Composer

:

Béla Bartók

Genre

:

Orchestral

Style

:

Suite

Compose Date

:

1924

Average_duration

:

18:06

Béla Bartók's "Scenes from the Miraculous Mandarin" is a one-act ballet composed between 1918 and 1924. The work premiered in Cologne, Germany, on November 27, 1926, with choreography by László Seregi. The ballet tells the story of a young girl who is forced into prostitution by three thugs, and the mysterious Mandarin who becomes her client. The work is divided into five movements, each depicting a different scene in the story. The first movement, "Introduction," sets the stage with a dark and foreboding theme played by the low strings and brass. The second movement, "The Curtain Rises," introduces the three thugs who are looking for a victim to lure into their trap. The music is fast-paced and frenetic, with dissonant harmonies and jagged rhythms. In the third movement, "The Girl Enters," the young girl appears on stage, and the music becomes more lyrical and expressive. The fourth movement, "The Mandarin Enters," introduces the mysterious Mandarin, who is depicted by a haunting and exotic melody played by the clarinet. The music becomes more intense and dramatic as the thugs force the girl to dance for the Mandarin. The final movement, "The Chase," is the most frenzied and chaotic of the five. The music is fast and furious, with pounding rhythms and dissonant harmonies. The thugs chase the Mandarin around the stage, and the music builds to a frenzied climax before abruptly ending. "Scenes from the Miraculous Mandarin" is characterized by Bartók's use of dissonant harmonies, complex rhythms, and unconventional orchestration. The work is a prime example of Bartók's interest in folk music, as he incorporates elements of Hungarian and Romanian folk music into the score. The ballet was controversial when it was first performed, due to its violent and sexually explicit subject matter, but it has since become recognized as a masterpiece of 20th-century music.

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