For Children, Sz. 42: Ten Pieces

Béla Bartók’s (1881-1945) "For Children," Sz. 42, was written from 1908-1908 as a cycle of short piano pieces. Comprised originally of 85 pieces in four volumes, each is based on either a Hungarian or Slovakian folk tune, and were written as student pieces that progress slightly in difficulty through the cycle. Bartók revised the set in 1945, removing six works for either being inaccurately transcribed or because he discovered they were not original folk tunes. Also substantially changing some of the harmonizations, the new cycle of 79 pieces were reissued in two volumes. Hungarian music educator and composer Leó Weiner (1885-1960) took ten of the pieces from the cycle and transcribed them for strings in 1952. A string count of 8-8-5-5-5 is included in the set, but an optional violin 3 is also included as a substitution for the viola.