The Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs for piano marked a significant moment in Bela Bartók's output, the point at which he began to treat folk tunes as flexible musical material. Instead of taking a simple folk tune and harmonizing it, Bartók was now manipulating the folk tunes, transforming and shaping them to fit his compositional needs while still retaining their original spirit. He spent several years collecting folk tunes from all over Eastern Europe, especially his native Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. The eight Improvisations offer a variety of compositional techniques, from simple settings of the original melody with variations in the first piece – to polytonality, canonic imitation, bitonality, syncopated rhythms, and sudden tempo changes in the later pieces. The seventh Improvisation was dedicated to the memory of Claude Debussy whose music had a powerful effect on the younger Bartók early in the century. It is curious to note that, despite its dedicatee, there are virtually no stylistic elements of Debussy's music found in Bartók's piece. Inesa Sinkevych
Classical Music | Piano Music
Béla Bartók
Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, Op. 20
PlayRecorded on 04/27/2011, uploaded on 11/04/2011
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
The Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs for piano marked a significant moment in Bela Bartók's output, the point at which he began to treat folk tunes as flexible musical material. Instead of taking a simple folk tune and harmonizing it, Bartók was now manipulating the folk tunes, transforming and shaping them to fit his compositional needs while still retaining their original spirit. He spent several years collecting folk tunes from all over Eastern Europe, especially his native Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. The eight Improvisations offer a variety of compositional techniques, from simple settings of the original melody with variations in the first piece – to polytonality, canonic imitation, bitonality, syncopated rhythms, and sudden tempo changes in the later pieces. The seventh Improvisation was dedicated to the memory of Claude Debussy whose music had a powerful effect on the younger Bartók early in the century. It is curious to note that, despite its dedicatee, there are virtually no stylistic elements of Debussy's music found in Bartók's piece. Inesa Sinkevych
More music by Béla Bartók
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Second Rhapsody for violin and piano
String Quartet No. 1, Sz. 40
First Rhapsody: Prima parte, “Lassu”
Six Romanian Popular Songs
Two Portraits, Op. 5, No. 1 "Idealistic" Andante sostenuto
Rhapsody No. 1
Romanian Folk Dances
Suite Paysanne Hongroise
Romanian Folk Dances
Performances by same musician(s)
Kinderszenen, Op. 15
Sonata in A Flat Major, Op. 110
Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959
Sonata in A-flat Major, Hob. XVI:46
Ondine, from Préludes Book II
Etude No. 7, Pour les degrés chromatiques
Twelve German Dances, Op. 171, D. 790
Piano Sonata No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 29
Classical Music for the Internet Era™