Hungarian Peasant Songs Op. 22 Piano Solo

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!

A superb collection of 15 songs for Piano Solo by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok.

Bela Bartok is renowned for his settings of Folk music and these eight improvisation pieces are based around traditional Hungarian melodies. This version is the revised corrected edition the extant sources and the existing edition having been compared again in full. For Solo Piano.

Of the many works Bartók composed on Hungarian and Romanian folk melodies between 1914 and 1918 these three piano pieces occupy a special place. Originally outlined for the collection 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs (Urtext edition HN 1404) the drafts were left untouched for the next twenty years. Not until 1941 when Boosey

Arrangeur: Vilmos Bántai_Éva B. Sipos. Par BARTOK BELA. This book contains arrangements of piano pieces written by Béla Bartók (1881-1945) in his youth for piano pupils (Ten Easy Piano Pieces, For Children, The First Term at the Piano). Most are arrangements of Hungarian or Slovak folk songs, while the rest are based on the composer's own melodies. The pieces appear in order of difficulty, but even the simplest can be used as effective performance pieces. The album is recommended for the first three years of flute learning, and the first four pieces are playable within the first year. A piano accompaniment for each piece and a full performance by noted Hungarian musicians is provided on the accompanying CD to facilitate practice at home and help in developing a suitably styled performance of Bartók's music. / Niveau : Facile / Répertoire / Flûte Traversière et Piano

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