Prolongation in the Final Movement of Bartók's String Quartet No. 4

Abstract

Post-tonal prolongations require flexibility concerning acceptable patterns and processes. Analysis of the first 148 measures of the final movement of Bartók's String Quartet No. 4 identifies a departure-return pattern as the vehicle for foreground prolongation, and the nesting of that pattern, to span the entire passage, as the means for large-scale prolongation. The “lydian-phrygian polymode” is shown to hierarchize components in the departure-return pattern. Oscillation-reiteration of the foreground pattern at three different scale degrees connects constituents of the large-scale pattern, this process defined as a non-Schenkerian, but nonetheless viable, prolongational technique.

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