Béla Bartók

Bagpipers

Bagpipers is the first movement of the three-movement Sonatina composed in 1915 (1. Bagpipers, 2. Bear Dance and 3. Finale). The composer said of the piece, ''Originally I planned a group of Romanianfolk dances for piano. I selected three parts of this and called it Sonatina. The first movement, Bagpipers[...] consists of two dances played by two bagpipers. '' The piece is based on a couple dance fromTransylvania, the ardeleana (also known as the kanászos), while the middle section was inspired bythe bagpipe playing of a middle-aged man recorded by Bartók in Váncsfalva (now Oncesti) of Bihar County during February 1910. In 1931, Bartók arranged it for symphony orchestraunder the title Dances from Transylvania. This arrangement for oboe and piano was made by Liszt Prize-winningoboist Tibor Szeszler (1919 1992).