Bla Bartk

The Folk Music Tradition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0duFx_YYAU

A lecture presentation by
Julie Tunstall, Flute and Laura Peterson, Piano
2012 National Flute Convention
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, NV

On the nature of folk music

A folk melody is like a living
creature: it changes minute by
minute, moment by moment.
One should never state,
therefore, that a melody is as
notated on the spot, but rather
that it was such at the time it
was notated
~Bla Bartk, Why and How do We Collect Folk Music?
(1936)

Bartk as International
Figure

Interest in Folk Music

1904 Slovakian
countryside
Overheard Lidi Dsa
Szekely Hungarian woman
from Transylvania
Piros alma Red Apple

Picked her brain for more

songs

Realized that Hungarian folk

songs traditionally employed
by classical composers
were not autochthonous
(biography, 1918)
Began search for true
indigenous Hungarian folk
melodies and rhythms

Work with Zoltn Kodly

Kodly had already
published a study of folk
music
Began lifelong
collaboration
1906 Magyar npdalok
(Hungarian folk songs)
20 settings of Hungarian folk
melodies harmonized for
voice and piano
10 by Bartk
10 by Kodly

Intent: to popularize
Hungarian folk music

Finding the music

Traveled to remote villages
Sought out those who could replicate
true or original folk songs

Recorded
Transcribed
Analyzed
Classified

Further Documentation Bartks

photographs
Romania: Alpenhorn, fiddle
Slovakian peasant girls

Split with Kodly

Bartks interest expanded to include
indigenous musics of

Hungary
Romania
Slovakia
Serbia
Croatia
Bulgaria
Turkey
Transylvania
North Africa

before World War I went to North Africa as well to collect and study
the Arabic music of the Sahara. I was not averse to the influence of
Arabic folk music either: the third movement of Suite for Piano was
influenced, for example, by Arabic folk music.
http://www.bartoknewseries.com/en/bartok-new-series-27

Research and writing

Books, Essays, Articles and Monographs

1929: Hungarian Folk Music

1931: What is Folk Music?
1936: Why and how do We Collect Folk Music?
1937: Folk Song Research and Nationalism
1943: Folk Song Research in Eastern Europe
1951: Serbo-Croatian Folk Songs
1954: Serbo-Croatian Heroic Songs
And many more

Collected and edited by Benjamin Suchof

Bla Bartk Essays
Bla Bartk Studies in Ethnomusicology

A sample of folk music in his

compositions
Orchestral
1931: Erdlyi tncok (Transylvanian dances)
1931 Magyar kepk (Hungarian sketches)

Piano:
c. 1914-18: Three Hungarian Folk Tunes
*1914-18: Tizent magyar paraszdtal (15
Hungarian peasant songs)

Vocal:
1906: Magyar npdalok (Hungarian folksongs)
c. 1907 Four Slovakian Folksongs
1915: Nine Romanian Folksongs

Fifteen Hungarian Peasant

Songs
1914-17: Fifteen
Hungarian Peasant Songs
SZ 71, BB 79

Miniatures for piano

Created as brief set of
concert works for piano
Transcribed melodies to fit
a modern western
instrument, added harmony
Peasant music, but
suitable for concert stage

Bartoks transcription of Peasant

Song #7, becomes 1st piece in
dance set

Final Version for piano

Four Old Sorrowful Songs
Ballade (Theme and Variations)
Longest of the set

Scherzo
Four Verses of a Humorous Song

Nine Old Dances

All movements played attacca

Evolution
1939: transcribed for
orchestra
By composer

1956: transcribed for

flute and piano by Paul
Arma
Suite Paysanne Hongroise
Ballade not included in set

What is Folk Music? 1931

Use of terms peasant music and
primitive melody intended not a
pejorative sense, ratherto point to
the concept of ideal simplicity devoid
of trashiness.
What is Folk Music? Bla Bartk Essays, ed. Benjamin
Suchof, pg 8

Folk Songs Used in Suite Paysanne

Hongroise
Of the 6000 songs Bartok catalogued, he
used 600 in his compositions
300 of these were Hungarian in origin
The others were Romanian, Slovakian,
Romanian, Bulgarian and more
Vera Lampert catalogued the songs used
in these compositions in her book Folk
Music in Bartoks Compositions, 2008

Hungary before the Treaty of

Trianon (1920) New borders after
World War I

Map source @ 1955 by Francis Laping, from the book Remember Hungary

Suite Paysanne Hongroise

I. Chants populaires tristes
1.

182 I tie my horse to the weeping willow,

I bow my head On his forelegs.
Mrs. Berndt Doboczi (26), Tjszasz (Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun), August 1918

2. Andante

183 The flower my beloved gave me

Withered before he left me, ay-ay-ay. He
left me because of a woman, She should
be punished by the Lord of the heavens,
ay-ay.
Mrs. Gyorgy Balog (50, illiterate), Jobbagytelke (Maros-Torda),
April 1914

