Hungarian Peasant Songs

Béla Bartók Complete Critical Edition Volume 38. Par BARTOK BELA. The third volume in the Complete Edition contains Bartók's works for piano solo composed between 1914 and 1920. Bartók's pianistic oeuvre from the years of World War I span a broadly varied spectrum; in addition to simple arrangements of folk music (15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sonatina) and original pieces for the concert podium (Suite, op. 14), we find Bartók's audaciously innovative Etudes (op. 18) inspired by Liszt, as well as Improvisations (op. 20), perhaps his most abstract and original folk music adaptations. The appendix of the volume reproduces movements originally intended for, but eventually discarded from, Suite and 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, as well as all original sources for the folk-inspired pieces. The introductory essays in English, Hungarian, and German not only explore the genesis and reception of the works more thoroughly than ever before, but also orient the reader in issues of notation and performance. The critical commentary presents all manuscript and print sources of the works in detail (including folk music sources), it documents the compositional processes and surveys the range of textual variants and problems. / Somfai, László / Répertoire / Piano

In a note for the planned first edition of his Hungarian Peasant Songs in 1914 Bartók wrote that ?the melodies published here are folksongs in the truest sense of the word; more precisely peasant songs?. Bartók initiallywithdrew this work from publication however and added new pieces to it using folk music he had collected in the meantime. The first edition was only finally published in 1920. The Bartók scholar László Somfai explains the work?scomplicated genesis in his preface. The comments at the close of this edition include important indications regarding performance practice derived from the two recordings that the composer made of several of its pieces in 1927 and1936. The musical text here follows that of the corresponding volume of the Bartók Complete Edition that is currently in preparation. This is yet another highly popular Bartók work on offer from G. Henle Publishers!

Parmi les nombreuses 'uvres composées par Bartók entre 1914 et 1918 à partir de musiques populaires hongroises et roumaines, ces trois pièces pour piano jouent un rôle particulier. Esquissées à l'origine pour le recueil des 15 Ungarische Bauernlieder (15 chansons paysannes hongroises, éd. Urtext HN 1404), elles sont restées ensuite pendant vingt ans à l'état de projet. Ce n'est qu'en 1941, quand Boosey and Hawkes demanda au compositeur émigré entretemps aux États-Unis une contribution à un album anniversaire destiné au grand pianiste Ignace Paderewski, que Bartók se tourna à nouveau vers ces pièces pour piano tirées de la musique populaire de sa patrie et notées depuis longtemps, afin de les réviser soigneusement. Parue en 1942, la première édition ne reproduit exceptionnellement pas les modèles originaux de musique populaire; mais ils sont bien évidemment présents dans cette édition Urtext fondée sur l'édition intégrale Bartók. L'enregistrement réalisé par Bartók lui-même de ces pièces a été également exploité par László Somfai, responsable de cette édition, pour sa réalisation éditoriale comme pour les Indications pratiques d'interprétation.

The 'Romanian Folk Dances' undoubtedly rank amongst Bartók's most popular compositions. The earliest version is scored for piano (1915) and was published by Universal Edition in 1918. The composer himself orchestrated this version in 1917. Several other chamber music arrangements (for example Zoltán Székely's version for violin and piano) were not by Bartók although he authorised them. The musical material derives from Bartók's collections of folk music which date right back to 1904 when he wrote down a melody sung by a Hungarian peasant girl. In the course of extensive travels throughout Eastern Europe Bartókcompiled an enormous collection of folk tunes (by 1918 his collection comprised no fewer than 2700 Hungarian 3500 Romanian and 3000 Slovak dances and songs) which would in all probability have been lost had Bartók not written them down. As it was some of them found their way into his compositions. In 1908 Bartók jotted down dance tunes in Transsylvania. They are the source of the 'Romanian Folk Dances'.

Béla Bartók's series of piano pieces For Children, based on folk melodies, was written around the end of the first decade of the 20th century. The pieces were published shortly afterwards by the Hungarian publisher Károly Rozsnyai. That first publication was in four volumes, the first two containing a total of 42 pieces based on Hungarian folk tunes, the third and fourth containing 43 pieces based on Slovakian folk tunes.In 1943, whilst in the United States, Bartók prepared a revised version of the collection for the publishers Boosey and Hawkes. The revisions were minimal: two Hungarian and four Slovakian songs were eliminated, there were a few minor alterations incorporating new ideas, some of the pieces previously written with accidentals had key signatures added, a few pieces were rewritten with changed meters - some fingerings were added or changed.The composer prepared the revised 1943 edition by using copies of the first edition on which he marked minor changes - where the changes were more extensive, fresh manuscript was written and a new version engraved. However, much of the engraving of the first edition was preserved in the 1943 edition. Publication took place in 1946, after the composer's death - it is not known if he saw final proofs prior to printing.The revised edition was published in two volumes, which now have been published together as one volume for the first time. / Piano

For Children Vol. 2. Bartók composed his first pedagogical collection For Children between 1908 and 1911. The first edition was issued between 1909 and 1911 in four volumes, comprising two of Hungarian and two of Slovak folk song arrangements. After moving to America, Bartók considered it important to produce new editions of his earlier works. Thus in autumn 1943, together with his new publisher Boosey and Hawkes, he planned a new edition of For Children, and to this end completely revised the collection. Although Bartók had already completed his revision by the end of 1943, the revised edition was only issued in 1946. The pieces were published without titles in the first edition, but the folk song lyrics were included. These lyrics, deemed unnecessary for the non-Hungarian audiences, were not taken over to the American revised edition however, a significant number of pieces were provided with a title conveying their mood and their background in folk music and folk life. The American edition omitted the folk songs lyrics that seemed unnecessary to the audience there, but the titles of the first edition were replaced with English titles (some with the same meaning and some with modified interpretations) conveying each song's mood and background in folk music and folk life.The present edition - which contains the same scores as those in Volume 37 of the Béla Bartók Complete Critical Edition (Z. 15037) - is based on the revised version that the composer made in 1943 for the new edition, to which he also referred to as ''corrected''. We have added Hungarian translations to the English titles but we have also restored the original collection of folk song texts with parallel English translations. The pieces discarded from the revised version, as well as early versions that are significantly different from the revised version, are included in the Appendix. This publication contains a preface and editorial comments in both Hungarian and English.

Harom Magyar Parasztdal-For two Sopranos Alto Tenor and Bass.First performance: Etone vocal ensemble September 2002.Conducting score.