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The definitive edition (1987) of the piano teaching classic. Includes an introduction by the composer's son Peter Bartok. (English/French/German/Hungarian text). In 1945 Bela Bartok described Mikrokosmos as a cycle of 153 pieces for piano written for "didactic" purposes, seeing them as a series of pieces in many different styles, representing a small world, or as the "world of the little ones, the children".Stylistically Mikrokosmos reflects the influence of folk music on Bartok's life and the rhythms and harmonies employed create music that is as modern today as when the cycle was written. The 153 pieces making up Mikrokosmos are divided into six volumes arranged according to technical and musical difficulty. Major teaching points highlighted in Mikrokosmos 5: Chords, together and opposed; studies in double notes; whole tone scale. ... Read more

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This is a very popular set of six pieces for piano. ... Read more

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Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra has proven to be one of the most popularly successful concert works of the twentieth century. It is seen by its champions as an example of Bartók's seamless blend of Eastern European folk music and Western art music, and by its detractors as indicative of the composer's artistic compromise. This book contains a discussion of the historical and musical contexts of the piece, its early performance history and critical reception. It also includes the first complete movement-by-movement synopsis of the Concerto, as well as detailed technical information about the work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great buy
The book is chalked full of examples and analyses; presented in a clear, concise manner. Easy reading, and the book is actually not too long.

This delightful little guide will help you get so much more from the Concerto for Orchestra
Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra is an immediately accessible work, and since its premiere in 1944 it has often been inserted into concert programme as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Nonetheless, coming from the genius composer that was Bartok, the Concerto for Orchestra contains a wealth of ideas more than you would imagine, the gradual discovery of which can only increase your enjoyment in listening to it. For that reason, I was happy to read this guide by David Cooper.

After the short introduction, Cooper's study consists of four major parts. The first, entitled Background, is a sketch of all the orchestral works Bartok wrote before that could be said to foreshadow the Concerto for Orchestra. Indeed, Cooper believes that the Concerto harkens all the way back to Bartok's early student piece "Kossuth". The second part, "Genesis and reception", gives the biographical facts about how Bartok came to write the piece, when he wrote it, and how it was understood by the public and later composers.

You can find such biographical facts anywhere, but what makes Cooper's guide so wonderful is his bar-by-bar explanation of the Concerto. Cooper explains Bartok's harmonic turns, what Balkan folk bases he uses, the hidden and not-so-hidden motifs that reoccur in the piece, and the major divisions within each movement. This chapter assumes no deep knowledge of egghead musical analysis only that you know some general musical notation and can follow along with a score, and I daresay a great many experienced classical music listeners can manage that.

The last major section, "Musical analysis" is perhaps the least important for casual listeners, but nonetheless interesting. Cooper explains the three main schools of analysis, with a critical view to Lendvai's claims of finding the golden section deeply embedded in the form. Finally, there is an appendix consisting of Bartok's own programme notes to the piece, and a newspaper review of the world premiere.

It's a shame Cambridge University Press has priced this little 100-page paperback so highly--it's ironic that you can pick up an actual quality recording of the Concerto for Orchestra, Salonen leading the L.A. Philharmonic on a Sony disc, for much, much less. Nonetheless, if you love Bartok's late masterpiece, this is well worth the investment. ... Read more

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7 pp. ... Read more

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Selected from the two volumes of Bartóks For Children, these 42 works were written without octaves to fit the hands of younger players. Each piece has a descriptive title, with half including the words "song" or "dance". Like much of the composer's writing, the pieces directly reflect the use of folk idioms. ... Read more

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Music Divided explores how political pressures affected musical life on both sides of the iron curtain during the early years of the cold war. In this groundbreaking study, Danielle Fosler-Lussier illuminates the pervasive political anxieties of the day through particular attention to artistic, music-theoretical, and propagandistic responses to the music of Hungary's most renowned twentieth-century composer, Béla Bartók. She shows how a tense period of political transition plagued Bartók's music and imperiled those who took a stand on its aesthetic value in the emerging socialist state. Her fascinating investigation of Bartók's reception outside of Hungary demonstrates that Western composers, too, formulated their ideas about musical style under the influence of ever-escalating cold war tensions.
Music Divided surveys Bartók's role in provoking negative reactions to "accessible" music from Pierre Boulez, Hermann Scherchen, and Theodor Adorno. It considers Bartók's influence on the youthful compositions and thinking of Bruno Maderna and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and it outlines Bartók's legacy in the music of the Hungarian composers András Mihály, Ferenc Szabó, and Endre Szervánszky. These details reveal the impact of local and international politics on the selection of music for concert and radio programs, on composers' choices about musical style, on government radio propaganda about music, on the development of socialist realism, and on the use of modernism as an instrument of political action. ... Read more

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Very large sized black hardcover. ... Read more

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Miniature score for this work. ... Read more

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This sheet music was newly engraved from early and authoritative editions. ... Read more