Bartok and the grotesque: studies in modernity, the body and contradiction in music - 16

The grotesque is one of art's most puzzling figures ? transgressive, comprising an unresolveable hybrid, generally focussing on the human body, full of hyperbole, and ultimately semantically deeply puzzling.

In Bluebeard's Castle (1911), The Wooden Prince (1916/17), The Miraculous Mandarin (1919/24, rev. 1931) and Cantata Profana (1930), Bart?k engaged scenarios featuring either overtly grotesque bodies or closely related transformations and violations of the body.

In a number of instrumental works he also overtly engaged grotesque satirical strategies, sometimes ? as in Two Portraits: 'Ideal' and 'Grotesque' ? indicating this in the title.