For Children (Bartók)

For Children (Hungarian Gyermekeknek, Czech Pro děti; Slovak pre deti; Sz 42, BB 53) is a cycle of piano pieces by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók.

Formation

The collection of piano pieces was built between 1908 and 1909, at the beginning of Bartók's teaching as professor of piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. The relatively short pieces based on melodies of the Hungarian and Slovak folk music and have an educational character. There are a total of 85 arrangements for beginners of piano playing, which were published in four issues from Budapest's music publishing Károly Rozsnyai. The first two issues are based on Hungarian, the other two on Slovakian children's and folk songs. Two pieces of the fourth issue were compositions by Emma Kodály. The difficulty level increases from the well-known children's songs in Hungary Süssünk, süssünk valamit and sweet fel nap in the first issue continuously until Kanásztánc in the second issue, which represents a difficult challenge for a beginner on the piano. The members of the Slovak music lyrics that are located in the appendix of the music books were transferred from Bartók Hungarian and Emma Kodály into German. The pieces represent the first compositional results of Bartók's folk music research represents the origins of the melodies were each named in the annex.

Revision

Half a year before his death in January 1945, before Bartók took a makeover of the collection. He removed the pieces Nos. 25 and 29 of the second issue as well as No. 25, 27, 33 and 34 of the fourth issue, since he had doubts as to the correct transcription of the melodies, so that a total of 79 pieces still remained. In addition, it undertook new harmonization of some pieces, adding precise metronome markings. The collection now also no longer appeared in four, but only in two books.

Reception

Pieces from the piano cycle were processed by different musicians for other instruments, such as. Ede Zathureczky for Violin and Piano, by Ferenc Brodszky for guitar or by Lajos Bárdos for choir Zoltán Kocsis pianist as took pieces from the collection on in her concert repertoire.

Disco printing specifications

  • Géza Anda: Béla Bartók: Gyermekeknek - Pro Deti, Issue 1, Columbia, 1954
  • Géza Anda: Béla Bartók: Gyermekeknek - Pro Deti, Issue 2, Columbia, 1955
  • Dezsö Ránki: Bela Bartok - For Children, Teldec, 1976
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