Hungarian and Slovak Folk Songs and Dances

Digital Sheet Music

By Bella Bartok

Item Number: A0.899121

14 pieces arranged for solo classical guitar; 15 pages; published by Maggie Creek Music

BELABARTOK

Welcometo the enchanting world of Bartok’s folk music. These pieces havebeen transcribed from arrangements for flute and guitar.

BelaBartok, considered one of the 20thcentury’s most important composers, was born in Hungary in 1881. Aprodigy, he was a professor at the Budapest Music Academy by the ageof 26. His interest in traditional music led him to make manyjourneys (with his colleague Zolta Kodaly) through Hungary, Romaniaand Slovakia collecting songs and dances, the styles of which weresynthesised into compositions of his own. He emigrated to the USA in1940 where he died five years later of leukaemia.

Thepieces are deceptively simple, and it would be a mistake to taketheir natural forms, clear melodies, tonal harmonies and strongrhythms as an invitation to play inattentively. Quite the contrary.They stand any amount of playing, but only when the composing isheeded, the dynamics observed, and modulations anticipated.

Someare harder to play than others, but you can always slow a piece downfor learning purposes, choose other fingering, or try later.Hopefully you will be fascinated and moved to explore, if you haven’talready done so, other areas of Bartok’s remarkable musical legacy.

Aboutthe arrangements:

Aswith much guitar music, the copying is not always strict. Forinstance, at times notes are written for a longer duration than theycan be played, which improves readability while staying faithful tothe original composition. On occasion rests are omitted to preventcluttering. Alternative fingering may be preferred.

This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard’s global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.

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