Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is a piece of classical music by Béla Bartók. It is one of Bartók's best known pieces. Jump to: navigation, search Classical music is generally thought of as sophisticated and refined; it may stem from a regional tradition, but aspires to universal form of communication. ... Jump to: navigation, search Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25, 1881 – September 26, 1945) was a composer, pianist and collector of East European folk music. ...

The score is dated September 7, 1936. It was commissioned by Paul Sacher to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra (Bartók also wrote the Divertimento for Sacher three years later). Paul Sacher (April 28, 1906 - May 26, 1999) was a Swiss conductor. ...

As its title suggests, the piece is written for string instruments (violins, violas, cellos, double basses) and harp); percussion instruments (xylophone, snare drum, cymbals, tam-tam, bass drum, timpani, piano (which is in fact also a string instrument); and celesta (which is, in fact, a kind of percussion instrument). Bartók divides the strings into two groups which he directs should be placed antiphonally on opposite sides of the stage. In the second and fourth movements, these two groups play different music. Jump to: navigation, search A string instrument (also stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. ... Jump to: navigation, search Violin The violin is a stringed musical instrument that has four strings tuned a perfect fifth apart. ... Jump to: navigation, search The viola, properly called alto viola is a stringed musical instrument which serves as the middle voice of the violin family, between the upper lines played by the lighter violin (soprano register) and the lower lines played by the heavier cello (bass) and double bass. ... Jump to: navigation, search A cropped image to show the relative size of a cello to a human (Uncropped Version) The violoncello, or as it is more commonly to refered to as the cello or cello (pronounced Cheh-loh), is a stringed instrument and a member of the violin family. ... Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ... Jump to: navigation, search The harp is a chordophone which has its strings positioned perpendicular to the soundboard. ... Percussion instruments are music instruments played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped, hence the percussive name. ... A modern xylophone Xylophone in Bali 1937 The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family which probably originated in Indonesia (Nettl 1956, p. ... Jump to: navigation, search The snare drum or side drum is a tubular drum made of wood or metal with skins, or heads, stretched over the top and bottom openings. ... Cymbals (Fr. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Jump to: navigation, search A bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. ... Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the modern musical instrument. ... The celesta is rarely seen outside the company of other percussion instruments, as it is depicted here. ...

The piece is in four movements, the first and third slow, the second and fourth quick:

1. Andante tranquillo
2. Allegro
3. Adagio
4. Allegro molto

The first movement is a slow fugue. It has numerous changes of time signature and has no key signature, but is based around the note A on which the movement begins and ends. It is played on muted strings and as more voices enter the texture thickens and the music become louder until the climax. Mutes are then removed, the celesta plays arpeggios, and the movement becomes gradually quieter until its end. In music, a fugue is a type of piece written in counterpoint for several independent musical voices. ... Jump to: navigation, search The time signature (also known as meter signature) is a notational device used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each bar and which note value (minim, crotchet, quaver, and so on) constitutes one beat. ... In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp symbols or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be played one semitone higher or lower unless otherwise noted with an accidental. ... A mute is a device which alters the timbre or reduces the volume of a musical instrument. ... This article will be merged with Italian musical terms at some point in the near future. ...

Material from the first movement can be seen as serving as the basis for the later movements. The second movement is quick with a theme in 2/4 time which reappears in 3/8 time towards the end. The third movement is slow, an example of what is often called Bartók's "night music", and prominently features glissandi on the timpani, an unusual technique at the time of the work's composition. The last movement, which begins with notes on the timpani and strummed pizzicato chords on the strings, has the character of a lively folk dance. There is a reappearance of the opening fugue towards the work's end. Glissando (plural: glissandi) is a musical term that refers to either a continuous sliding from one pitch to another (a true glissando), or an incidental scale played while moving from one melodic note to another (an effective glissando). ... Pizzicato is a method of playing an orchestral string instrument. ...

The work was premiered in Basel on January 21, 1937 by the Basel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sacher. It was published the same year by Universal Edition. Location within Switzerland Basel (English traditionally: Basle , German: Basel , French Bâle , Italian Basilea ) is Switzerlands third most populous city (188,000 inhabitants in the canton of Basel-City as of 2004; the 690,000 inhabitants in the conurbation stretching across the immediate cantonal and national boundaries made Basel... Universal Edition (UE) are a classical music publishing firm. ...

There is an interesting analysis of some formal aspects in Chapter 7 of Larry Solomon's Symmetry as a Compositional Determinant.

Bartók's next piece was the Sonata for two pianos and percussion, another work which gives a prominent role to percussion and keyboard instruments. Sonata for two pianos and percussion Bela Bartok wrote this piece for the ISCM, and it was performed by him and his second wife, Ditta Pasztory-Bartok, at the ISCM anniversery concert of 16th January 1938. ...

The second movement of this work accompanies "Craig's Dance of Despair and Disillusionment" from the film Being John Malkovich. The third movement was famously featured in the Stanley Kubrick film The Shining. Maxine (Keener) and Craig (Cusack) meet on the 7 1/2 floor Being John Malkovich is a 1999 film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze. ... Jump to: navigation, search Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director and producer. ... The Shining can refer to: the Stephen King book: see The Shining (book) the Stanley Kubrick film based on the book: see The Shining (film) the ABC mini-series scripted by Stephen King: The Shining (mini-series) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that...