open position.
The X chord originates in the opening of the piece (g
Example 2b), which symmetrically moves away from an inv
center, expressed as a double pedal point A/G#. The goals
motion are its registral extremes, D above and E, below, wh
immediately marked by the registrally isolated gesture at th
measure 2. The pitch-set uniting the axes and boundaries is
the X chord of measure 53-.
A contrasting section, beginning at measure 18, is sh
Example 2c. A new inversional center, F# / F, appears a min
below the original center; as in the opening, the axial dyad pers
a double pedal point, while two additional voices migrate awa
it by contrary chromatic motion, eventually arriving at B abov
below. At the downbeat of measure 2 I, Bart6k gathers axes and
into a new transposition of o167. As a pitch-class set, this c
equivalent to the Y-chord, but in terms of partitioning and spa
takes the formation of the X chord. The middleground
through the first twenty-one measures may thus be describ
downward transposition by minor third of the initial bou
26 It might be argued that the piece is pitch-centric in the sense t

constructed about an A/G# axis. But the nature of this "tonic" and the str
which it is articulated are remote from the traditional conceptions in all of
which are important to the current discussion; in this sense, the rubric "ato
appropriate. See n. 5 above.
Example 3
Bart6k, "Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths"

(a) Structural motion
Measure: 1 21 21-22 63ff.
tI I) %I
pc-set: X Y Y Y -T X
Partition: T-3XT_3
X Y Y
(b) mm. 48-51
poco string.
48
ppiu intensintenso
pitches and the in

constituting an o
shown in Exampl
The attainment of Y in the formation of the X-chord at the
downbeat of measure 2 is followed immediately by a rearrangem
of its pitch-classes into the formation associated with the Y-chord.
scalar gesture of a major seventh, F# up to F, is echoed by
transposition down a tritone, C up to B. This scalar gesture rec
several times in the piece, but never at the original transpositi
level. Instead, like the X-chord which opens the piece, it is transpo
down a minor third. Single scalar gestures at measures 38 and
move from Eb up to D, but on both occasions Bart6k fails to pro
the expected tritone-related response, A up to G#. At measure 63,
EF-D gesture is repeated a third time, now echoed immediately
persistently by A-G#, leading directly to the final cadence.
27 The structural importance of middleground o167 migrations in Bart6

discussed in Antokoletz, The Music ofBila Bart6k, chap. 5.
In this way, the migration of the X-formation of

transpositional level of Y in measures 1-21 is paral
migration of the Y-formation to the transpositional le
measures 21-63. Each motion involves transposition d
minor third, and composes out an octatonic collection
span. Example 3a summarizes the progress of tetrachord o
the piece. T_3 indicates the operation of transposition
minor third. That the double application of this opera
pitch-class set X is due to the invariance of oi67 a
transposition (T_3 of T_3(X) = T_6(X) = X).
The process shown in Example 3a is brought clo
foreground in measures 48-51, the passage immediately p
octatonic outburst of Example 2a. The phrase, given as
begins with the opening X pitches, in the perfect four
associated with X, but concludes with the Y pitches i
seventh formation associated with Y. Here Bart6k com
the pitch-class and gestural motion of the opening 2 m
single four-measure phrase, in the process bringing
collection closer to our conscious awareness. Measures
ple 2a) thus represent a further compression of this X-
simultaneously bringing to the surface the octatonic c
partitioning into oi67 tetrachords, and the contrasting
tions with which these tetrachords are first associated.
Despite its greater complexity, "Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths"
provides further evidence of the octatonic strategies which were
identified in "From the Island of Bali." Again Bart6k employs the
processes of suppression and emergence, although here he suppresses
the octatonic collection itself, rather than one of its characteristic
partitions. Again Bart6k works with contrasting partitions of the
octatonic collection, although here the contrast occurs not at the level
of the tetrachord, oi67 throughout, but rather at the level of the
dyadic partitionings of this tetrachord: the perfect fourths of X versus
the major sevenths of Y.
The octatonic strategies which Bart6k employs in his relatively

