For Children, Volume I

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.