10 Easy Pieces, Sz.39 by Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók's 10 Easy Pieces, Sz.39, begins with a promise of small forms and ends with a bear's unmistakable step. Written in 1908 for solo piano, the set contains an unnumbered Dedication followed by ten numbered pieces, each with its own compact character. The titles move between folk memory and everyday motion: Peasant Song, Slovakian Boys' Dance, Evening in Transylvania, Hungarian Folksong, and Bear Dance. They give the collection a vivid surface without turning it into a single narrative; each miniature holds its own change of pace and focus. The set belongs to the period when Bartók and Kodály were intensively collecting and studying Hungarian peasant folk music; Bartók had carried out major fieldwork in Transylvania (Csík and Gyergyó) in the summer of 1907, while Kodály's first collecting trip to Székelyföld followed in March 1910. Later, Bartók reworked No. 5 and No. 10 for orchestra, but the work on this page is the original piano set—a useful distinction when a familiar title appears in a larger orchestral context.
About 10 Easy Pieces, Sz.39
Béla Bartók's 10 Easy Pieces, Sz.39, begins with a promise of small forms and ends with a bear's unmistakable step. Written in 1908 for solo piano, the set contains an unnumbered Dedication followed by ten numbered pieces, each with its own compact character.
The titles move between folk memory and everyday motion: Peasant Song, Slovakian Boys' Dance, Evening in Transylvania, Hungarian Folksong, and Bear Dance. They give the collection a vivid surface without turning it into a single narrative; each miniature holds its own change of pace and focus.
The set belongs to the period when Bartók and Kodály were intensively collecting and studying Hungarian peasant folk music; Bartók had carried out major fieldwork in Transylvania (Csík and Gyergyó) in the summer of 1907, while Kodály's first collecting trip to Székelyföld followed in March 1910. Later, Bartók reworked No. 5 and No. 10 for orchestra, but the work on this page is the original piano set—a useful distinction when a familiar title appears in a larger orchestral context.
Sheet · ready
0 notes