Abstract
Based on a fresh study of all primary sources of Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin (composition: 1918/19, orchestration: 1924) the article reconsiders the entire history of composition and repeated revisions of the work. The original choice of genre (expressive “pantomime” in contrast to “ballet”) seems to have played a significant role in this troubled history, which shows the composer’s efforts to transform sections of the original “gesture” music into a more symphonic style often making the music more succinct. Puzzlingly, the first full score of the complete work and a revised edition of the piano reduction published posthumously in 1955 by Universal Edition present an abridged form of the work, which cannot be fully authenticated and was finally restored to its more complete form in Peter Bartók’s new edition of 2000. Looking for the possible origin of the more obscure cuts, discussions with choreographer Aurelio Milloss in 1936 and Gyula Harangozó in 1939/40, both of whom later directed and danced productions of the work under the baton of János Ferencsik with great success (in Milan in 1942 and in Budapest in 1945, resp.), should probably be taken into consideration as these might have resulted in the integration of cuts into the published full score. Apart from trying to understand the different stages of the work’s long evolution, the article argues that it is essential to study the original version in the compositional sources since it reveals Bartók’s first concept of the piece composed in his period of highest expressionism.
Highlights
That men, tired fathers, raised for peace went out to the lands worldwide to hide in trenches to kill each other sadly, almost without anger in their peaceful hearts, going through sufferings that surpass Dante’s fantasy about the anguishes of Hell; that the whole world considers the war an enormous disaster – this feeling must insolubly be saved for the generations
This work’s fate was doomed, at least during the composer’s lifetime, by its world première in Cologne, provoking scandal, demonstrations and the immediate ban of the production’s staging. To assume that this resulted from bad luck; that if the composition and orchestration could have been completed at the opportune moment and the initial performance would have taken place at a fitting venue such as in liberal Bartóks Handlungsballette in ihrer musikalischen Gattungstradition (Berlin) rather than in the conservative Cologne, that this work could have reached a status comparable to Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps of 1913 in twentieth-century Western music.[2]
This article contains, some new insights especially based on a recent study of the dancer and choreographer Aurelio (Aurél) Milloss’s marked-up copy, at the Fondazione Cini, Venice, of the published four-hand piano reduction of The Miraculous Mandarin
Summary
A study of the composition history of Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin might comfortably begin with a brief chronicle of its première, which was the only performance the composer himself attended. Bartók was obviously deeply moved by the stage production in autumn 1920 (Plates 1 and 2).[24] In the published English translation of his article, his description of Dohnányi’s pantomime emphasizes the “gestures of unhackneyed refinement and noble expressiveness.” His original German text, even more clearly expresses his appreciation of the “wonderful congruity” or “coincidence” of gestures and actions with the music: “Jede schauspielerische Geste, jeder Schritt fällt mit der Genauigkeit eines mitwirkenden Instrumentes auf den entsprechenden Ton der schildernden Musikphrase.” [Each gesture of the actors and actresses, each step coincides with the relevant tone of the expressive musical phrase with the precision of one of the musical instruments.]25 his characterization of Dohnányi’s work in this performance is significant, as “a deep and gripping drama without words” and that in it “Dohnányi’s most characteristic music takes the place of the spoken word.”. B. and published in the Prager Presse on 22 February 1927, see amongst reviews published in János DEMÉNY, “Bartók Béla pályája delelőjén (1927–1940)” [Béla Bartók at the zenith of his career (1927–1940)], in Zenetudományi tanulmányok Bartók Béla emlékére, ed. by Bence SZABOLCSI and Dénes BARTHA (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1962), 203 (= Zenetudományi tanulmányok, vol 10)
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