Romanian Folk Dances

Joc cu bâta

Brâul

Pe loc

Buciumeana

Porga romanesca

Maruntel -

Maruntel

Although the Romanian Folk Dances were originally intended as teaching pieces, thanks to the composer’s own version for small orchestra and several other arrangements - notably Zoltán Székely’s for violin and piano - they have become perhaps the most popular of all Bartok’s works. Written six years after For Children and with more advanced students in mind, the piano writing is more colourful and the structure of the pieces more developed. Even so these elaborations, as Bartók himself pointed out, are still nothing more than the mounting of the “jewel” represented by the folk tune itself. They are based on the most attractive instrumental tunes Bartók had collected in Romania before the First World War cut him off from one of his favourite sources of folk material - a robustly tuneful stick dance from Maros-Torda, a graceful round dance from Torontál, an exotically languorous dance in one spot also from Torontál, an expressively melodious dance collected from a gypsy violinist in Bucsum, a lively Romanian polka (including one duple-time bar for every two or three bars in triple time) and two quick dances precipitously run together.

arranged for wind quintet by Gordon Davies

Jocul cu bâta (Stick Dance)

Brâul (Sash Dance)

Pe loc (In one Spot)

Buciumeana (Horn Dance)

Poarga româneasca (Romanian Polka)

Maruntel (Fast Dance)

Although the Romanian Folk Dances were originally intended as piano teaching pieces, thanks to the composer’s own version for small orchestra and several other arrangements - notably Zoltán Székely’s for violin and piano - they have become perhaps the most popular of all Bartok’s works. Even so these elaborations, as Bartók himself pointed out, are still nothing more than the mounting of the “jewel” represented by the folk tune itself. Written in 1915, they are based on the most attractive instrumental tunes Bartók had collected in Romania before the First World War cut him off from one of his favourite sources of folk material. The robustly tuneful Stick Dance, at the climax of which the dancer is required to kick the ceiling, was originally played for Bartók by two gypsy violinists in Mezöszbad. The graceful Sash Dance (or round dance) was introduced to him by a peasant flute player from Egres, which is also the source of the exotically languorous Dance in One Spot. The expressively melodious Horn Dance was collected from a gypsy violinist in Bisztra, while the lively Romanian Polka and the Fast Dance - actually two dances run precipitously together - derive from boy violinists in the villages of Belényes and Nyágra.

arranged by string orchestra by Arthur Willner

Stick Dance

Sash Dance

In one Spot

Horn Dance

Romanian Polka

Fast Dance

Fast Dance

Although the Romanian Folk Dances were originally intended as piano teaching pieces, thanks to the composer’s own version for small orchestra and several other arrangements - notably Zoltán Székely’s for violin and piano and the present version for string orchestra - they have become perhaps the most popular of all Bartok’s works. Even so, as Bartók himself pointed out, the seven movements are nothing more than mountings of what he described as folk-song “jewels.” They are based on the most attractive instrumental tunes Bartók had collected in Romania before the First World War not only cut him off from one of his fruitful sources of folk material but also destroyed several of his favourite Transylvanian villages.

The robustly tuneful Stick Dance, at the climax of which the dancer is required to kick the ceiling, was originally played for Bartók by two gypsy violinists in Mezöszbad. The graceful Sash Dance (or round dance) was introduced to him by a peasant flute player from Egres, which is also the source of the exotically languorous Dance in One Spot. The expressively melodious Horn Dance was collected from a gypsy violinist in Bisztra, while the lively Romanian Polka (including one duple-time bar for every two or three bars in triple time) and the two Fast Dances derive from boy violinists in the villages of Belényes and Nyágra.

arranged for violin and piano by Zoltán Székely

Allegro moderato

Allegro -

Andante

Molto moderato

Allegro -

Allegro

Just a year before Szigeti made his Hungarian Folk Tunes arrangements, another violinist in Bartók’s life, Zoltán Székely, had done the same for the Romanian Folk Dances. Since much of the folk song Bartok had collected in Romania before the First World War was instrumental in origin anyway - Romania was far richer in instrumental folk music than Hungary - they were a natural subject for transcription. It is true, that except for tempo directions that accelerate the quicker dances among the folk originals and slow down the others, Bartók’s piano version, compiled in 1915, is modest enough. Two years later, however, the composer himself made a colourful orchestral arrangement that won immediate public approval. Irresistibly tuneful as they are, the Romanian Folk Dances are still among his most popular compositions.

