| Five Hungarian Folksongs | |
|---|---|
| byBéla Bartók | |
 Béla Bartók in 1927 | |
| Native name | Öt magyar népdal enekhangra zongorakísérettel |
| Catalogue |
|
| Composed | circa 1928 |
| Performed | 1928 |
| Published | 1970 (1970): Budapest |
| Scoring | Voice and piano |
Five Hungarian Folksongs, Sz. 33, BB 97 (Hungarian:Öt magyar népdal enekhangra zongorakísérettel), is an arrangement by Hungarian composerBéla Bartók completed around 1928 of selected songs from a previous set entitledTen Hungarian Folksongs, Sz. 33, BB 42.
Bartók spent many of his adult years traveling around modern-dayHungary andRomania collecting folk music. His educational vocation led him to write down many folk songs as he traveled, as these works would later be used for either educational purposes or concert performances and recitals. However, most of the early songs he collected called for a singer with piano accompaniment, but had the piano double the melody following the voice. That was the case inTen Hungarian Folksongs, composed in 1906 for voice and piano, in a collection of twenty songs that also included ten additional songs byZoltán Kodály.[1] One of the first few known examples of Bartók pursuing artistic ambitions and reharmonizing songs without doubling the main melody wasEight Hungarian Folksongs.[2]
Since Bartók started using in the 10s and 20s much of the folk material he collected in the early 20th century, he also recomposed some of the sets, with newer harmony and no voice doubling.Five Hungarian Folksongs was an example of that. It was presumably composed in 1928 with the intent of it being recorded forHis Master's Voice, which he did on December 5, 1928, with sopranoVilma Medgyaszay.[3] After it was recorded, it was forgotten about and lost until Béla Bartók's son, Béla Bartók III, sent the sketches used by Bartók for the recording in 1963, almost two decades after Bartók's death, toDenijs Dille.[4]
Kálmán Nádasdy, Medgyaszay's teacher, confirmed that Bartók used those sketches during rehearsals and even managed to make copies of songs 1, 2, 4, and 8 of the original set. Since the revised set was not intended to be published or performed again, the pieces had to be thoroughly reconstructed from the sketches, as only the piano part was available and song No. 9 was not clearly readable and followed Medgyaszay's veryrubato and casual recitation. The voice part was taken directly from the original set.[4]
Even though the set was presumably finished for recording in 1928, it was eventually published in 1970 byEditio Musica Budapest.[4][3]
The set consists of five short songs and has a total duration of five minutes. The song list is as follows:[4][3]
| Song No.[a] | Title | English title[b] | Bars | Tempo marking | Duration[c] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I (1) | Elindultam szép hazámbul | Far Behind I Left My Country | 14 |  = 48 | 66 s |
| II (2) | Által mennék én a Tiszán ladikon | Crossing the River | 24 |  = 104-108 | 50 s |
| III (4) | A gyulai kert alatt | In the Summer Fields | 24 | = 104 | 55 s |
| IV (9) | Nem messze van ide kis Margitta | The Horseman | 27 | = ca. 72 (Parlando, molto liberamente) | 114 s |
| V (8) | Végigmentem a tárkányi | Walking Through the Town | 18 | = 108 | 44 s |
