Four Centuries of Great Music March 22, 2026 Birthday Anniversaries of Four 20th Century Composers

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music are four 20th century composers whose anniversaries of their births are in the month of   March.

I am opening with Bela Bartok  who was born on March 25, 1881 in Banatian town of Nagyszentmiklós in the Kingdom of Hungary (present-day Sânnicolau Mare, Romania) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; and along with Franz Liszt as one Hungary's greatest composers.   

Today I open with Bela Bartok’s  Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta, Sz. 106: The piece is in four movements:
Andante tranquillo
Allegro
Adagio
Allegro molto

The first movement is a slow fugue with a constantly changing time signature. The movement is based around the note A, on which it begins and ends. It begins with muted strings, and as more voices enter, the texture thickens and the music becomes louder, coming to a climax.  Mutes are then removed, and the music becomes gradually quieter over gentle celesta arpeggios. The movement ends with the second phrase of the fugue subject played softly over its inversion. The first movement can be seen as a basis for material in the later movements; the fugue subject recurs in different guises throughout the piece.

The second movement is quick, with a theme in 2/4 time which is transformed into 3/8 time towards the end. It is marked with a loud syncopated piano and percussion accents in a whirling dance, evolving in an extended pizzicato section, with a piano concerto-like conclusion.

The third movement is slow, an example of what is often called Bartók's "night music". It features timpani glissandi, an unusual technique at the time of the work's composition, as well as a prominent xylophone part. The rhythm of the xylophone solo that opens the third movement is a "written-out accelerando/ritardando" that follows the Fibonacci sequence notated  (1 note per beat, then 2, 3, 5 8, 5, 3, 2 and 1 again).

The fourth and final movement, which begins with notes on the timpani and strummed pizzicato chords on the strings, has the character of a lively folk dance.

Here is a performance of Bela Bartok:  Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta, Sz. 106

Bela Bartok
Bela Bartok:  Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta, Sz. 106:  I. Andante tranquillo
Bela Bartok:  Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta, Sz. 106: II. Allegro
Bela Bartok:  Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta, Sz. 106: III. Adagio
Bela Bartok:  Music For Strings, Percussion And Celesta, Sz. 106: IV. Allegro molto

Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa
Seiji Ozawa& Boston Symphony Orchestra
Deutsche Grammophon

Next on this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music featuring four 20th century composers whose anniversaries of their births are in the month of March is Heitor Villa-Lobos

Heitor Villa-Lobos was born on March 5, 1887 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  He was a composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music”.   Today I will be playing his String Quartet No. 6.   This composition subtitled “Brazilian”consists of four movements:
Poco animato
Allegretto
Andante, quasi adagio
Allegro vivace

Instead of the usual sonata-allegro form, the first movement presents a sectional structure. Four contrasting sections (with transitions between the first and second, and between the third and fourth) are followed by a recapitulation of the first section, and an extended coda. There is no development section.  In keeping with the references to Brazilian popular music, Villa-Lobos begins with a shorter motive that he then expands in length and by increasing the variety in the rhythmic syncopations, which alludes to the Brazilian popular music after which Villa-Lobos titles the quartet.

The second movement is in a three-part, ABA song form in the character of the Brazilian choro.  The A section is homophonic, while the central B section features imitative textures and a xangô-like theme in common time held by the cello, set against a syncopated accompaniment of continuous pizzicato quarter-note triplets in the upper three voices.

The third movement is also in ternary form, but with a variation. The A section has two parts, which are reversed in order when A is recapitulated after the central B section.  The tonal language and textural features of the outer sections resemble those of the Bachianas Brasileiras, especially parts of the first movement of Bachianas No. 5. The middle section features a fugato on a subject related to the cantilena (xangô) motive from the second movement. This passage is the first occurrence of the atonal, chromatic, legato style found often in Villa-Lobos's subsequent quartets

The finale is similar in structure to the first movement, consisting of three successive, contrasting sections and a recapitulation of the first, concluding with a short coda.   Unlike the first movement, however (and unlike all of the composer's earlier quartets), there is a certain thematic kinship amongst the sections, with a recurrence of a falling-third figure and the use of pseudo-Indian motifs influenced by Antonín Dvořák's "American" Quartet.

