Béla Bartók – Romanian Folk Dances

Introduction

The Romanian Folk Dances is a set of 6 dances originally written for piano in 1915. Bartók himself made a version for small orchestra a couple of years later while some of his friends wrote adaptations or transcriptions for different ensembles: for example, Arthur Willner for string orchestra only and Zoltán Székely for violin and piano.

The music comes from original melodies and tunes from Transylvania which Bartók heard (and recorded) himself played on fiddle or shepherd’s flute.

Bartók had an interest in folk music for most of his life, and a lot of his works turn around it. He made extensive studies, recordings, analytical researches on the subject and was one of the founders of comparative musicology, which later became ethnomusicology.

Bartók emphasized the multi-ethnic origin of his own works in many of his lectures and letters but avoided explicit references to any nationalism. The original title of the Romanian Folk Dances included “from Hungary“: this part was eliminated by Bartók himself when Transylvania became part of Romania in 1920.

A few years later, seeing the original title on the Universal publication of Székely’s transcription, Bartók warned the editor that while such a title would please Hungarians at home, Romanians would probably take offense in the “from Hungary” reference.

The will to maintain and, actually, underline certain key aspects of folk music and their ties to different countries/people comes through in many of Bartók’s papers on the subject. And, naturally, in his compositions.

He rarely used key signatures, though the 1971 edition of these dances does have them. All dances are based on modal scales: Aeolian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, even the Arabic scale is used.