Three Hungarian Folktunes Explained

Three Hungarian Folktunes
Composer:Béla Bartók
Native Name:Három magyar népdal
Native Name Lang:hu
Catalogue:Sz. 66
BB 80b
Composed:1914–1918
Published:1942
Movements:3
Scoring:Piano

Three Hungarian Folksongs, Sz. 66, BB 80b (Hungarian: Három magyar népdal) is a collection of folksongs for piano by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. It was composed between 1914 and 1918.

Composition

There is much speculation about when the set was composed, but some of the most reliable sources point to it being composed somewhere between 1914 and 1918, in a period where Bartók felt very fascinated with folk music from Romania and his native Hungary. Many of the small compositions he wrote when collecting folk music all around these countries was either lost or revamped into later works, and some would never see the light of publication.

This set was presumably revised three decades later, between 1941 and 1942. After moving to the United States, Bartók lived in near-poverty, due to the lack of money his music could make him. However, one of his main sources of income was to publish old manuscripts. The set was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 1942.[1]

Structure

The set consists of three short folk tunes. It has a duration of 4 minutes, each movement lasting for about 1 minute. The movement list is as follows:

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hungarian Folk Tunes (3), for… Details AllMusic. AllMusic. 3 February 2018.