Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 07/08/2013, uploaded on 07/08/2013

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Based on a set of Romanian melodies from Transylvania, these Romanian Folk Dances typify Bartok’s efforts to preserve and collect authentic folk music. He started out researching and collecting folk music in Hungary, later expanding to Romania, Moldavia, and Africa, becoming one of the first ethnomusicologists and one of the most important 20^th-Century Hungarian composers. Folk influences abound in these dances: in the asymmetrical rhythms, irregular phrases, use of exotic scales and modes, and particular instrumental effects. Influences as far afield as Eurasia are also apparent in the use of exotic scales, augmented second intervals, and artificial harmonics in the violin.      Akiko Kobayashi

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.