SKU: BT.EMBZ1764

English-German-Hungarian.

'In August [Bartók] heard the fifty-year-old Áron Balogh playing the peasant flute in Gyergyóteker patak in Cs k district. He arranged three songs under the title From Gyergyó, for tilinkó [peasant flute] and piano, and the piano transcription of this occasional composition presented to Stefi Geyer as 'Three Hungarian Folksongs from the Cs k District'. In all three versions Bartók retained the rich ornamentation of the flute version, and added a modal accompaniment to the melodies in a church mode. After the first two rubato melodies, notated in alternating time signatures, he concluded with a melody in strict 'giusto' rhythm. It is in this latter that the pentatonic skeletonbeneath the diatonic surface can best be felt. Bartók notated the pentatonic vocal version of this melody on this same field trip, and arranged it in the series 'Eight Hungarian Folksongs'.' (HCD 32524 Bartók New Series Vol. 24, István G. Németh).

SKU: BT.MUSTH978431

English.

The Banks of Green Willow begins in pastorale mode with the title tune established in the Strings with solo clarinet. The work builds to quite a passionate climax before re-establishing the pastorale mood of the opening. Thesong on which the story is based has a tragic death at its centre, which is reflected in the score.English composer and folksong collector George Butterworth, who lived at the turn of the last century and lost his life in theFirst World War, is known for his settings of selections of A E Housman’s A Shropshire Lad and for an Orchestral rhapsody he composed on the same theme. As a Recorder of folksongs, he was successful in noting more thanthreehundred, mainly from Sussex. One of them, The Banks of Green Willow, is the basis for the idyll for Orchestra that has been adapted here for Piano.