Székely’s violin-and-piano version is thoroughly well calculated for the two instruments and, far from indulging in any undue virtuosity, always true to the idiom. The opening Allegro moderato, a robust “stick dance,” and the Allegro, a more graceful “sash dance,” are followed by an Andante that, delicately scored in false harmonics, remains “in one spot.” The expressive Molto moderato “horn dance” is well placed to offset a Romanian polka, including one duple-time bar for every two or three in triple time, and a final Allegro, brilliantly combining two quick dances in one. The double-stopped violin scoring here is certainly sensational but, in its simulation of bagpipe tunes with drone accompaniment, far from alien to the dances in their original state.

arranged for strings by Arthur Willner

Jocul cu bâta (Stick Dance)

Brâul (Sash Dance)

Pe loc (In one Spot)

Buciumeana (Horn Dance)

Poarga româneasca (Romanian Polka)

Maruntel (Fast Dance)

Maruntel (Fast Dance)

Although the Romanian Folk Dances were intended in the first place as a humble set of piano teaching pieces, they are now - thanks in part to a number of official and semi-official arrangements - among the most popular of all Bartók’s works. Apart from the composer’s own arrangement for small orchestra, written two years after the piano originals in 1917, there are Székely’s for violin and piano, Wilke’s for salon orchestra and Willner’s for string orchestra - which last can be adapted for string sextet with no more than a few minor adjustments. The precise nature of the arrangement is not important since, as Bartók himself pointed out, the precious elements in the work is not the harmonic and instrumental setting but what he described as the “jewels” of folk music that inspired them. The seven movements are based on the most attractive of the hundreds of instrumental tunes he had collected in Romania before the First World War not only cut him off from one of his most fruitful sources of folk material but also destroyed several of his favourite Transylvanian villages.

The robustly tuneful Stick Dance, at the climax of which the dancer is required to kick the ceiling, was originally played for Bartók by two gypsy violinists in Mezöszbad. The graceful Sash Dance (or round dance) was introduced to him by a peasant flute player from Egres, which is also the source of the exotically languorous Dance in One Spot. The expressively melodious Horn Dance was collected from a gypsy violinist in Bisztra, while the lively Romanian Polka (including one duple-time bar for every two or three bars in triple time) and the two Fast Dances derive from boy violinists in the villages of Belényes and Nyág.

Stick Dance

Sash Dance

In one Spot

Horn Dance

Romanian Polka

Fast Dance -

Fast Dance

To say that Bartók was interested in folk music is like saying Rick Stein is interested in fish. Bartók was obsessed by folk music, consumed by it. He spent much of his life collecting peasant songs and dances in the villages not only of his native Hungary but also of surrounding countries, transcribing it, classifying it, writing about it, and absorbing so much of it that his own style of composition was transformed by it. His greatest works like, say, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin are written in a new and entirely individual language profoundly influenced by the harmonic and rhythmic characteristics of East-European and even North-African folk song. At the same time there are several more modest works, like the Romanian Folk Dances, in which Bartók was content to serve up the folk tunes more or less as he found them, only lightly cooked and accompanied by an appropriately simple sauce.

Although the Romanian Folk Dances were originally intended as piano teaching pieces, thanks to the Bartók’s own version for small orchestra (and several other arrangements) they have become perhaps the most popular of all his works. Even so, as the composer pointed out, the seven movements are nothing more than mountings of what he described as folk-song “jewels.” They are based on the most attractive instrumental tunes he had collected in Romania before the First World War not only cut him off from one of his most fruitful sources of folk material but also destroyed several of his favourite Transylvanian villages.

The robustly tuneful Stick Dance, at the climax of which the dancer is required to kick the ceiling, was originally played for Bartók by two gypsy violinists in Mezöszbad. The graceful Sash Dance (or round dance) was introduced to him by a peasant flute player from Egres, which is also the source of the exotically languorous Dance in One Spot. The expressively melodious Horn Dance was collected from a gypsy violinist in Bisztra, while the lively Romanian Polka (including one duple-time bar for every two or three bars in triple time) and the two Fast Dances derive from boy violinists in the villages of Belényes and Nyágra.