What is Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion?
The '''Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion''' is a musical [[Composition (music)|composition]] by the [[Hungary|Hungarian]] [[composer]] [[Béla Bartók]]. It was written for a very unusual combination of players. Four players are needed to perform this [[sonata]]: two pianists and two percussion players. The two pianists each have a piano, and the two percussion players play seven instruments between them: three [[timpani]], [[xylophone]], one [[side drum]] with snares and one without, a suspended [[cymbal]], a pair of cymbals, a [[bass drum]], a [[triangle]] and a [[tam-tam]]. In the introduction to the [[printed music|score]] Bartók gave very precise instructions about how the different percussion instruments should be played, the kinds of beaters to be used, and a plan of how they were to be grouped on stage. There are three [[movement (music)|movements]]: a fast movement, a slow movement and a fast movement. The first movement starts with a slow introduction. There are many interesting and unusual things to listen out for in the music. For example, in the first movement the timpani sometimes play [[glissando]]s. This means that the [[Pitch (music)|pitch]] of the notes slides up or down. The player needs to have timpani with [[pedal (music)|pedals]] to do this. This movement is in [[sonata form]]. The second movement sounds very creepy. Bartók quite often wrote music which sounded like [[insect]]s at night. This is one of his “night pieces”. In the climax to this exciting music Piano One plays lots of glissandos. The last movement is a big contrast to the atmosphere in the slow movement. It is like a lively dance. The sonata was first performed in [[Basle]] in [[1938]] with the composer playing one piano and his wife Ditta playing the other one. Fritz Schiesser and Philipp Rühlig played the percussion. It immediately became very popular and has since been one of his best- known works. Bartók also made a version for the two pianos to play with an [[orchestra]], but it is not normally perfo