Long before his famous “Mikrokosmos”, Bartók composed a comprehensive collection of little piano pieces, entitled “For Children”. Written in 1908–1911, its two volumes are based on Hungarian (volume I) and Slovakian (volume II) folk tunes respectively. Both are organised in ascending difficulty, from simple two-part pieces to Impressionistic miniatures, and they offer everything that children’s hands can manage. Bartók revised this collection in the 1940s. He did not just make musical improvements, but also gave every movement a title. This revised version forms the main text of our Urtext edition, while an appendix offers movements from the early version that diverge significantly from the revised ones. As always in Henle’s Bartók editions, there are indications regarding performance practice and insights into how the composer himself played these pieces.
- No. 1 Children at Play
- No. 2 Children’s Song
- No. 3
- No. 4 Pillow Dance
- No. 5 Play
- No. 6 Study for the Left Hand
- No. 7 Play Song
- No. 8 Children’s Game
- No. 9 Song
- No. 10 Children’s Dance
- No. 11
- No. 12
- No. 13 Ballad
- No. 14
- No. 15
- No. 16 Old Hungarian Tune
- No. 17 Round Dance
- No. 18 Soldiers’ Song
- No. 19
- No. 20 Drinking Song
- No. 21
- No. 22
- No. 23 Dance Song
- No. 24
- No. 25
- No. 26
- No. 27 Jest
- No. 28 Choral
- No. 29 Pentatonic Tune
- No. 30 Jeering Song
- No. 31
- No. 32
- No. 33
- No. 34
- No. 35
- No. 36 Drunkard’s Song
- No. 37 Swine-Herd’s Song
- No. 38 Winter Solstice Song
- No. 39
- No. 40 Swine-Herd’s Dance
- Appendix
- Pieces in the early version not included in the revised version
- Variants of the early version
- Transcriptions of Bartók’s recordings