Here is a performance of Heitor Villa-Lobos String Quartet No. 6

Heitor Villa-Lobos:  String Quartet No. 6: I. Poco animato
Heitor Villa-Lobos:  String Quartet No. 6: II. Allegretto
Heitor Villa-Lobos:  String Quartet No. 6: III. Andante, quasi Adagio
Heitor Villa-Lobos:  String Quartet No. 6: IV.  Allegro non troppo

Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Villa-Lobos: String Quartets, Vol. 1: Nos. 1, 6 & 17
Sono Luminus

I am opening the second hour of this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music featuring four 20th century composers whose anniversaries of their births are in the month of March with Arthur Honegger.   Arthur Honegger was born on March 10, 1892 in Le Havre, France  to Swiss parent.  He lived a large portion of his life in Paris and was part of the group of French composers known as Les Six.

The work that I am playing Sonatine pour Violon et Violoncelle
is in three movements: Allegro, Andante and Allegro.
The opening  Allegro is a “neoclassical and courtly” movement “with a supple and balanced rhythm” which “contrasts a first lyrical idea, in unison, with a second, more energetic one, triggering a lively contrapuntal interplay”;

Andante is composed in three sections, “in which the first section is a lyrical Andante, the second a Scherzando, and the third a variation and recapitulation together of both earlier sections simultaneously.

Allegro, a “noisy” finale with an almost omnipresent animated theme, a movement that is “impetuous and good-natured, a rondo of witty contrapuntal alacrity, not disdaining a few jazz syncopations and fading away with a pirouette at the end of a brilliant tightly overlapping fugal subject.”

Here is a performance  of Arthur Honegger: Sonatine pour Violon et Violoncelle

Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger: Sonatine pour Violon et Violoncelle, H. 80: I. Allegro
Arthur Honegger:  Sonatine pour Violon et Violoncelle, H. 80: II. Andante
Arthur Honegger:  Sonatine pour Violon et Violoncelle, H. 80: III. Allegro

Mika Yonezawa, violin & Kleif Carnarius, cello
Mika Yonezawa and Kleif Carnarius,  Play Martinu, Schulhoff, Gliere and Honegger
Carnarius Records


Next in this episode of Four Centuries of Great Music featuring four 20th century composers whose anniversaries of their births are in the month of March is Elizabeth Maconchy.  Maconchy was born on March 19, 1907 in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England of Irish parents who moved back to Ireland in 1917.  In 1923, at the age of sixteen, she moved to London to enroll at the Royal College of Music to study with  Ralph Vaughan Williams and her classmates  included Grace Williams, who would become Wales most famous composer.  Maconchy composed more than 200 works but she has been eclipsed in fame by her teacher Ralph Vaughan Williams and a contemporary Benjamin Britten.

Today I will be playing  her Symphony for Double String Orchestra.  The music’s tricky rhythms and spicy harmonies indicate a strong  influence by Janácek and Bartók,  However, as the piece progresses, and especially in the last movement, you can tell that Maconchy also influenced by her English  colleagues as well.

It is in four well-balanced but strongly contrasting movements. The ‘allegro molto’ opens with an insistent and quite aggressive ‘five note figure’, offset by a ‘fandango pizzicato’ tune.  The second movement marked lento is the heart of the work. Profoundly intense, the music pushes towards a great climax before subsiding into the reflective opening material. This is one of the great ‘elegies’ of British string music. The third movement, a ‘scherzo’, balances the heart rending ‘lento’. The work ends with a lyrical passacaglia. 

This is intense music that is well balanced between a long ‘allegro’ section and a soaring ‘lento.’ 

Here is a performance of  Elizabeth Maconchy Symphony for Double String Orchestra

Elizabeth Maconchy
Elizabeth Maconchy:  Symphony for Double String Orchestra: I.  Allegro molto
Elizabeth Maconchy:  Symphony for Double String Orchestra: II.  Lento
Elizabeth Maconchy:  Symphony for Double String Orchestra: III.  Scherzo
Elizabeth Maconchy:  Symphony for Double String Orchestra: IV.  Passacaglia
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra & Odaline de la Martinez
Maconchy: Orchestral Music
Lontano Records

I will close this episode Four Centuries of Great Music featuring four 20th century composers whose anniversaries of their births are in the month of March with Arthur Honegger’s Pacific 231 as performed by Charles Dutoit conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from the album Honegger: Symphonies #1-5, Pacific 231, Rugby

You have been listening to Arthur Honegger’s Pacific 231 as performed by Charles Dutoit conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from the album Honegger: Symphonies #1-5, Pacific 231, Rugby

Thank you for joining me today on Four Centuries of Great Music and join me again next Sunday at 3pm