''Dance Suite'' ( hu, Táncszvit; german: Tanz-Suite), Sz. 77, BB 86a, is a well-known 1923

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l work by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. The composer produced a reduction for piano (Sz. 77, BB 86b) in 1925, though this is less commonly performed.

Composition

Béla Bartók composed the ''Dance Suite'' in 1923 in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union of the cities Buda and Pest, to form the Hungarian capital

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. Then, after its great success, the director of

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, commissioned from him an arrangement for piano, which was published in 1925. However, he never publicly performed this arrangement, and it was premiered in March 1945, a few months before his death, by his friend

György Sándor György Sándor (; 21 September 1912 – 9 December 2005) was a Hungarian pianist and writer. Early years Sándor was born in Budapest. He studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest under Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, and debuted as ...

Structure

This suite has six movements, even though some recordings conceive it as one single full-length movement. A typical performance of the whole work would last approximately fifteen minutes. This work consists of five dances with

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, Wallachian and Hungarian melodies, and a finale that brings together all the previous thematic sketches. There was one more movement, omitted by the composer according to his

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, which would be placed between the second and the third movement. This movement is called '' Slovakian Dance'', and was finally dismissed and remained unorchestrated. However, the first, second and fourth movements contain thematic references to this piece towards the end of each one of them.

Recordings

Notable recordings of the orchestral version include: Notable recordings of the piano reduction include:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dance Suite (Bartok) Suites by Béla Bartók 1923 compositions 1925 compositions Compositions for symphony orchestra Compositions for solo piano Orchestral suites