his study attempts to define the criteria underlying Bart6k's compositional choices in a single work: the Romanian Christmas Carols of 1915 for piano solo. I shall examine the often slight but telling changes made in the melodies from their 1 original folksong sources to Bartok's final arrangement. In so doing, I hope to reveal certain patterns of choice which reflect the nature of the composer's aesthetic. Bart6k's folksong arrangements, and those of the carols in particular, lend themselves to a study of compositional choice for several reasons. First, the variable nature of folk tunes requires the composer to select definitive versions from an often large number of different texts. Bart6k's selections tell us much about the artistic values involved