Bartók, Béla – Mikrokosmos Volumes 3-4 (piano)

Description

Bartók’s Mikrokosmos has been one of the milestones in pedagogical piano repertoire for 80 years – and yet it is also far more than a “classical” piano primer. These 153 piano pieces, organized in ascending order of difficulty, engage not only with technical aspects of piano playing but also with the fundamentals of composition – from “Imitation and Inversion,” “Ostinato,” and “Free Variations,” concerning compositional technique, to mood pieces and pieces with programmatic ideas such as “Notturno,” “Boating,” “From the Diary of a Fly,” or the famous “Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm.” Mikrokosmos first appeared in 1940 in six volumes. Based on volume 40 of the Bartók CompleteEdition published in 2020(Z. 15040), the present Urtext edition offers the series gathered in three volumes. This edition includes Bartók’s preface, exercises, and notes written for the first edition. Furthermore, it also features a preface and comments by the editor, which not only discuss the genesis and the compositional sources but also provide performers, teachers and pupils alike, with authentic and detailed information about Bartók’s notation and the specific performing problems of Mikrokosmos.

Contents

1. Thirds against a Single Voice
2. Hungarian Dance
3. Chord Study
4. Melody against Double Notes
5. Thirds
6. Dragons’ Dance
7. Sixths and Triads
8. Hungarian Song
9. Triplets
10. In Three Parts
11. Little Study
12. Five-tone Scale
13. Hommage a J. S. B.
14. Hommage a R. Sch.
15. Wandering
16. Scherzo
17. Melody with Interruptions
18. Merriment
19. Broken Chords
20. Two Major Pentachords
21. Variations
22. Duet for Pipes
23. In Four Parts (1)
24. In Russian Style
25. Chromatic Invention (1)
26. Chromatic Invention (2)
27. In Four Parts (2)
28. Tale
29. Song of the Fox
30. Stumblings
31. Notturno
32. Thumb Under
33. Crossed Hands
34. In the Style of a Folk Song
35. Diminished Fifths
36. Harmonics
37. Minor and Major
38. Wandering through the Keys
39. Playsong (with two pentatonic scales)
40. Children’s Song
41. Melody in the Mist
42. Wrest