Béla Bartók Livres

Second in the Archive Edition incorporating composer's corrections, emphasizing Bartok's lifelong work both with East European folk music, and with music for children and student pianists. 85 short pieces: "For Children, " 2 Elegies, Sonatina, other folk-inspired keyboard work.

(Boosey & Hawkes Scores/Books). Hardbound

This set of six pieces is based on folk song melodies and dance forms from Transylvania which was annexed to Romania in 1920. The contrasting melodies were originally for violin or shepherd's flute, but the unusual harmonies are original with Bartók. The performance time for the complete set of dances is approximately 4 minutes, 15 seconds. Included is an outstanding CD recording from the Naxos label.

Béla Bartók wrote the first four volumes of the Mikrokosmos as a series of beginning piano exercises for his son Péter. The great Hungarian composer's complete six-volume collection represents one of the most comprehensive anthologies of contemporary technique ever assembled. This edition, consisting of the first two volumes, presents more than 100 pieces of study material suitable for first- and second-year students. In a 1945 radio interview, Bartók explained, "The Mikrokosmos is a cycle of 153 pieces for piano, written with a didactic purpose. That is, to give piano pieces which can be used from the very beginning and then going on. It is graded according to difficulties. And the word Mikrokosmos may be interpreted as a series of pieces in many different styles, representing a small world. Or it may be interpreted as 'world of the little ones, the children.'" This volume constitutes the definitive edition of Bartók's tutorials, drawing upon all known manuscripts and the printed originals for a corrected version approved by the composer's son and the first student to benefit from these exercises.