Viola Concerto as a Self-Portrait? Self-References in Bartók's Compositions

Abstract In his last letter to William Primrose (September 8, 1945) Bartók used the following words to describe the “general character” of the Viola Concerto he had been writing for him. “… the sombre, more masculine character of your instrument exerted some influence on the general character of the work.” These few words have led to the speculation that Bartók may have intended the work as a self-portrait. This hypothesis has been strengthened by another suggestion that his Third Piano Concerto, written for his wife, Ditta Pásztory Bartók, was also a portrait, a portrait of her. It is true that Bartók composed a few portraits in his oeuvre (the titles of the compositions clearly refer to them), but none of them, as far as we know, was directly intended as a self-portrait. At the same time, there are certain recurring formulas in his compositions, some characteristic motifs, moods, the use of certain instruments or even some allusions to certain scenes in his stage works, which can be considered self-references. Although the surviving manuscript sources of the Viola Concerto do not provide clear answers to many questions about the final form of the work, we can identify a number of important motifs that can give us at least some idea of the “content” of the work, even in this fragmentary form of the composition. After providing an overview of Bartók's various musical self-references, an attempt will be made to discover what ideas could be behind his Viola Concerto.