''Romanian Folk Dances'' ( ro, Dansuri populare românești, ), ( hu, Román népi táncok, ), Sz. 56, BB 68 is a suite of six short piano pieces composed by

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 ...

in 1915. He later orchestrated it for small ensemble in 1917 as Sz. 68, BB 76. It is based on seven Romanian tunes from

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

, originally played on fiddle or shepherd's flute. Its title was originally Romanian Folk Dances from Hungary (, ) but was later changed by Bartók when Transylvania became part of Romania in 1920. It is nowadays available in the 1971 edition which is written with

key signature In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef at ...

s although Bartók rarely used key signatures.

Structure

This set of dances consists of six movements and, according to the composer, it should take four minutes and three seconds to perform, but most professional pianists take up to five minutes. The list of the movements is as follows (with the original Hungarian title listed first, the most commonly known Romanian title second, and the English translation in parentheses):

Analysis

Arrangements

Aside from the version Bartók wrote for a small orchestral ensemble, some of Bartók's friends wrote adaptations or transcriptions of this piece for several different ensembles. The following are the best-known: *

Arthur Willner Arthur Willner (5 March 18816 April 1959) was a Czech composer and teacher. Willner was born in Turn ( cs, Trnovany) in Teplitz-Schönau, Bohemia, Austrian Empire. Having trained in Leipzig with Karl Piutti and Carl Reinecke and Munich wit ...

's version for

string orchestra A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first ...

. It is a mere transcription with no modification of the original music. *

Zoltán Székely Zoltán Székely ( Hungarian: Székely Zoltán; 8 December 1903 in Kocs, Hungary – 5 October 2001 in Banff, Canada) was a violinist and composer. Biography Székely studied violin with Jenő Hubay and composition with Zoltán Kodály at the ...

's version for violin and piano. This is not just a transcription, but also an arrangement and adaptation of the piece for these two instruments. Some of the modifications Székely made included transposing some of the movements (the second movement was transposed from D minor to F minor, the third from B minor to D minor and the fourth from A major to C major), repeating some sections, adding bars, and using several techniques for the violin such as

artificial harmonic Playing a string harmonic (a flageolet) is a string instrument technique that uses the nodes of natural harmonics of a musical string to isolate overtones. Playing string harmonics produces high pitched tones, often compared in timbre to a whis ...

double stop In music, a double stop is the technique of playing two notes simultaneously on a stringed instrument such as a violin, a viola, a cello, or a double bass. On instruments such as the Hardanger fiddle it is common and often employed. In performin ...

s, and

Sautillé Playing the violin entails holding the instrument between the jaw and the collar bone (see below for variations of this posture). The strings are sounded either by drawing the bow across them (''arco''), or by plucking them (''pizzicato''). The ...

Notable recordings

Notable recordings of this composition include the following: Notable recordings of the arrangement by Zoltán Székely include the following:

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Compositions by Béla Bartók Compositions for solo piano 1915 compositions 1917 compositions