small-scale Mikrokosmos also appear in a very different kind of piece,
the first movement of the Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion,
composed in i937, the same year as "From the Island of Bali." The
movement is different not only in its relative magnitude, which has
2 80 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
earned it the nickname "Makrokosmos,"'8 but also by the extent of its

flirtation with materials and procedures of the musical past. Tonal
centers are articulated at important structural junctures, where major
triads and diatonic fragments frequently appear. Furthermore, the
most prominent octatonic partitions employed in this movement,
primarily representing tetrachord-classes o0134 and 0347 and dyad-
classes 3 and 4, lend themselves easily to tonal interpretation, and
indeed these partitions are frequent participants in the tonicizing
process. An example occurs at the very opening of the piece, where
o 134, as a fragment of the harmonic minor scale, is instrumental in
establishing F# as the initial (although provisional) tonic. Conse-
quently, a treatment of the octatonic collection and its subsets as
agents of pitch-centricity or as products of octatonic/diatonic interac-
tion meets with considerable analytic success in the Sonata.
Nonetheless, while a tonal approach to octatonic strategies in this
movement is not inappropriate, it is incomplete. As the following
analysis demonstrates, the octatonic strategies that Bart6k employs in
his relatively atonal short forms are also active in this more tradition-
evoking context, although in a more complex form befitting the scope
of the movement.29
In the Sonata, as in "Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths," the

octatonic collection makes only one unambiguous appearance, rela-
tively late in the movement. The moment occurs at the opening of the
coda (see Example 4), where a single octatonic collection dominates
the surface for a full thirteen measures. 30 The same collection makes
28 Lendvai, The Workshop of Bart6k and Kodily (Budapest: Editio Musica), 319.
29 The Sonata has received less attention from American analysts than most other
major Bart6k works. For an interpretation adopting the analytic assumptions of Perle
and Antokoletz, see Errol Haun, "Modal and Symmetrical Pitch Constructions in
B&la Bart6k's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion" (D.M.A. thesis, University of
Texas at Austin, 1982).
30 My view of the form of the piece is at odds with Bart6k's own account, which
he wrote for the 13 January I938 edition of the National Zeitung of Basel on the
occasion of the first performance, translated in Bart6k, Essays, 417-18. Bart6k locates
the beginning of the coda much earlier than I do, at m. 332, so that the coda occupies
fully one-quarter of the Allegro. In his view, the opening of the coda immediately
follows the recapitulation of the second subject, and the fugal third subject of the
exposition is neglected altogether in the recapitulation. Yet the material beginning at
m. 332 corresponds in both texture and detail to the third subject as presented in the
exposition, making it difficult not to hear it as a part of the recapitulation. Bart6k may
have been more flexible about these matters than his analysis of the Sonata indicates.
In another analysis from the same period, of the first movement of the Fifth Quartet
(Bart6k Essays, 414), he acknowledged two possible locations for the beginning of the
coda.
BARTOK'S OCTATONIC STRATEGIES 28I1
Example 4
Bart6k, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, first movement, measures 417-36.
SONATA FOR TWO PIANOS AND PERCUSSION. ? Copyright 1942 by Hawkes
& Son (London) Ltd. Copyright Renewed. Reprinted by permission of Boosey &
Hawkes, Inc.
FORMAT 1
P.1
417
423
-Or ORMA I L_... 11'" L"7-j

P.II1
P. 1I I I
P1 4marc
443R
I..4 m'I :- L -Iif A
429
429
P IP.I,
IIL I
-,- "op
-. , -. - *..0,
1)
Example 4 (continued)
poco allarg. - - - - al
P.1 I
poco allarg. - - - - al
P.II
FORMAT #3
Tempo I. (,.=132)
433
P.4
TimXylophone
a brief reappearance shortly thereafter, as a series of martellato chords

at measures 434-36. The entire section has a perorational quality
Example 5
Bart6k, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, first movement, mm. i-18
Assai lento -ca.70 STOLLEN 1
Piano I
Piano II 0134 0145
Assai lento=ca. 70 , ___ _ _-
Percussion I TII
Timp.
'P
Percussion IIi
CANON at T6
poco ef
r . 0134-
I I- esprrho
OCTATONIC
Cymbal
STOLLEN 2
6,wSide Drum t TTONI

