Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances for trombone quartet

Bartók ‘s: Romanian Folk Dances – the Trombone Version

Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances for trombone quartet was first recorded and premiered by the Szeged Trombone Ensemble. Aron Simon made the arrangement while keeping in mind the extreme possibilities that a trombone quartet could reach. Aron Simon’s arrangement is probably stretching many player’s skills and limits of playing the trombone. However, pieces like this will push the sweet point of trombone playing further and further. In other words this will open a whole new world of possibilities on the instrument.

Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances – the original piece and its adaptations

The ‘Romanian Folk Dances’ is probably one of Bartók’s most popular compositions. The earliest version was scored for piano in 1915 and published in 1918. Bartók himself orchestrated this version in 1917. Several other chamber music arrangements were published since the first version not by Bartók, but he authorized most of them.

The musical material derives from Bartók’s collections of folk music. This dates right back to 1904, when he wrote down a melody sung by a Hungarian peasant girl during his folk-music-research trip in the Hungarian country side. In the course of extensive travels throughout Eastern Europe, Bartók compiled an enormous collection of folk tunes. By 1918 his collection comprised no fewer than 2700 Hungarian, 3500 Romanian and 3000 Slovakian dances and songs. These songs would in all probability have been lost and unknown had Bartók not written them down. From this huge collection, some of the folk tunes found their way into Bartók’s compositions. In 1908 Bartók wrote down several dance tunes in Transylvania. As a result these folk tunes are the source and base of the ‘Romanian Folk Dances’.