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Volume VI contains the "Six Dances In Bulgarian Rhythm", dedicated to the English pianist
each bar). Pianists who have recorded all six volumes include György Sándor
, Edith Farnadi">György Sándor">each bar). Pianists who have recorded all six volumes include György Sándor
, Edith Farnadi, Homero Francesch, Zoltán Kocsis, Dezső Ránki, Jenő Jandó, Claude Helffer, and . Bartók himself was the first to publicly perform pieces from ''Mikrokosmos'', on February 9, 1937 in London.Suchoff, Benjamin
Béla Bartók: A Celebration
p. 83 (Scarecrow Press, 2004).
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as H ...
's ''Mikrokosmos'' () Sz. 107, BB 105 consists of 153 progressive piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
pieces in six volumes written between 1926 and 1939. The individual pieces progress from very easy and simple beginner étude
An étude (; ) or study is an instrumental musical composition, usually short, designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidl ...
s to very difficult advanced technical displays, and are used in modern piano lessons and education. In total, according to Bartók, the piece "appears as a synthesis of all the musical and technical problems which were treated and in some cases only partially solved in the previous piano works." Volumes one and two are dedicated to his son Péter, while volumes five and six are intended as professionally performable concert pieces. Bartók also indicated that these pieces could also be played on other instruments; Huguette Dreyfus
Pauline Huguette Dreyfus (30 November 1928 – 16 May 2016) was a French harpsichordist.
Biography
Dreyfus was born in Mulhouse, Alsace, France, on 30 November 1928 to Fernand and Marguerite Dreyfus. The doctor incorrectly wrote Pauline Hugu ...
, for example, has recorded pieces from Books 3 through 6 on the harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecÃn; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
.
In 1940, shortly before they emigrated to the United States, he arranged seven of the pieces for two pianos, to provide additional repertoire for himself and his wife Ditta Pásztory-Bartók Ditta Pásztory-Bartók (31 October 190321 November 1982) was a Hungarian pianist and the second wife of the composer Béla Bartók. She was the dedicatee of a number of his works, including '' Out of Doors'' and the Third Piano Concerto.
Biograp ...
to play.
Volumes
The pieces progress gradually in difficulty through the entire collection, from number 1 at the beginning of volume I to number 153 at the end of volume VI. * Volumes I and II: Pieces 1–36 and 37–66, beginner level * Volumes III and IV: Pieces 67–96 and 97–121, moderate to advanced level * Volumes V and VI: Pieces 122–139 and 140–153, professional level The list of pieces is as follows:Music
The opening (mm. 1–76) of "Boating" (V, 125) is typical of the modernist compositional techniques used in the later volumes, featuring thebimodal
In statistics, a multimodal distribution is a probability distribution with more than one mode (statistics), mode. These appear as distinct peaks (local maxima) in the probability density function, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Categorical, ...
use of the pentatonic collection
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale).
Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancien ...
on E in the right hand and either G mixolydian
Mixolydian mode may refer to one of three things: the name applied to one of the ancient Greek ''harmoniai'' or ''tonoi'', based on a particular octave species or scale; one of the medieval church modes; or a modern musical mode or diatonic scal ...
or dorian collections in the left:
:Harriet Cohen
Harriet(t) may refer to:
* Harriet (name), a female name ''(includes list of people with the name)''
Places
*Harriet, Queensland, rural locality in Australia
* Harriet, Arkansas, unincorporated community in the United States
* Harriett, Texas, ...
. Bulgarian folk music is characterized by additive rhythm
In music, the terms ''additive'' and ''divisive'' are used to distinguish two types of both rhythm and meter (music), meter:
* A divisive (or, alternately, multiplicative) rhythm is a rhythm in which a larger period of time is divided into smalle ...
, that is, rhythm where the beats in each bar are of unequal length. For example, the first dance (148) is grouped into (nine quavers
Quavers are a deep-fried potato-based British snack food. Launched in the UK in 1968, they were originally made by Smith's. Since 1997 they have been produced by Walkers. The name comes from the musical note, quaver.
History
Quavers were lau ...
in each bar), and the final dance (153) is grouped into (eight ieach bar). Pianists who have recorded all six volumes include György Sándor
, Edith Farnadi">György Sándor">each bar). Pianists who have recorded all six volumes include György Sándor
, Edith Farnadi, Homero Francesch, Zoltán Kocsis, Dezső Ránki, Jenő Jandó, Claude Helffer, and . Bartók himself was the first to publicly perform pieces from ''Mikrokosmos'', on February 9, 1937 in London.Suchoff, Benjamin
Béla Bartók: A Celebration
p. 83 (Scarecrow Press, 2004).
References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mikrokosmos (Bartok) Compositions by Béla Bartók Compositions for solo piano