10
poco
0145
p espr.
Cym.
I "I I
p
ABGESANG
Apoco a poco accel
poc accel.
p p
I I I -1- 1
I I -It
14
JIM e~3~
Tam-Tam
EI'1,'rI'1 '1
K L? aq [ r L "
6.,N I ' "

A il L--f
k, 2 4W ]I M -
I I I I I I%
I L I -, I M .
M T ..
(8)- - - - - - -
typical of nin
structural acce
accounting. In
strategies for i
ment, yet prev
The movemen
(Example 5), w
bar-form.3' Th
figure introduc
the octatonic c
Although the fi
the same collec
the forefront
chromatic gaps
31 On codas as p
Performance (New
Schubert's codas
Unfinished Busine
appropriate to the
32 Lendvai, The W
After a repetition of the initial seven-note version, the motto is

extended to a nine-note form, where it is pursued in canon. By
carefully choosing the interval of canonic transposition, Bart6k par-
tially realizes the motto's octatonic potential: it is at the tritone that the
o 134 tetrachord of the dux combines with the comes to complete the
octatonic collection. The complete realization of this potential is
obstructed, however, by the asynchrony of the voices, which causes
the point of octatonic completion in one voice to coincide with the
introduction of a foreign pitch in the other voice.
Although the outburst at measure 6 is chromatic, the gestural
boundaries again articulate o134, this time in a different transposition
(B to G#; C to A). A recitative-like melody, traversing six members of
a new octatonic collection, then completes the first Stollen. Those
pitch-classes necessary to complete this new collection, G and B, are
exactly those that initiate the second Stollen at measure 8, after a
pause. As a result, for the first time a complete octatonic collection
occurs without intrusion of foreign pitches, but the intervening group
boundary is likely to distract a listener from attending to its presence.
Following the second Stollen, whose octatonic implications are
weaker, the Abgesang returns to the veiled octatonicism of the
opening. The motto is inverted, initially in parallel minor sixths (as in
the second Stollen). A switch to parallel tritones at measure 13
initiates a process of cyclic repetition by the right hand of Piano I.
Each successive cycle omits the final event of the previous cycle until
the motto is pared down to its initial o134 nub, which is repeated
twice before being ejected into a cadence at the downbeat of measure
18. As in the opening measures of the movement, the use of the
tritone as the interval of transposition allows the four-note gesture to
generate a complete octatonic collection. Also as before, other simul-
taneous events obscure this design: the left hand part of Piano I,
which mirrors the right hand inversionally, produces a different
octatonic collection. The collision of the collections neutralizes the
octatonic identity that either would have individually.
The pattern of octatonic implication and non-fulfillment estab-
lished in the opening continues through the remainder of the Assai
lento and into the Allegro as well. Prominent octatonic subsets occur
in measures 23-32, at measure 41 (the ostinato in Piano 2), measure 69
(the sequenced figure o 347), and measure 99 (0347). Also, much of
the melodic material in the contrapuntal passage beginning at measure
133, in parallel minor sixths, is octatonic, although each line rotates
rapidly between different octatonic collections, and the parallel mo-
tion again causes conflicting collections to sound simultaneously.
Example 6
Bart6k, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, first movement, development section
(a) mm. 198-2 I4: synopsis of upper voice
198 200 203 205 208
+1+2
209 210 211 212 213
L +3 L +4 L +5
(b) mm. 2 35 ff., Piano I
Piano:
Timpani:
Two particularly subtle instances of octatonic implication are

