The Ten Easy Piano Pieces, Sz.39, were composed in 1908
and premiered and published the next year. This set,
together with the Mikrokosmos and the two books of 'For
Children' is an example of Bartok's supreme skill in
writing pedagogical music that is easy and accessible
yet musically rewarding. The 10 pieces are prefaced
with a 'Dedication' which makes use of the 'Steffi
Geyer leitmotif', a theme which Bartok also uses in
other compositions. Steffi Geyer was a Austrian
violinist whom Bartok had...(+)
The Ten Easy Piano Pieces, Sz.39, were composed in 1908
and premiered and published the next year. This set,
together with the Mikrokosmos and the two books of 'For
Children' is an example of Bartok's supreme skill in
writing pedagogical music that is easy and accessible
yet musically rewarding. The 10 pieces are prefaced
with a 'Dedication' which makes use of the 'Steffi
Geyer leitmotif', a theme which Bartok also uses in
other compositions. Steffi Geyer was a Austrian
violinist whom Bartok had been infatuated with as a
young man. Some of these pieces are adaptations of
existing Hungarian folk melodies, some are original
compositions. It is a tribute to Bartok's genius and
his total assimilation of the idiom, that the
difference can not be noticed except perhaps in the
Dedication. 'Evening in Transylvania' (one of the
original themes) and 'Bear Dance' were orchestrated in
1931 and included as part of the orchestral suite
'Hungarian Sketches'.
Dedication
1.Peasant Song
2.Painful struggle
3. Slovak young men's dance
4. Sostenuto
5. Evening in Transylvania
6. Hungarian folk song
7. Dawn
8. Slovakian Folksong
9. Finger study
10. Bear dance
SHEET MUSIC