Contribution to the Dating of Some Bartok Folk-Song Arrangements

Abstract

In 1942 the firm of Boosey and Hawkes published an album in memory of the Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski who had died in New York in the previous year. Bart6k contributed to the volume, compiled from the piano-pieces of contemporary composers and entitled Homage to Paderewski, with three Hungarian folk-song arragements. These pieces were published also in a separate booklet as Three Hungarian Folk-Tunes.' The year of composition of these works is unknown even today, that is, the supposed years are based on hypotheses and, in part, are erroneous. It is quite likely that these pieces were composed many years before their publication, although, this statement rests on the single fact that the first piece, Leszdllott a pdva. . . had already been published earlier: it appeared in the periodical Periszk6p in 1925 (1st year, 4th number) in Bart6k's holograph. But it seems certain that the two other pieces also were ready when Bart6k left for America: at least there is no sign in the records at our disposal that Bart6k had undertaken or felt a desire to compose even smaller folk-song arrangements in his first very hard years overseas. The catalogues of works compiled in Bart6k's lifetime2 and, supposedly, with his assistance and supervision do not provide an answer since they contain only the data of published compositions. Denijs Dille's catalogue of 19533 was the first to register the Paderewski-