found in the development section. At measures 195-216, an ostinato
in Piano 2 accompanies a series of brief and well-defined phrases in
Piano I. The chromatic surface of Piano I disguises an octatonic
collection projected by the stemmed notes in Example 6a, exactly
those notes that initiate melodic groups. Of particular interest is the
abstract octatonic implication embedded within the transpositional
scheme from the C of measure 205 to the E, of measure 212, where the
intervallic distance between head-notes increases by minimal incre-
ments (+1,+2,+3,+4,+5). An infinite projection of this scheme
would generate all and only the notes of an octatonic collection. 33
The second case of octatonic implication occurs in the similar
passage beginning at measure 235, where the inverted motto from the
33 This theorem may be demonstrated inductively by positing a modular universe

of 3 elements, representing the three available "diminished-seventh chords." Begin-
ning on o, an incremental additive series begins o r 3 6 10 15 21 28 36. Converted into
mod-3 residues, it becomes the repeating series o i o; o i o; o oi o, thus drawing on
only two of the available "diminished-seventh chords." For discussion of a similar
passage in Berg, see Mark De Voto, "Some Notes on the Unknown Altenberg
Lieder," Perspectives of New Music 5, no. I (1966): 44. Again the fertility of the
collection's purely internal properties is striking.
Assai lento is registrally partitioned into two subsets and cycled as a

ostinato (Example 6b). The partitioning conforms to the rhythm
design of the opening of the Allegro, where beats 2, 4, 6, 8, and
each 9/8 measure are assigned to the piano and the remaining fo
beats are attacked by the timpani. In the passage in question, the sam
rhythmic design functions as a template that is laid over the motto
the Assai lento. The right hand plays notes of the ostinato t
coincide with the points of piano attack, while the left hand pla
those complementary attack points that had originally occurred in t
timpani. In combining two different premises, the pitch-series of th
Lento motto and the attack-point partitioning of the Allegro, Bart6k
has ingeniously produced a reference to a third element of the pi
both partitions are octatonic subsets.
It is these various techniques of implication and fulfillment that
the stage for the bursting forth of the octatonic collection at measu
417. A complete analysis of this moment, however, requires attendin
not only to the presence of the collection, but also more specifically
the way that it is partitioned. As indicated in Example 4, the c
provides three different formats for the collection, each of whi
features a tetrachordal partitioning into 0347 tetrachords, and dyadi
partitions into classes 3 and 4. In format I, minor sixths in each of t
four voices pair to form 0347 tetrachords in each hand. In forma
beginning at measure 423, each iambic figure is an 0347 tetracho
projecting minor sixths linearly and minor tenths harmonically.
format 3, at measures 434 and 436, the octachord is registra
partitioned into 0347 tetrachords, as in format I, and into min
thirds at the dyadic level. To understand the significance of th
partitions here requires another pass through the movement, this ti
to explore the roles of these octatonic subsets.
One of the central issues of the movement is the dialectical
relationship of dyad-classes 3 and 4. Their opposition is adumbrated
in the opening measures of the piece (see Example 5, given on page
ooo), where the motto opens with an o034 tetrachord (two half-steps
a minor third apart) but closes with an 0145 tetrachord (two half-steps
now a major third apart). The same tetrachordal progression is
apparent when the boundaries of the chromatic outburst at measure 6
(B/C to G#/A) are compared with the structural pitch-classes of the
parallel gesture at measure Io (D# to G# against an E/G pedal). But
the interaction between these materials, and the role of 0347 as agent
of both their conflict and their synthesis, is played out most clearly in
Example 7
Participation of 0347 in cyclic generation
(a) (b)
- ? u M. do 1 -
(c)
Ti TI
(d) octatonic (e) hexatonic

