The first decades of the twentieth century became the era of significant changes and experiments in different fields of social life. Controversial political processes, revolutionary mood, struggle for the rights of different social groups, significant scientific discoveries, reforms; finally, the World War I – the changes took place at different levels, from the supreme power of states, to the world-view of an average individual. Not unexpectedly, the dynamic spirit of the time found its incarnation in art.
Literature, visual arts, theater, music, architecture became the field for bold innovations and experiments. Always fulfilling the role of a mirror that reflects the spirit of an epoch, art demonstrated the anxiety and at the same time aspiration for breaking the borders that prevailed in the society. Music did not become an exception: composers who worked during the first decades of the twentieth century experimented with musical form, tonality, sound, instruments, the way of performing musical works.
Taking the legacy of the previous centuries as the background at the starting points, composers find new approaches and devices of expressing their ideas. Béla Bartók is one of the brightest composers of the first half of the twentieth century. His works are considered the gem of Hungarian musical legacy. Bartók is one of the composers whose works possess characteristics of Expressionism in music.
Particularly, Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (1911) demonstrates certain influence of Expressionist tendencies in music (Hailey, p.103). Bartók’s famous opera is innovative and experimental in different aspects, which makes it of particular interest for musical theorists and critics. In this essay, the role of orchestra in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle is discussed from the perspective of the plot of the opera and of from that of musical conjuncture of the discussed period.
Expressionism is a cultural movement that was widespread during the first decades of the twentieth century. The first wave of Expressionist art belongs to Germany; however, Expressionist traits can be found in the works of artists from different countries of Europe (Lee, 2008, p.14).
Expressionism in music, as well as in other kinds of art, implied shift from outer to inner, from simple narration to expression of one’s thoughts, sensations and emotions. Greenberg says, the purpose of a work of art that belongs to the Expressionist tradition is not just “to express ideas and notions, but to express with greater immediacy sensations, the irreducible element of experience” (cited in Hailey, p.105).
Thus, Expressionist traits give an artist opportunity to expand his/her focus, look beyond the external side of the events and look deeper into the action. With a short, but neat quotation, Lee summarises this peculiarity of Expressionism, “Expressionist artists want to show us how they feel about what they see” (Lee, p.14).
All discussed above makes it possible for Bartók to use orchestra as the device of reaching the main purpose of Bluebeard’s Castle, which is description. As a rule, the focus of an opera written in the classical style is story-telling. It narrates a dynamic story with an impressive plot, saturated with conflicts and events.
In this case, orchestra is the device that illustrates the story and expresses the dynamics of the plot. Interacting with the vocal parts, it helps a viewer to visualise the story. However, Bartók’s opera has its significant peculiarities: it does not have dynamic plot saturated with events; instead, it focuses on description. The story takes place inside Bluebeard’s castle, and there are only two main characters whose interaction we observe during the whole opera.
The idea of the story itself predetermines the importance of description for Bluebeard’s Castle: a viewer is offered to get familiarised with the mysterious interiors behind seven doors of the castle. Thus, the role of the orchestra in the opera is to help a viewer imagine what is hidden behind each of the doors.
This idea entirely fits the peculiarity of Expressionism in music, “…The narrative of musical Expressionism has always been more descriptive convenience than historical reportage, an evocation of a syntax that is distorted, violent, or emotionally tortured”, states Hailey (p. 104).
Considering the specifics of the plot of Bluebeard’s Castle, the purpose the composer sets is to draw by means of the sound, not just narrate. Instead of illustrating a pursuit, an intimate conversation, a ball, Bartók has to describe flowers, green fields, the lake of tears.
Considering the influence of the Expressionist movement, this is not unexpected: Hailey emphasises that one of the brightest characteristics of art that dates to the first decades of the twentieth century is the aspiration of visual arts, literature and music for imitation of each other’s functions (p.105).
This makes the composer experiment with tonality, harmonies, orchestral parts, loudness, tempo – using these devices is analogical to mixing paints on the palette; it is quite common for the works belonging to the movement of musical Expressionism.
It is possible to notice that during the first minutes of the opera, the orchestral parts are not so bright and expressive: the focus is on the vocal parts of Bluebeard and Judith. This is not accidentally: the opening scene of the opera does not include either significant events of the plot or the issues that require bright description.
The role of the orchestra decreases in the course of the story, which “corroborates” the statement about its “descriptive function” in Bluebeard’s Castle. During the Doors scenes, the role of the orchestra is equal to that of the vocalists, and sometime even dominating.
