Béla Bartók: Analysis of his music (2)
Form Principles
Golden Section
Golden Section (“sectio aurea” and henceforth GS) means the division of a distance in such a way that the proportion of the whole length to the larger part corresponds geometrically to the proportion of the larger to the smaller part, i.e. the larger part is the geometric mean of the whole length and the smaller part. A simple calculation shows that if the whole length is taken as unity, the value of the larger section is 0.618.
(see upper formula on page 78), and hence the smaller part is 0.382 .
Thus, the larger part of any length divided into GS is equal to the whole length multiplied by 0.618.
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Bela Bartok An Analysis Of His Music (Book) By Ernö Lendvai