Contrasts

Béla Bartók's Contrasts is a chamber music composition for piano, violin, and clarinet, written in 1938. This work is noted for its rhythmic drive, incorporating irregular patterns often inspired by Eastern European folk music, a field Bartók avidly studied. The piece also features acrid dissonances that approach atonality and explores new instrumental effects. Bartók built upon classical structures, evident in the sonata form of the first movement and the ternary form of the second. The final movement showcases his characteristic folk rhythms.123