Elliott Antokoletz is Professor of Musicology at the University of Texas, Austin. In 1981 he received the Bela Bartok Memorial Plaque and Diploma from the Hungarian government.

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsI The Musical Language of Bartok: Historical BackgroundsFolk- and Art-Music SourcesOrientation toward French, Russian, and Folk-Music Sources:Nonfunctional Bases in Pentatonic, Modal, and Whole-ToneConstructionsUse of Symmetrical Pitch Collections by Russian, French,and Hungarian ComposersRussian Nationalists:Symmetrical Properties of the Dominant-Ninth ChordRussian Nationalists, Debussy, and Stravinsky:Symmetrical Properties of Nontraditional as Well as Traditional(Pentatonic and Modal) Pitch ConstructionsRussian Nationalists, Scriabin, and Kodaly:Symmetrical Partitions of the Octatonic ScaleLate Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Germanic Influences:Symmetrical Organization of Chromatically Related KeysThe Schoenberg School:Symmetrical Formations as the Basis of Progressionin Free-Atonal CompositionsBerg and Webern:Total Systematization of the Concepts of the Interval Cycle andInversional Symmetry in Dodecaphonic Serial CompositionsII Harmonization of Authentic Folk TunesIII Symmetrical Transformations of the Folk ModesIV Basic Principles of Symmetrical Pitch ConstructionV Construction, Development, and Interaction of lntervallic CellsVI Tonal Centricity Based on Axes of SymmetryIncluding the Concepts of:Symmetrical Organization around an Axis; Use of SymmetricalCells in Establishing Axes; Interaction of Traditional Tonal Centersand AxesVII Interaction of Diatonic, Octatonic, and Whole-Tone FormationsVIII Generation of the Interval CyclesIX ConclusionChronological List of Cited Bartok CompositionsWorks CitedIndex to Basic Terms, Definitions, and ConceptsIndex to CompositionsGeneral Index