At the same time, considering the Expressionist traits of the opera, it is reasonable to state that the description is focused not on the outer world, but on that inner. Seven doors are described not just from the perspective of their appearance and the subjects placed in them, but from the perspective of Judith’s feelings. The aim of the orchestra is to depict the chambers behind seven doors as they are perceived by a woman who is in love with a “monster” hated and abandoned by people.
Each time Judith crosses the threshold of the next chamber, she aspires for seeing something that will remove her doubts and calm her soul; however, each door leads her close to disappointment and fear: she learns more and more frightening things about Bluebeard. A listener may easily notice this focus on the inner world of the character when listening to the Doors scenes.
For example, when Judith opens the Door 4, she sees a garden full of wonderful flowers; with the help of the orchestra, Bartók helps a listener to imagine the view she sees. On the one hand, the interaction of the orchestral parts creates the picture of blossoming flowers; it is even possible to hear the trills imitating birds’ singing. On the other hand, the orchestra sounds in accordance with Judith emotions: when she sees the flowers, she is excited, but her anxiety does not disappear, and she observes the landscape eagerly and attentively.
Balancing on the border of tonality and atonality, avoiding traditional and stable harmonic constructions, the orchestra depicts the garden that associates with the inner fear rather than with the beauty of the flowers. The orchestra also expressively depicts the moment when Judith notices blood on the flowers. It is remarkable that in this scene, the role of the orchestra is more significant than that of the vocal part: the instruments express Judith’s emotions, and then she only supports them vocally.
One of the brightest moments of the opera is the Door 7 scene where Judith joins the number of Bluebeard’s imprisoned wives. The sound of the orchestra is the most tense and expressive; it depicts the final point of the story, the point of no return for Judith. At the same time, it is interesting that in the very end of the scene, this tension decreases: the opera does not finish with a dramatic note; the orchestra “calms down” and thus demonstrates that Judith submits to her destiny and accepts it.
At the same time, it is remarkable that some critics argue that the opera also depicts the inner world of Bluebeard himself. Particularly, the cold and terrifying castle with the mysterious doors is a symbol of Bluebeard’s soul, “Bluebeard’s human attributes are thereby transferred to the castle, which becomes implicitly identified with its owner” (Leafstedt, p.126).
The orchestra also helps to emphasise the circular scheme of the opera. Frigyesi sees the “metaphor of a circle” in the Bluebeard’s Castle (cited in Bayley, p.71); first of all, it is predetermined by the plot of the opera.
A viewer may notice that Judith fulfills the same action seven times, and each time, her emotions change according to the same scheme: at first, she is interested about what she will see behind the door; the next moment, she is amazed and excited; then, she is frightened and disappointed with the picture she has just seen; finally, she falls into the depressive mood and fear after learning a new terrible fact about her beloved man.
Not accidentally, the orchestral parts also follow this scheme: its dynamics varies in accordance with evolution of Judith’s feelings: for example, if a listener will focus on the Door 4 scene, he/she will first hear the orchestra sounding tense, mysterious; then, the sound is “blossoming out” when Judith sees the garden with flowers, and the orchestra depicts her excitement; however, everything changes very quickly when she notices blood on the flowers: the orchestra illustrates her fear and amazement; finally, the dynamics of the orchestra diminishes, and we again see Judith depressed and disquieted.
Thus, working within the framework of musical Expressionism, Bartók uses the orchestra to depict the inner world of the character and her emotions. Considering the peculiarity of the opera plot, the orchestra serves as the main device for Bartók to depict the places hidden beyond seven doors of the castle.
However, the composer provides not an objective, “outer” depiction, but that from the perspective of Judith, the protagonist of the opera. The orchestra also helps to outline the circular scheme of the opera that corresponds to the peculiarities of its plot. These shifts and such original approach chosen by Bartók makes Bluebeard’s Castle an outstanding musical work, interesting for critics and admired by listeners and viewers.
References
Bayley, A, The Cambridge companion to Bartók, Cambridge, U.K.; New York, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Hailey, C, ‘Musical Expressionism: the search for autonomy’ in Behr, S, D Fanning & D Jarman, Expressionism reassessed, Manchester; New York, Manchester University Press, 1993, pp. 103-111.
Leafstedt, C, ‘Bluebeard as theater: the influence of Maeterlinck and Hebbel on Balazs’s Bluebeard drama’ in Laki, P., Bartók and His World, Princeton, NJ, Princeton Univ. Press, 1995, pp.119-147.
Lee, D, Art dictionary, Gallo Manor, South Africa, Awareness Pub, 2008.