This is the most melodic movement. Throughout most of the piece there is a clear melody in the upper staff and an accompaniment in the lower staff. As this is a very common formula, and in this case very effective with our combination of instruments, we decided to keep the orchestration.
Section 1: Bar 1-21
The melody, exactly as it is written in the original score, sounds surprisingly well on the violin. It sounds very resonant and not too simplistic with the ornamentation and some double stops. It is as if Bartók wrote it for the violin. So it was easy to decide to transcribe the whole melody in this section literally for the violin part. As a result, the guitar gets the accompaniment. Unlike the violin part, this does not sound natural on the guitar. Adjustments have to be made. All adjustments are listed by category below.
Section 3: bar 21-31
Here the melody and accompaniment give way to two equal melodies. In the original, they alternate in the right and left hands of the piano, like question and answer. This works very well on violin and guitar. The different colours of the instruments enhance the question and answer effect.
Section 3: Bar 31-60 (end)
This section is very similar to the first part of the piece. The violin has the melody and the guitar has the accompaniment. However, this part needs more adjustments. In the violin part, 4 double-stops that are in the original score are not possible to play on the violin. Also, octaves on the violin are very virtuosic and not so evident to literally transcribe from the piano part. More about the octaves in chapter 3.6. The register of the lower staff of the piano is too large for the guitar, so that certain passages or bass notes have to be transposed an octave up or down. The guitar part also sounds too thin compared to the violin part in this section. The adjustments made are listed by category below.
This piece is divided into small sections. Each section has different musical material, a new melody or different purely rhythmic figures. Some sections return in a different key. The main aspect of the piece is the Bulgarian rhythm of 2+2+3 in a constant fast metrical unit. For each section we have prioritized different elements. What is the musical core and how can we translate it to our instruments? We did the orchestration per section. That is why our instruments in this movement do not follow the upper and lower staff of the piano but jump per section. When there is a purely rhythmic figure, the violin has the strong beats and the guitar the upbeats. If there is a melody on the downbeats, the violin plays it and the guitar plays the counter-melody. In this way, the important cadence of 2+2+3 is very present.
This movement is very similar to the second. The rhythmic interplay between two equally important voices is the essence of this movement. Occasionally this is broken by a clear melody of long notes, while the rhythmic figure continues underneath. There is a passage from bar 16 to 24 where both staves play a melody of long notes and the rhythmic cadence is briefly dropped. As in part two, it works best when the violin plays on the downbeat and the guitar on the upbeat. Because the violin is naturally louder and therefore plays on the heavy beats, it gives the cadence that is so important in this style. However, if there are chords written on the downbeat, the guitar takes them over. Since the guitar then plays three notes and the violin only one, the balance is the same as before.
