Romanian Folk Dances

Romanian Folk Dances,, Sz. 56, BB 68 is a suite of six short piano pieces composed by Béla Bartók in 1915. He later orchestrated it for small ensemble in 1917 as Sz. 68, BB 76.
It is based on seven Romanian tunes from Transylvania, originally played on fiddle or shepherd's flute. Its title was originally Romanian Folk Dances from Hungary but was later changed by Bartók when Transylvania became part of Romania in 1920. It is nowadays available in the 1971 edition which is written with key signatures although Bartók rarely used key signatures.

Structure

This set of dances consists of six movements and, according to the composer, it should take four minutes and three seconds to perform, but most professional pianists take up to five minutes. The list of the movements is as follows :

Arrangements

Aside from the version Bartók wrote for a small orchestral ensemble, some of Bartók's friends wrote adaptations or transcriptions of this piece for several different ensembles. The following are the best-known:

Arthur Willner's version for string orchestra. It is a mere transcription with no modification of the original music.
Zoltán Székely's version for violin and piano. This is not just a transcription, but also an arrangement and adaptation of the piece for these two instruments. Some of the modifications Székely made included transposing some of the movements, repeating some sections, adding bars, and using several techniques for the violin such as artificial harmonics, double stops, and Sautillé.

Notable recordings

Notable recordings of this composition include the following:

Piano Solo	Record Company	Year of Recording	Format
András Schiff	Denon Records / Brilliant Classics	1980	CD
Jenő Jandó	Naxos Records	2005	CD

Notable recordings of the arrangement by Zoltán Székely include the following:

Violin	Piano	Record Company	Year of Recording	Format
Joseph Szigeti	Béla Bartók	EMI Classics	1930	CD