For children

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For children (Hungarian Gyermekeknek , Czech Pro děti ; Slovak Pre deti ) is a cycle of piano pieces by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók . In the Szőllősy directory it is numbered Sz. 42 , in the directory of László Somfai BB 53 .

Emergence

The collection of piano pieces was created in 1908 and 1909, at the beginning of Bartók's teaching activities as a professor of piano at the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest . The relatively short pieces are based on melodies from Hungarian and Slovak folk music and have an educational character. There are a total of 85 arrangements for beginners to play the piano, which were published in four volumes by the Budapest music publisher Károly Rozsnyai . The first two volumes are based on Hungarian, the other two on Slovak children's and folk songs. Two pieces in the fourth volume were compositions by Emma Kodály . The level of difficulty increases continuously from the children's songs Süssünk, süssünk valamit and Süss fel nap in the first volume, which are very well-known in Hungary , to the Kanásztánc in the second volume, which is a difficult challenge for a beginner at the piano. The Slovak song texts belonging to the music, which can be found in the appendix to the music books, were translated into Hungarian by Bartók and into German by Emma Kodály. The pieces represent the first compositional results of Bartók's folk music research. The places of origin of the melodies are also given in the appendix.

revision

Half a year before his death, Bartók revised the collection in January 1945. He removed pieces 25 and 29 from the second booklet as well as No. 25, 27, 33 and 34 from the fourth booklet because he had doubts about the correct transcription of the melodies, so that a total of 79 pieces remained. In addition, he made new harmonizations of some pieces and added precise metronome markings. The collection no longer appeared in four, but only in two issues.

reception

Pieces from the piano cycle have been arranged for other instruments by various musicians, such as Ede Zathureczky for violin and piano, Ferenc Brodszky for guitar or Lajos Bárdos for choir . Pianists like Zoltán Kocsis added pieces from the collection to their concert repertoire.

Discographic notes

  • Géza Anda : Béla Bartók: Gyermekeknek - Pro dêti, Heft 1 , Columbia, 1954
  • Géza Anda: Béla Bartók: Gyermekeknek - Pro dêti, Heft 2 , Columbia, 1955
  • Dezső Ránki : Béla Bartók - For Children , Teldec, 1976

See also

literature

  • Bence Szabolcsi (Ed.): Béla Bartók. Way and work . Writings and letters. Bärenreiter and dtv, Kassel / Munich 1972, ISBN 3-423-04085-8 .
  • Lajos Lesznai : Béla Bartók . His life - his works. German publishing house for music, Leipzig 1961.

Web links