A
the f
IO5-6
tion
Befor
prope
gene
dyad-
a ma
trans
opera
minor
a minor sixth.
Example 7c, taken from measures 133-35 of the movement under
consideration, provides an opportunity to test the usefulness of these
models in a specific music-analytic context. One might informally
characterize Example 7c as two minor sixths separated by a major
sixth, or, alternatively, as two major sixths separated by a minor
sixth. A choice between these alternatives would carry an implication
either that harmonic relations are conceptually or perceptually prior
to melodic ones, or vice-versa. We may be uncomfortable making
such a choice, however, preferring instead to balanc

dimensions equally in auditory awareness, thereby hearin
7c as a product of the two dyads. 34 This situation suggests t
co-equally generated by both dyad-classes and concentratin
equal proportions, presents an ideal vehicle for their synthes
same time, through its capacity to simultaneously pro
dyad-classes into different compositional dimensions, as i
7c, 0347 is capable of segregating them and highlight
distinction as well.
0347 is first clearly articulated in the exposition at measure ioo (see
Example 8). Although initially presented as a pitch-centric agent
signifying B as tonic, the tetrachord is soon reinterpreted in a less
tonally focused contrapuntal context, where it is partitioned linearly
into two major sixths, in measures 114-15 and again in measures
134-35. Throughout this section the major sixth, representing dyad-
class 3, is featured as the principal interval of the fugal subject, while
various members of dyad-class 4 act as the principal harmonic
interval, or interval of imitation. In sum, 0347 here brings out
dyad-class 3 linearly and dyad-class 4 harmonically.
In the corresponding section of the recapitulation (where analo-
gous events occur in a permuted order), Bart6k exchanges the roles of
the dyad-classes. The subject of the fugato beginning at measure 332
substitutes a rising minor sixth for the rising major sixth of the
exposition, transforming dyad-class 4 into a linear element, a role that
is preserved throughout the remainder of the movement. The ex-
change of roles is completed at measure 379 (see Example 9), where
0347 returns as a neutral agent with respect to the two dyad-classes.
The minor sixths are now articulated melodically, not harmonically,
while dyad-class 3 (in the form of a minor tenth) projects the imitative
relation between the voices.
The neutral role of 0347 becomes compromised, however, when it
generates larger collections by selecting and cyclically repeating only
one of the two dyad-classes. That, indeed, is exactly how the
octatonic collection becomes involved in the design. Cyclic replication
34 For a discussion of tetrachords as products of co-equal dyad-class generators see

Cohn, "Inversional Symmetry," 28-29. This situation could equivalently be formu-
lated, with some advantage, as the product of two transposition operations, T, and
T , as suggested in David Lewin, Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987), 204-6, but adoption of that
approach here would entail an ontological shift that would rupture the current
exposition radically.
of a major third, or some other form of dyad-class 4, results in an

augmented triad; similar extension of dyad-class 3 produces a dimin-
Example 8
Tempo I rallent. - - - - - - - - - al
Tempo I rallent. - - - - - - - - - al
dim.
0347
Timp.
Pit tranquillo (= 104) poco a poco stringendo

P. 105
PiM tranquillo (.=104) poco a poco stringendo
8__
P.I Tam-Tam
Tam: Tam .I
112
P. I
Tam-Tam
Pik mosso (.=176) 0347 I18
P.1-.
P. I iISl , ,,
P.I
1 .0 %- W
1. 2
I L) _- 1P ft
B.D.
PAT iCI-_c
H123XA ONIC
ished seventh chord.35
3s Haun, "Modal and Symm

different kinds of cycles in a
8 - - - - - - - - -- 1 8 - - - - -- 1 8 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- 1
128 ( --
Xylo.
P.1Iz. F i
133
Vgivo (d~=63) I
pi
HEXATONIC
elaborate plan: a dyad belonging to one of these classes is tran

through the cycle belonging to the other class. (Equivalently,
generated from one of the classes is transposed by a value of the
class.) Example 7d shows the extension of 7a into a dyad-class 3 c
producing one of the three octatonic collections. 7e similarly
the extension of 7b into a dyad-class 4 cycle, resulting in a set w
may be arranged as a series of alternating half-steps and minor t
commonly referred to as a "hexatonic" collection, whose prim
is 014589-
Example 9
Bart6k, Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, first movement, mm. 377-86
377 0347 hexatonic0347
0347 alternation of hexatonic collections
P.1) _
B.D. _ U. 'tI .p
The octatonic and hexatonic collections share a n

