In Bartók's career the period between 1910 and 1914 was devoted to intensive folk song collecting work. In those years his attention was focussed principally on Romanian folk music (in 1913 he published for example the Bihar collection and most of the Máramaros collection: in March 1913 in just two weeks he recorded 209 songs). The inspiration gained from his collecting journeys in Romania first appeared in the vocal folk song arrangements he composed in 1915 and in the smaller-scale moderately difficult piano series based on Romanian folk music material the Romanian Folk Dances Kolindák and the Sonatina. In the three movements of the Sonatina ('Pipers' 'Bears' Dance' and'Finale') Bartók used altogether five original Romanian melodies. In 1931 he made an orchestral arrangement of this exceptionally popular work and entitled it Transylvanian Dances. (Hungaroton HCD 31604)
SKU: BT.EMBZ433
English-German-Hungari an.
Béla Bartók often used musical material from his folk music collections for his compositions. His Sonatina, originally written for solo piano in 1915, was based on songs that he collected in Transylvania. The three movements (1. Bagpipers - Molto moderato, 2. Bear Dance - Moderato, and 3. Finale - Allegro vivace) were orchestrated by Bartók in 1931. Shortly before Bartók's orchestral transcription was finished, violinist Gertler Endre's transcript for violin and piano was completed. Gertler and Bartók knew each other personally and, in fact, first made each other's acquaintance as a result of their shared experience with their respective transcriptions.
SKU: NR.364
