Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 09/24/2014, uploaded on 09/24/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 56   BBéla Bartók, arranged for violin by Székely

Bela Bartok is a celebrated Hungarian composer who often drew inspiration for his work from folk music. He made trips into rural Slovakia to find local musicians playing their traditional music and made wax cylinder recordings of them. The Romanian Dances were first written for solo piano in 1915 and then arranged for violin and piano by Zoltan Szekely, a violinist friend of Bartok. The six movements draw material from seven traditional dances (the final movement includes material from two). The violin and piano are sometimes called on to imitate traditional instruments, as in the third movement, when the violin uses false harmonics to mimic the sound of a shepherd's flute while the piano sounds a drone that might be played on a bagpipe. Bartok wrote that he had heard Gypsy fiddlers playing the stick dance that makes up the first movement, but he doesn't describe the dance. The second is a sash dance. The third is sometimes described as a "stamping dance" though it is fairly slow. The fourth is usually listed as a horn dance or hornpipe, but it is of a soulful, lyrical nature. The fifth movement is a type of polka. The final movement is made up of two fast dances.     Heather Wittels

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.