erties.36 One way of viewing their relationship that is
the current context is to treat them as the med
representatives of dyad-classes 3 and 4, respective
dyadic subset content of both collections is heavily we
of those classes which they so represent: the octat
contains eight instances of dyad-class 3, and only fo
dyad-class; the hexatonic collection contains six in
class 4, and no more than three instances of any other
total interval content for all set-classes37 reveals that these two
collections are uniquely equipped to maximize their respective dy
classes from among all set-classes of their cardinality.
36 See Lendvai, Bdla Bart6k: An Analysis, 51-54; idem, The Workshop, 370-81
good theoretical backdrop for this relationship is given in Daniel Starr and R
Morris, "A General Theory of Combinatoriality and the Aggregate, Par
Perspectives of New Music i6, no. I (1977): 12-14.
37 Such a list is provided in most manuals on atonal pitch theory. See for exa
Rahn, Basic Atonal Theory, 14o-43.
An examination of hexatonic collections in this movement will

shed light on the appearance of the octatonic collection in the coda.
The 0347 of the first part of Example 8, which beginning at measure
114 has dyad-class 3 melodic, dyad-class 4 harmonic, is expanded at
measure I23 by the addition of a third imitative voice which com-
pletes the dyad-class 4 cycle in the harmonic dimension. The result is
the hexatonic collection {G Bb B D Eb F#}. A transposition of this
collection appears at measures 134-35, in a somewhat different texture
(still Example 8), where Piano I builds major sixths on A and F,
which Piano 2 answers by building major sixths on C# and A. As
before, the hexatonic collection emerges from 0347 by means of
harmonic projection of a linear dyad-class 3 through a dyad-class 4
cycle.
The discussion of Example 9 showed that when 0347 occurs in the
recapitulation, the assignment of dyad-classes to compositional di-
mensions is reversed. The logic of this dimension exchange suggests
two cyclical extensions of 0347 that would be analogous to the parallel
events in the exposition: either the same dyad-class (3) is projected
into the opposite (melodic) dimension, or the opposite dyad-class (4) is
projected into the same (harmonic) dimension. It is the first of these
possibilities that is chosen in the parallel moment of the recapitulation:
in Example 9, 0347 is both preceded and followed by a hexatonic
collection achieved through melodic projection of a dyad-class 4 cycle,
so that each voice arpeggiates an augmented triad. Bart6k saves
the second of these possibilities for the beginning of the coda
(Example 4, page ooo above), where the octatonic collection is
generated from 0347 by means of the harmonic projection of a
dyad-class 3 cycle.
Having thus returned to the starting point of the discussion, we
are now equipped to offer a considerably more sophisticated interpre-
tation of the octatonic outburst which appears at the opening of the
coda: the octatonic presentation at measure 417 maximizes dyad-class
3, as a counter-balance to the earlier maximization of dyad-class 4
through the agency of the hexatonic collection. The specific partition-
ing and surface presentation of the octatonic collection in measure 4 17
strongly associates with the various presentations of the hexatonic
collection, but also brings into relief the transformation from dyad-
class 4 to dyad-class 3 that is so vital to the dynamic processes of the
movement. The second format then compresses the collection melod-
ically (in each hand separately), while the third format compresses it
harmonically. One might conjecture that Bart6k is permitting the
collection, and the dyad-class 3 it represents by extension, to "con-
quer" both compositional dimensions, bringing closu

sitional relationship between the two dyad-classes.
Although this study has focused on the octatonic

