Bartók Béla Viktor János ： Mikrokosmos Vol.5 No.136 Whole-Tone Scale BB 105 Sz 107

An educational work from Volume 5 of Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, centered on the whole-tone scale. Its sequence of notes, which contains no semitones, obscures a clear tonal center and creates a distinctive sonority where brightness and strangeness meet. Because the movement of the scale unfolds within short units, it is important to hear the relationships between pitches and the direction of each phrase. In performance, stabilize the fingering and align the notes clearly, while carefully shaping phrase breaks and dynamics so the music does not become mechanical. Balancing lightness of motion with changes in resonance is one of its key attractions.