Bartok's 12-tone quartal harmony from his 2nd string quartet

[@johnbaez701]

Playing those chords on the electric piano reveals that Bartok was a great jazz musician, way ahead of his time.

[@UnderstandingMusic]

Chewy Chordal Goodness™ Good stuff as always, Keith!!!

[@rowegardner9673]

Please keep showing us all of these amazing beautiful dissonant chords! Wow. I’m learning so much from you. I’m obsessed with crunchy harmony haha.

[@Keith_Horn]

I am too. Thanks for watching!

[@streetleveltech]

You had me at "chewy chordal goodness." Great harmony lesson!

[@stephenanthonythomas3533]

Brilliant!

[@muse4ik]

Loving the Bartok stuff!!

[@Keith_Horn]

Thanks! A few more coming soon

[@brianzayman2228]

Hearing the scherzo of the 2nd quartet changed my musical world at 12 y/o

[@UnderstandingMusic]

@1:36 every time I see an A#/Bb reference I think of the line from the Goonies during the organ playing scene lol Andie: "I can't tell if it's an A-sharp or a B-flat!" Mickie: "If you get the wrong note, we'll all be flat."

[@StrengthandSanity]

Really enjoying the Bartok stuff! The 2nd quartet includes one of my all time favorite passages in the 1st movement ("Moderato") starting around the 3:20 mark and ending at 3:44. Really love that passage and can remember the feeling I got first listening to it a couple decades ago.

[@Keith_Horn]

I love that section, too. It's probably a folk melody and he harmonizes it in a much more tonal manner than the rest of the piece. Beautiful section.

[@Rando_Djinnsen]

I've thought a lot about so-called quartal and quintal harmony, but never from a twelve-tone angle. Maybe because any stack of seven or fewer fourths contains notes from a diatonic scale (several, if you stick to less than seven notes). I've got some interesting results exploring voice leading between quartal chords and closely-related ones arrived at by moving one voice a semitone in either direction. I cataloged all these possibilities. The smaller stacks can work like a pivot or a bridge to a surprising number of harmonic places, especially if they're placed over a bass not found in the stack of fourths. Consider a four-note stack like B E A D It can also be stacked in fifths: D A E B It can be understood as a 7sus4 chord: E A B D In its most compact form it's Forte set class 4-23 having the prime form 0257. Add one more fourth to the stack and you get a pentatonic scale. Et cetera. Really quite fascinating if you ask me. Yet as I said, I haven't thought much about twelve-tone matters involving fourths. Odd, since these chords can be voiced in ways that don't imply tonality as strongly as triads do.

[@Keith_Horn]

Good points. Quartal harmony can be very malleable like that. I use the 0257 chord quite a bit in my own work. I just call it a 2/4. One interesting thing about stacked fourths is if you stack 12 of them you get all 12 chromatic pitches. Also a good way to practice anything in all 12 keys - just following the circle of fourths/fifths.

[@mattlovesguitar12]

Quartel sextads. Your videos remind me of my music theory classes back in the nineties. Maybe a Bulgarian rhythm video in the future?! Time signature of the week lol

[@Keith_Horn]

I have considered a time signature of the week, actually!

[@robbru3112]

That's definitely a Douglas Adams character

[@rayrecordings]

That piano is Chick Corea Elektric Band covering Bartok

[@decomprecomp2703]

You're a big fan of Bartok! :D May I make some chord of the week suggestions?

[@Keith_Horn]

I am a big Bartok head, for sure. Yes please I love suggestions!

[@decomprecomp2703]

@@Keith_Horn I mainly know classical stuff - off the top of my head Mahler's 10th symphony movement 1 chord, Richard Strauss Salome chord in the final soprano song as well as the Elektra chord in Elektra, some of the chords in Stravinsky's Symphony in 3 movements are cool too!

[@Keith_Horn]

@ I was just listening to Salome yesterday! I did a video last year on the Elektra chord- great chord! The Stravinsky piece is a good suggestion. Also “the Mahler 10 chord” is a good one. Thanks!

[@decomprecomp2703]

@@Keith_Horn No problem I'll pass on more if I think of any, Salome and Elektra (the 2 horrors) are absolutely addictive pieces I love them!

[@Keith_Horn]

@@decomprecomp2703 Please do!

[@Drewster58]

Chewy chordal goodness is right.

[@Keith_Horn]

The chewiest.