4. Andante

185 Blue forget-me-not bent over my shoulder,

My mother sent me away to wander about.
Why did she leave me to become an orphan
Who wanders about in the world at large?
Kata Palinkas Kulcsar, Zentelke (Kolozs); year not listed

Scherzo - allegro

186 My wife is so clean that only

once a month she washes herself.
Hey, lets be merry, All my life Ill
worry because I got married!
Panna Pe-to (19), Mrs. Berndt Doboczi (26), Ujszasz (PestPilis-Solt-Kiskun), August 1918

Vieilles danses
1. Allegro

188 Come, follow where I go, You will

soon know where I live: By the hedge
of hawthorne, Come, my love, into
my arms.
Man, Ipolysag, Hont Nov
1910

2. Allegretto

189 Climbing the plum tree, I tore my

breeches. Darn!
Huszul, My beloved will mend them.
Elderly man, Ipolysag, Hont, November 1910

3. Allegretto

190 The girls are spinning flax,

And keep saying to each other:
Ay, mother, the spinning...
The waiting is so hard.
Ferenc Orosz (62) and others, Dercen, Bereg, April 1912

4. Listesso tempo

191 The cricket in the green woods

prepares to marry,
He hugs the fly and would like to wed
her.
Ileanna Kovacs (20) Korostarkany, Bihar, January 1912

5. Assai moderato

192 You are not a maiden, no, you're not.

You don't dare to kiss me, Maybe you are
afraid I cannot return it.
Istvan balog (elderly man), Nagymegyer, Komarom, 1910

6. Allegretto

193 Ailing woman, tired lad, Play for

me, Gypsy lad, hey-ya, hey!
Wait a little while I eat my fill, I'll play
for you later, hey-ya, hey!
Mihaly Szabo (70) Felsoiregh, Tolna, April 1907

7. Poco piu vivo

194 My rusty horse, Sari, I brought him from

Szolnok yesterday. But I ride him to buy
some wine, because of a pretty woman's
fancy.
Man, Nagymegyer, Komaro, March 1910

8. Allegro

195 They gathered, they

gathered, The girls of Izsap,
Em, ey-ya, The girls of Izsap.
Woman (70) Nagymegyer Komarom March 1910

9. Allegro

196 Bagpipe solo

Ipolysag, Hont, 1910

Bibliography

Bartok, Bela. Hungarian Folk Music, (1929), Bela Bartok Essays, ed. Benjamin Suchof, the
Estate of Bela Bartok, 1976.
Bartok, Bela. What is Folk Music? (1931), Bela Bartok Essays, ed. Benjamin Suchof, the
Estate of Bela Bartok, 1976.
Bartok, Bela. Why and How do We Collect Folk Music (1936), Bela Bartok Essays, ed.
Benjamin Suchof, the Estate of Bela Bartok, 1976.
Bartok, Bela. Hungarian Peasant Music, (1933), Bela Bartok Essays, ed. Benjamin Suchof,
the Estate of Bela Bartok, 1976.
Bartok, Peter My Father, Rinaldi Printing Company, Tampa FL, 2002.
Bonis. Ferenc, Bela Bartok His Life in Pictures Boosey & Hawkes, Budapest Hungary 1964.
Hinson, Maurice; Guide to the Pianists Repertoire, Second, Revised and Enlarged Edition.
Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis. 1987.
Knapp, Calvin Horace. A Study, Analysis and performance of Representative Piano Works of
Various periods of Bela Bartok. Ph.D. thesis Columbia University, 1973.
Lampert, Vera, and Laszlo Vikarius, ed.; Folk Music in Bartoks compositions A Source
Catalog Arab, Hungarian, Romanian, Ruthenian, Servian, and Slovak melodies; Hungarian
Heritage House, Helicon Kiad/o, Museum of Ethnography, Institute for Musicology of the
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2008; G. Henle Verlag, Germany 2008.
Lesznai, Ljos, Bartok JM Dent & Sons Ltd Aldine Press London 1961.
Sadie, Stanley et al. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol 2. MacMillan
Publishers LTD, London, 1980.
Yeomans, David; Bartok for Piano; Indiana University press, Bloomington and Indianapolis,
1988.
Images courtesy of Google Images, http://www.bartoknewseries.com/en/bartok-new-series27 , http://www.zti.hu/bartok/exhibition/de_P9.htm
Piano score for use in scan: http://imslp.org/wiki/15_Hungarian_Peasant_Songs,_Sz.71_(Bart
%C3%B3k,_B%C3%A9la)

Bartk on composition
"Many people think it is a comparatively easy task to write a
composition on found folk tunes...
This way of thinking is completely erroneous. To handle folk
tunes is one of the most difficult tasks; equally difficult, if not
more so, than to write a major
original composition.
If we keep in mind that borrowing a tune means being bound
by its individual peculiarity, we shall understand one part of
the difficulty. Another is created by the special character of
folk tune. We must penetrate it, feel it, and bring out its sharp
contours by the appropriate setting...It must be a work of
inspiration just as much as any other composition.
~Bla Bartk 1881-1945