Bart6k, its implications radiate beyond the limits of
topic. First, the general nature of the processes of
combination, and partitioning that underlie Bart6k's
gests that the octatonic strategies proposed in this stud
applicable to the music of Scriabin, Debussy, and Stra
as more recent composers who have found the octato
be a compelling compositional resource, such as M
mitsu, or Crumb. Second, although a number of speci
the octatonic collection have been referred to here, this
that its singular standing is due above all to its posit
common product of transpositional combination, an
most potent generator of transpositionally related part
position is special by degree, not by kind. The strate
this study are not uniquely applicable to the octatonic
we should not be surprised to discover other collecti
those potent octachords listed in Table 2, playing sim
music of Bart6k and others.
Finally, this study has shown reason to believe that the promi-
nence of the octatonic collection may be justified independently of its
relationship to tonality, diatonicism, or any other structures privi-
leged by the compositional past. Bart6k's octatonic strategies have
been observed in three different habitats that range greatly in the
degree to which they implicate the materials and procedures of the
musical past. Yet the role of the octatonic collection is constant in each
of these habitats. A comparison of the Sonata movement with "Minor
Seconds, Major Sevenths" is particularly instructive in this regard.
On the one hand, we have a large sonata-form movement in C, whose
octatonic partitions are rich in tonal meaning; on the other hand, a
specimen of Night Music whose oI67 partition of the octatonic
collection is among the most emblematic of atonal sonorities, and
whose dyadic partitions-perfect fourths, major sevenths-are rela-
tively impoverished from a semantic viewpoint. Yet the two sets of
characters are furnished with quite similar scripts. In both pieces,
alternative transpositional partitions of the octatonic collection are
presented; processes central to the design are based on the contrast
between these alternative partitions; elaborate strategies imply the
presence of the octatonic collection yet deflect it from the musical
surface, and from the forefront of a listener's consciousness; and the

unfurling of the complete collection is deferred until a strategic
moment near the end.
These similarities suggest that semantic richness versus poverty
need not be the crucial distinctive feature for determining the analytic
strategies most appropriate for Bart6k's music. Pitch-structures have
properties apart from their potential to evoke tonality or participate in
tonal routines, and there is no reason to believe that the potentials of
these properties are defused when those same entities enter into
environments that highlight their more traditional behavior as well.
But this raises the problem of how one might reconcile internal,
syntactic, atonal hearings of these pieces with the external, semantic,
tonal hearings that might also be present (and which Bart6k insisted
were always present). And this problem does not admit of a simple
solution. One might claim that the internally based properties and
relations outlined in this study are ultimately subsumed by the
governing principles of tonal centricity,38 but would thereby assume
the heavy burden of articulating the principles that govern the
mechanisms of subsumption. Alternatively, one might hold (in radical
rebellion against Bart6k's own injunctions) that, to the extent that
satisfactory models of Bart6k's music are achievable without appealing
to tonal centricity, such tonal meanings which might creep in are
merely coincidental. Or one might adopt a more pluralistic stance,
regarding tonal and atonal, syntactic and semantic, internal and
external readings as capable of co-existing in the same composition,
and even in the same passage of music. 39 (If one of the features that we
admire about Bart6k is his eclecticism, there should be nothing
discomforting about finding that his scores are over-determined; his
double entendres might even be cause for celebration.) But as long as
music scholars continue to disagree on such fundamental questions as
the relationship of a composition's internal logic to the context in
which it is composed and heard, the weight that paratextual evidence
38 This position would parallel the Schenkerian view that, although motives in
tonal music appear to have a generative life of their own, ultimately they come under
the control of the tonal constraints operating on the piece. See for example John
Rothgeb, "Thematic Content: A Schenkerian View," in Aspects of Schenkerian Theory,
ed. David Beach (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983), 40-60.
39 This move would require attributing tonality to the analytical model, rather
than to the composition itself. The crucial question thereby is not "is the composition
tonal?" but rather "does assertion of a tonal center contribute to a richer view of
compositional structure?" Compare the analysis of the Prelude to Wagner's Tristan
und Isolde in Benjamin Boretz, "Metavariations, Part 4.1: Analytic Fallout," Perspec-
tives of New Music ii, no. i (1972): 146-223.
(such as a composer's comments) exerts on interpret

appropriateness of plural solutions as opposed to the r
generation from a single source, it is difficult to ima
positions might be arbitrated.
The University of Chicag
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ABSTRACT
This study offers an alternative to the diatonic interaction model to

explain Bart6k's interest in the octatonic collection. The special ability of the
octatonic collection to be partitioned into alternative sets of transpositionally
related subsets is revealed through an abstract study. The exploitation of this
potential through the interaction of the subsets is demonstrated in two
compositions from the Mikrokosmos and in the first movement of the Sonata
for Two Pianos and Percussion.

