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The Gaggle Music Club: Béla Bartók's Rhapsodies for Violin and Orchestra

This week's selection for The Gaggle Music Club is Béla Bartók’s Rhapsodies No. 1 & No. 2 for Violin and Orchestra.

Bartók composed his two rhapsodies in 1928, during a period when he was engaged in synthesizing folk music with classical music. The work is an outstanding example of Bartók's unique musical language: a blend of traditional Hungarian, Romanian and Slovak folk music with modernist techniques.

The Rhapsodies arose out of Bartók’s ethnomusicological studies. By the late 1920s, Bartók had collected and analyzed thousands of folk melodies from Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Bulgaria, and he had already used this material in various compositions. The Rhapsodies are directly based on folk melodies, incorporating Hungarian and Romanian dance elements while employing Bartók’s modern harmonic and rhythmic innovations.

Bartók’s Rhapsodies are not simply arrangements of folk tunes; instead, they integrate folk idioms into a modern, highly sophisticated classical framework. The melodies may be authentic, but their harmonization, development and structure are highly original. Bartók does not simply harmonize folk melodies in a traditional Western style (as Brahms often did), but instead constructs new harmonic systems that derive from the original folk sources.

During the 1920s, Bartók moved away from his earlier expressionist and post-Romantic style (as seen in his early works, such as the opera "Bluebeard’s Castle" or the First String Quartet). Instead, he refined his synthesis of folk music, modernism and classical form. It culminated in later masterpieces such as Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936) and the Concerto for Orchestra (1943-44).

The Rhapsodies fit into this transitional period as accessible, virtuosic works that showcase his love of folk music but are still within a broadly tonal and accessible to wider audiences. Unlike Bartók's later, more abstract works, the Rhapsodies maintain a strong improvisatory and performative character, making them at once emotionally engaging and even entertaining.

Unlike Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances (1915), which are short, concise miniatures, the Rhapsodies are expansive and developmental. The Rhapsodies resemble Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, but while Liszt’s works were often heavily romanticized, Bartók’s works remain close to the original folk sources.

Bartók’s Rhapsodies for Violin and Orchestra are a stunning fusion of folk music and classical virtuosity. They represent a transitional period in his career, during which he was moving toward greater abstraction but still deeply engaged in folk traditions. The Rhapsodies are among Bartók’s most accessible works, and a favorite of violinists.

In this performance, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by Alexander Walker, and the violin soloist is Mircea Calin.

00:25:08
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October 13, 2025
The Gaggle Music Club: Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia On A Theme by Thomas Tallis

This week’s selection for The Gaggle Music Club is Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Composed in 1910, and revised in 1913 and revised again in 1919, the work is one of the most radiant and distinctive English orchestral works of the 20th century.

At the turn of the 20th century, England’s musical culture was in the midst of rediscovering its own past. Composers such as Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Edward Elgar and Frederick Delius were seeking to free themselves from German and French Romantic music styles and to develop a distinctly English voice in classical music.

Vaughan Williams was at the center of this movement. Between 1903 and 1906, he was editing The English Hymnal — a project that profoundly shaped his musical outlook. While preparing the hymnal, he delved deeply into Tudor and early Stuart church music, including the works of Thomas Tallis (c1505–1585), William Byrd (1540-1623) and Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625). It was in the course of this ...

00:16:29
October 13, 2025
Monday Night At The Movies: "The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie" (1972)

Join Gagglers for "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie"!
The screening starts at 3 p.m. ET sharp.
Share all of your thoughts, comments and criticisms on the Live Chat.

01:41:32
October 12, 2025
TG 1988: Nobel Committee, Trump Join Forces To Oust Maduro

George Szamuely and Peter Lavelle discuss the well-developed plans to overthrow the government of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro--plans that include the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Corina Machado--and wonder whether anything can save Venezuela from the U.S.-instigated coup.

00:54:24

Everything is for sale.
Reeks of desperation.
This guy is NOT in charge.
#RealityDC
Citat
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
·
13 h
Don’t forget to get a copy of my son Eric’s book, “UNDER SIEGE,” which is breaking records everywhere. It’s a phenomenal book, that’s a must read for everyone—Congratulations Eric, you deserve it!!! https://x.com/ShannonJoyRadio/status/1978289948248642015

Disclose.tv:
NOW - U.S. Secretary of War Hegseth arrives at NATO defense ministers security meeting in Brussels, "Firepower, that's what is coming and we expect it is coming from NATO."

@disclosetv

NOW - NATO Secretary Chief Rutte: "NATO continues to help Ukraine defend itself, this includes the most recent NATO initiative that has already channeled two billion dollars of U.S. equipment, paid for by allies, into Ukraine, and there's more to come."

@disclosetv

October 14, 2025

Trump's tweet from exactly 10 years ago has aged perfectly well

https://x.com/ChrisRulon/status/1977809612679332150

Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Sheldon Adelson is looking to give big dollars to Rubio because he feels he can mold him into his perfect little puppet. I agree!

January 21, 2023
More Leftie Than Thou
"Jacobin" Magazine Celebrates A Strike Against Ol' Blue Eyes

Here at "The Gaggle" we have very little time for the "more Leftie than thou" school of thought--that's the approach to life according to which the only thing that matters is whether you take the right position on every issue under the sun from Abortion to Zelensky. No one in the world meets the exacting standards of this school of thought; any Leftie leader anywhere is always selling out to the bankers and the capitalists. The perfect exemplar of this is the unreadable Jacobin magazine. 

The other day I came across this article from 2021. It's a celebration of trade union power. And not simply trade union power, but the use of trade union power to secure political goals. Of course (and this is always the case with the "more Leftie than thou" crowd), this glorious, never-to-be-forgotten moment on the history of organized labor took place many years ago--in the summer of 1974 to be exact. Yes, almost half a century has gone by since that thrilling moment when the working-class movement of Australia mobilized and prepared to seize the means of production, distribution and exchange. 

Well, not quite. Organized labor went into action against...Ol' Blue Eyes, the Chairman of the Board, the Voice; yes, Frank Sinatra. Why? What had Sinatra done? Sinatra was certainly very rich, and he owned a variety of properties and businesses. But if the Australian trade union movement were, understandably, searching for the bright, incandescent spark that would finally awaken the working class from its slumber there were surely richer, greedier, more dishonest, more decadent, above all more Australian individuals it could have discovered. Australia was never short of them. Rupert Murdoch immediately springs to mind. Why Sinatra?

 

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