16 GYPSY MELODIES Like Janáček, Béla Bartók (1881-1945) is one of those composers for whom folk music is an important source of inspiration. On his return from a tour of England and Germany, he wanted to spend a holiday in total solitude in the Hungarian countryside. It was here that he became acquainted with authentic folk songs and realised that the existing collections of Hungarian folk songs were unscientific, regarding this music as artificial. He recognised a treasure that was in danger of being irretrievably lost. In 1905, together with Zoltán Kodály(1882-1967), he set off on his first collecting trip to the Hungarian countryside. They began by transcribing melodies and folk songs, and then recording them on a phonograph. In addition to Hungary, Bartók continued his research in the Balkans, Russia, the Ottoman Empire and North Africa. In the course of his many trips to Eastern Europe, he amassed a vast collection of folk melodies, some of which found their way into his compositions. The dance tunes he recorded in Transylvania gave rise, in 1915, to Dansuri populare românești (Romanian Folk Dances SZ56, BB 68). Bartók liked to play the original version for solo piano at his concerts, and stated in one of the programmes that ‘the melodies of the Romanian dances are used here in their original and unchanged form’. However, other arrangements contributed to the immense popularity of these dances: Bartók's version for small orchestra, then the versions for salon orchestra and string orchestra or Zoltán Székely's (19032001) arrangement for violin and piano.
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