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Strategies of Fragmentation in György Kurtág’s …concertante…, op. 42

The formal continuity of György Kurtág’s …concertante…, op. 42 (2002-2003, rev.2006)

distinguishes it within the composer’s oeuvre: instead of a chain of discrete fragments, …concertante… is

a twenty-five-minute-long work for solo violin, viola, and large orchestra written in one continuous

movement. Nonetheless, a listener may well notice a certain formal “jerkiness” to the music and begin

to suspect—rightly, as I argue—that, despite the absence in the score of indications separating

constituent fragments, …concertante… is indeed a string of interrelated fragments, one that in fact

offers a compendium of Kurtág’s many ways of articulating musical fragmentation. (Figure 1 lists the

thirty-four fragments into which I divide the piece.)

A fragment needs to come from somewhere: any fragment has to have been, at least

conceptually, once a part of something else. Listeners familiar with Kurtág’s output will know of

instances where Kurtág fragments music by himself and other composers. While the Officium Breve in

Memoriam Andreæ Szervánszky, op. 28, probably provides the clearest examples of this practice,

…concertante… contains fragmentations of music by Puccini, Wagner, and Chopin (Varga 78, 82, 85).

The Puccini fragment is the most straightforward instance. Figure 2 shows how the main theme of

…concertante… is based on a five note segment of the theme from “Tu, che di gel sei cinta,” Liú’s dying

aria in Turandot. These five notes recur throughout …concertante… like a leitmotif.

…concertante… also fragments traditional formal paradigms, like sonata and ternary forms. The

sonata fragmentation is easier to explain. By designating the passage from measure 237 to 254

“Ricapitulazione,” Kurtág reveals that sonata form is on his mind, even if the piece isn’t actually in

sonata form. Liú’s death serves as the first theme, and at measure 87 the violin and viola soloists

introduce a second melody, which they take up again and develop at measure 96. While the

recapitulation brings back Liú’s death, the second theme never returns. Though a sonata form can omit

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a development section and remain intact, without a recapitulation of a second theme, a sonata form is

incomplete (Rosen 287).

Kurtág also fragments scales and interval cycles, breaking them off early before resuming them

after an interruption. Given that cadenzas traditionally interrupt cadences, it makes sense that the most

powerful instance of this kind of fragmentation in …concertante… involves the piece’s cadenza (Taruskin

609). As Figure 3 illustrates, an i7 cycle beginning on C guides the music leading into the cadenza at

measure 230. However, after reaching G-sharp, the ninth position in the cycle, the music backtracks

along the cycle before the cadenza begins. After the cadenza, played entirely on C, the music promptly

resumes the i7 cycle in the next three measures with important instances of E-flat, B-flat, and F.

However much …concertante… marks a turning point for Kurtág, we nonetheless find in

abundance his customary techniques of fragmentation. The stopping and starting—the “stuttering” that

is the composer’s “mother tongue”—is still very much in evidence and used to powerful effect (Varga

54).

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Figure 1. … concertante… fragments by measure number

Fragment Measures

1 1-7

2 8-15

3 16-30

4 31-37

5 38-43

6 44-49

7 50-58

8 59

9 60-79

10 80-112

11 113-114

12 115-150

13* 151-161

14 162-169

15 170-179

16 180-201

17 202

18 203-212

19 213-225

20 226-229

21 230

22 231-236

23 237-254

24 255-272

25 273-276

26 277-279

27 279-281

28 282-284

29 285-295

30 296-297

31 298-300

32 301-304

33 305-307

34 308-313

*The music for fragment 13, though present in the published score, was omitted in the 2006 revision.

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Figure 2. The five note motif from Turandot and …concertante…

Figure 2a. Puccini: Liú’s death. Act 3, Scene 1, at rehearsal 27.

Figure 2b. Kurtág: …concertante…, main theme. Measures 22-27.

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Figure 3. …concertante…, measures 215-245: reduction of the solo violin and viola parts

The stems and dotted beams show the i7 cyclic ascent guiding thesuccession of the notes; the bold

numbers show order positions. Bracketed notes are the ones not played on natural harmonics. The

cycle essentially stops in measure 224, then backtracks to C in 229, and resumes on E-flat in 231. The

cadenza is on C, the note from which the cycle originates.

Works Cited

Rosen, Charles. 1988. Sonata forms. Rev. ed. New York: W.W. Norton.

Taruskin, Richard. 2005. The Oxford history of western music. Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

Varga, Bálint András. 2009. György Kurtág: Three interviews and Ligeti homages. Rochester, NY:

University of Rochester Press.