Béla Bartók

Romanian Folk Dances

This is a new edition of Béla Bartók's popular Romanian Folk Dances in its original scoring for Solo Piano. With fascinating background notes and unique imagery, this publication is essential for pianists interested in the work of the Hungarian composer.

When Bartók was just 23 years old, he visited the Transylvanian town of Gerlicepuszta. Overhearing a lullaby sung by a teenage servant girl named Lidi Dósa, he quizzed her about it and noted it down. This was the beginning of a passion for folk music that would go on to change the course of the composer's life and work.

Romanian Folk Dances remains one of Bartók's most popular and enduring works, evoking the folk melodies combined with his own idiosyncratic harmonies and textures. Each of the six short pieces here is based on a traditional melody which Bartók penned during his travels.

Including newly engraved masterpieces Stick Dance, Waistband Dance, In One Spot, Dance From Butschum, Romanian Polka and Fast Dance, this sheet music collection features editorial revisions guided by recordings of Bartók's own performance. The notation also includes fingering guidance throughout.

Romanian Folk Dances also features a specially-written introduction as well as some fantastic photographs that both tell the story of the young composer and the intriguing backstory of this work.

One of the most important 20th century composers and, along with Liszt, one of Hungary's finest musical minds, Bartók held a strong fascination for folk music. Through his studies, recordings and arrangements, he composed some incredible music like these Romanian Folk Dances, while simultaneously initiating the field of ethnomusicology.