Sonatina

In Bartók's career the period between 1910 and 1914, he was devoted to intensive folk song collecting work. In those years, his attention was focussed principally on Romanian folk music (in 1913 he published, for example, the Bihar collection and most of the Máramaros collection in March 1913 in just two weeks he recorded 209 songs). The inspiration gained from his collecting journeys in Romania first appeared in the vocal folk song arrangements he composed in 1915, and in the smaller-scale, moderately difficult piano series based on Romanian folk music material, the Romanian Folk Dances, Kolindák and the Sonatina. In the three movements of the Sonatina ('Pipers', 'Bears'Dance' and 'Finale') Bartók used altogether five original Romanian melodies. In 1931 he made an orchestral arrangement of this exceptionally popular work and entitled it Transylvanian Dances.(Hungaroton HCD 31604)