Romanian Folk Dances

Bartók collected the melodies of these six short pieces in 1904 in villages of Transylvania, then part of Austria-Hungary; the piano suite of 1915 was originally called Romanian Folk Dances from Hungary, and the geographical qualifier fell away after 1920. He orchestrated the set in 1917. The tunes and their rhythmic frames are kept, coloured by his own harmony, while the tempi are pushed outwards — fast dances faster, slow melodies slower. The first, Jocul cu bâtă, came from two Roma violinists; Per loc carries the augmented second of music further east.