Ten Slovakian Folk Tunes from For Children (1908-9)

Bartók once divided the works of his maturity into two categories - “those in which folk tunes are used altogether or predominantly as thematic material” and “those with original themes.” The Allegro barbaro and the Piano Sonata belong - like his chamber music, stage music, and most of his orchestral music - to the second category, even though, as he said, “they mirror in their minutest details the spirit of rural music.” For Children, the Romanian Folk Dances, the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs belong - like the 44 Violin Duos and the 27 Choruses - to the first category; they are also part of that important area of the Bartók repertoire, culminating in the six volumes of Mikrokosmos, devoted to educational purposes.

For Children, one of the earliest teaching collections - comprising 85 pieces in the four-volume edition compiled in 1908-9 and 79 pieces in the revised two-volume version of 1943 - was written, according to the composer, “to acquaint piano-studying children with the simple and non-Romantic beauties of folk music.” Divided into two main sections, Hungarian and Slovakian, For Children presents the tunes in modest harmonies appropriate to their modalities and, in most cases, with minimal structural and keyboard elaboration. In the Slovakian pieces in today’s selection - none of the more than about a minute in length - one of the most entertaining is the witty Teasing Song, one of the most expressive is the soulful Peasant’s Flute and one of the most colourful is the second of the two bagpipe tunes included in the collection.