The Miraculous Mandarin

The Miraculous Mandarin(Hungarian:A csodálatos mandarin,pronounced[ˈɒˈt͡ʃodaːlɒtoʃˈmɒndɒrin];German:Der wunderbare Mandarin) Op. 19,Sz.73 (BB 82), is a one act pantomimeballetcomposed byBéla Bartókbetween 1918 and 1924, and based on the 1916 story byMelchior Lengyel.Premiered on 27 November 1926 conducted byEugen Szenkarat theCologne Opera, Germany, it caused a scandal and was subsequently banned on moral grounds.Although more successful at its Prague premiere, it was generally performed during the rest of Bartók's life in the form of a concert suite, which preserves about two-thirds of the original pantomime's music.
After an orchestral introduction depicting the chaos of the big city, the action begins in a room belonging to three tramps. They search their pockets and drawers for money, but find none. They then force a girl to stand by the window and attract passing men into the room. The girl begins alockspiel—a "decoy game", or saucy dance. She first attracts a shabby oldrake, who makes comical romantic gestures. The girl asks, "Got any money?" He replies, "Who needs money? All that matters is love." He begins to pursue the girl, growing more and more insistent until the tramps seize him and throw him out.
The girl goes back to the window and performs a secondlockspiel. This time, she attracts a shy young man, who also has no money. He begins to dance with the girl. The dance grows more passionate, then the tramps jump him and throw him out too.
The girl goes to the window again and begins her dance. The tramps and girl see a bizarre figure in the street, soon heard coming up the stairs. The tramps hide, and the figure, amandarin(wealthy Chinese man), stands immobile in the doorway. The tramps urge the girl to lure him closer. She begins another saucy dance, the Mandarin's passions slowly rising. Suddenly, he leaps up and embraces the girl. They struggle and she escapes; he begins to chase her. The tramps leap on him, strip him of his valuables, and attempt to suffocate him under pillows and blankets. However, he continues to stare at the girl. They stab him three times with a rusty sword; he almost falls, but throws himself again at the girl. The tramps grab him again and hang him from a lamp hook. The lamp falls, plunging the room into darkness, and the Mandarin's body begins to glow with an eerie blue-green light. The tramps and girl are terrified. Suddenly, the girl knows what they must do. She tells the tramps to release the Mandarin; they do. He leaps at the girl again, and this time she does not resist and they embrace. With the Mandarin's longing fulfilled, his wounds begin to bleed and he dies.
The score begins with an orchestral depiction of the "concrete jungle." The violins have rapidly rising and falling, wave-likescalesover the very unusual interval of anaugmented octave. One of the central motifs of the work is set forward in bar 3—a8rhythm inminor seconds. This motif will reappear at the violent actions of the tramps. The sound of car horns is imitated byfanfareson the trumpets and trombones. As the curtain rises, the violas play a wide-leaping theme that will be associated both with the tramps and the girl. The 3lockspieleare scored for the clarinet, each one longer and more florid than the last. The old rake is represented by tromboneglissandispanning aminor third, another very important interval. As the tramps throw him out, the minor second in8returns. The music for the shy young man is a slow dance in4, also interrupted by the8minor second as the tramps throw him out. When the Mandarin is heard in the street, the trombone plays a simplepentatonictheme harmonized by 3 lines of paralleltritonesin the other trombones and the tuba. When the Mandarin enters the room, the trombones and tuba play downward glissandos, again spanning a minor third. Three measures later, this interval is playedfortississimoby the full brass.
The girl's dance for the Mandarin contains both awaltzand the viola theme associated with her and the tramps. When the Mandarin seizes the girl, the minor second is heard again. The chase is represented by afugue, whose subject also has a pentatonic flavor. The concert suite ends at this point. In the complete ballet, the8minor second returns again as the tramps rob the Mandarin. The attempted suffocation and stabbing are illustrated with great force in the orchestra. As the tramps hang the Mandarin from the lamp, the texture is blurred with glissandi on trombones, timpani, piano and cellos. The glowing body of the Mandarin is represented by the entry of achorussinging wordlessly, once again in the interval of a minor third. The climax, after the girl embraces the Mandarin, is a theme given outfortissimoby the low brass against minor-secondtremolosin thewoodwinds. As the Mandarin begins to bleed, the downward minor-third glissando heard at his entry is echoed in the trombone, contrabassoon and low strings. The work then stutters arhythmically to a close.
The scoring is generally heavy, and Bartók employs many colorful techniques here, includingchromatic scales,trillsandtremolosin the woodwinds;glissandiin the horns, trombones and tuba;cluster chordsand tremolos on the piano; scales andarpeggioson the piano, harp and celeste; and scales,double stops, trills, tremolos, andglissandiin the strings. Other special effects includefluttertonguingin the flutes;mutingthe brasses and strings, a cymbal rolla deux(a cymbal crash followed by scraping the plates together); playing the bass drum with the wooden part of a timpani mallet; arollon the gong; rolled timpaniglissandi; stringharmonics;col legnoandsul ponticelloplaying in the strings;scordaturain the cellos; and, at one point,quarter-tonesin the violins.
In 2000 a new edition edited by Peter Bartók, the composer's son, was published.  Based on the composer's written manuscripts, corrections, and the concurrently written score for piano with four hands, it restored a considerable amount of previously lost music.
The Miraculous Mandarinis scored for threeflutes(2nd and 3rd doublingpiccolo), threeoboes(3rd doublingEnglish horn), threeclarinets(second doublingE-flat clarinetand third doublingbass clarinet), threebassoons(third doublingcontrabassoon), fourhorns(second and fourth doublingWagner tuba), threetrumpetsin C, threetrombones, basstuba,timpani,snare drum,tenor drum,bass drum,cymbals,triangle,tam-tam,xylophone,celesta,harp,piano,organ,choir, andstrings.
Performances of the ballet suite outnumbered performances of the complete ballet until recent years. Recordings of the suite include:
Notable recordings of the complete ballet include: