1. Fantasia contrappuntistica
2. Deciso
3. Mesto
4. Finale
Being 2021 the year of the 140
th anniversary of the birth of Béla Bartók (1881-1945), I decided to dedicate this new work for Camerata Atlântica to the memory of this great master. I don’t quote any existing music from Bartók, but I took some structural ideas from the fugue of
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta to build my own fugue at the beginning of my piece. As in Bartók’s fugue, mine begins with an “A” in the violas (all strings also with mutes) and the order and intervals of the main entrances (perfect 5
ths above and under the violas) are the same, as is the first melodic interval, a minor 3
rd. From this point, theme, counterpoint and general structure are not related, except for the highly chromatic musical texture, and for the very ending of the fugue, where the “A” of the beginning returns in unison at the violins, one octave above the first one.
The remaining three movements have no direct connections with Bartók’s music, but the structure in four movements alternating slow and fast music, the chromatic and tense music (with some neoclassical flavor) and the indication “mesto” (sad) in the 3
rd movement provide some hints of whom is the subject of this homage work.
Sérgio Azevedo
