Toward Bridging the Gap: The "Culmination Point" as a Fulcrum between Analysis and Interpretation

Abstract

In a paper from 1971 entitled A Characteristic Culmination Point in Bela Bartok's Instrumental Forms''l Laszlo Somfai focused on the strikingly emotional climaxes that Bartok often creates just before the end of movements in his larger instrumental compositions. The goal of Somfai's study was twofold: to call attention to the characteristically Hungarian elements common to these passages (pentatony, major/minor constructions and/or short-long, front-accented rhythms); and to demonstrate that these culmination points are the result of processes independent of traditional formal schema. The purpose of the present study is to sow seeds where Somfai has broken ground; to demonstrate that the culmination point may serve as a fulcrum that supports analysis of a work's internal construction on the one hand and interpretation of its historical meaning on the other. To illustrate how Bartok's use of culmination points also bridges the divide between his compositions written prior to his discovery of folk music and his more mature works, I wil1 focus here on examples from the Rhapsody for Piano op. I (1904)2 and the First Piano Concerto ( I 926).