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Bartók's Octatonic Strategies: A Motivic Approach

Author(s): Richard Cohn

American Musicological Society, University of California Press are collaborating with

ECENT WORK BY MUSIC THEORISTS AND HISTORIANS has left little

2 Arthur Berger, "Problems of Pitch Organization in Stravinsky," Perspectives of

potentially articulates eight different pitch-class axes of symmetry;3

3 Or four axes, if we accept George Perle's definition of "axis" as equivalent to

outlining some characteristics of B61a Bart6k's approach to pitch

Despite Bart6k's consistent claims that pitch-centricity was fun-

primary compositional material.8 Early Bart6k scholars referred to the

measured in half-steps, available between their constituent pitch-classes. Thus

number 8 is the largest such number smaller than 12, octachords

Definition I. A partition of superset X is any unordered and disjoint set

'4 The topic of transpositional combination is approached more formally in Cohn,

Accordingly, {C E} {G B} and {C E G} {B} are some of the partitions

Definition 2. The cardinality of a set refers to the number of elements it

The cardinality of the reference set is 4.

The reference set has five even partitions:

Definition 4. Even partitions may be classified as trivial and non-trivial. In

The following exposition is concerned exclusively with non-trivial

Definition 5. A transpositional partition is a non-trivial even partition

Of the three non-trivial even partitions of the reference set, {C E}

Not all sets are susceptible to transpositional partitioning. Since

Definition 6. A fertile set has at least one transpositional partition; an

Of the twenty-nine tetrachord-types, thirteen are fertile. These

Definition 7. The degree of fertility of a set is the total number of

Most of the tetrachords listed in Table I thus have a degree of

7 Note that every pair of dyad-classes appears as a unit in Column 5 of Table i.

4-I {0123} {C CO D DI} {C C} {D DI} I

4-3 {o 0134} {C C# E EE} {C C} {E6 E} I

4-17 {0347} {C EC E G} {C E6} {E G} 3

4-20 {0158} {C DI F Ab} {D6 F} {Ab C} 4

4-25 {0268} {C D F1 G#} {C D} {F# G#} 2

4-26 {0358} {C E F Ab} {C E} { Ab} 3

into transpositionally related tetrachords but int

Definition 8. Potent octachords have dyadic transpositional partitions.

The right column of Ta

Transpositional Partitions of an Octatonic Collection

The lower half of Table 3 also brings out a p

combines to form exactly three tetrachords. Ideally, all such connec-

"From the Island of Bali," composed in 1937 and included in Book

dim . - . . . . . . ..I 1" % -

22 This was first pointed out by Gary Wittlich, "Some Applications of Se

dimensions in this manner."3 This special property further t

23 This situation serves as a reminder that the expansion of compositional

Bart6k, Mikrokosmos Book VI: "Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths"

(b) mm. 1-2

Molto adagio, mesto =5 6

" ~ rp I I ( ( (&m I - -Ll

1933 and included in Book VI of the Mikrokosmos. Th

26 It might be argued that the piece is pitch-centric in the sense t

Bart6k, "Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths"

Measure: 1 21 21-22 63ff.

(b) mm. 48-51

pitches and the in

27 The structural importance of middleground o167 migrations in Bart6

In this way, the migration of the X-formation of

The octatonic strategies which Bart6k employs in his relatively

earned it the nickname "Makrokosmos,"'8 but also by the extent of its

In the Sonata, as in "Minor Seconds, Major Sevenths," the

-Or ORMA I L_... 11'" L"7-j

a brief reappearance shortly thereafter, as a series of martellato chords

Assai lento -ca.70 STOLLEN 1

Piano II 0134 0145

Cohn (1991) Bartók's Octatonic Strategies

Cohn (1991) Bartók's Octatonic Strategies