20th century
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Solo repertoire
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Bartók Béla Viktor János
Aitken, Robert
Amirov, Fikret
Amlin, Martin
Amram, David
Andriessen, Jurriaan
Arnold, Malcolm
Arrieu, Claude
Auric, Georges
Babbit, Milton
Bacchus, Peter
Bacri, Nicolas
Baker, Michael Conway
Baksa, Robert
Barber, Samuel
Barrere, Georges
Bartók, Béla Viktor János
Baton, René-Emmanuel
Beaser, Robert
Bennet, Richard Rodney
Berg, Gunnar
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Bernstein, Leonard
Bloch, Ernest
Bolling, Claude
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Suite "Three Folksongs From The County of Csik" for flute and piano
Suite "Three Folksongs From The County of Csik" for flute and piano
Béla Bartók: Suite "Three Folksongs From The County of Csik" for flute and piano was written in 1907, originally for solo piano. The original piano work was premiered by Bartók himself in 1907. The version for flute and piano was transcribed by Bartók’s close associate and fellow flutist/composer Zoltán Székely.
The three songs are based on melodies Bartók collected in the summer of 1907 in the County of Csík (Szeklerland), a mountainous region in Transylvania. He used a phonograph to record the villagers, specifically focusing on the soulful and rhythmic qualities of the shepherd’s flute (furulya).
The suite is brief, lasting approximately 4 minutes, and follows a "Slow-Slow-Fast" structure:
1. Rubato: A mournful, improvisational melody with typical Hungarian "short-long" rhythms.
2. L'istesso tempo: A lyrical, song-like movement that emphasizes the vocal quality of the flute.
3. Poco vivo: A spirited, rhythmic dance that mimics the percussive nature of folk instruments.
In 1907, Bartók travelled to Transylvania for the first time with the specific goal of finding "pure" Hungarian music, untainted by Gypsy or urban influences. He discovered the pentatonic scale, which changed his compositional language forever. He had recently fallen in love with the young violinist Stefi Geyer, to whom he would dedicate his first violin concerto, and it was from her house that he set off by train on 1 July for a two-month tour collecting folk music.
Among the enormous number of melodies he found in the area were three little tunes played to him in August 1907 by Áron Balog on a peasant flute (furulya).
Kata Szanyi (flute), Marianne Boer (piano), live performance at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, 18 June, 2013
Three Folksongs from the county of Csik
Lucie Horsch (recorder), Dani Luca (cimbalom), 2022, DECCA / Universal Music Group
Three Folksongs from the county of Csik
Zoltán Juhász (furulya), Zoltán Kocsis (piano), 2008, Hungaraton
Three Folksongs from the county of Csik
Bartók Béla Viktor János
Béla Bartók (1881-1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist who became one of the most influential figures of 20th-century music.
Born in the small Banat town of Nagyszentmiklós (then Hungary, now Sânnicolau Mare, Romania), he started to learn piano with his mother, Paula, who was a talented pianist. After his father died in 1888, his mother supported the family by traveling as a piano teacher, exposing young Béla to various regional cultures.
He gave his first public recital at age 11, which included a composition he wrote titled The Course of the Danube.
Then he went to study at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music in Budapest under Hans von Koessler, intentionally rejecting the prestigious Vienna Conservatory to assert his Hungarian national identity.
Starting in 1904, Bartók and his colleague Zoltán Kodály traveled through remote villages in Hungary, Romania, and North Africa, using early Edison phonographs to record thousands of authentic folk songs. This research fundamentally changed his style. He abandoned the "Gypsy" clichés popularized by Liszt and Brahms in favor of the raw irregular rhythms, pentatonic scales, and ancient modes of true peasant music.
By the 1920s, works like the String Quartets and the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin established him as a leader of the musical avant-garde. A staunch anti-fascist, Bartók fled Hungary in 1940 following the outbreak of WWII and the rise of Nazi influence. He settled in New York City, where he lived in relative poverty and declining health (struggling with leukemia).
Bartók's musical style reflects two trends that profoundly changed the approach to composition in the 20th century. The breakdown of the diatonic system of harmony and the revival of national folk music as a primary source of inspiration. In short, the folk music combined with modern techniques created a new stream of modernism.
The most popular works of Béla Bartók are Concerto for Orchestra, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Cantata Profana, six string quartets, and concertos for violin, viola, and piano.