Ana-Maria AVRAM: Seven Romanian Folksongs from bela Bartok's collections ( 1)

this immense figure of the XX century's music,
Hungarian composer born on Romanian territory, was equally one of the
greatest musical anthropologists of all times. He was not only an
assiduous collector of folklore but he had changed the very paradigm
itself, of the musical anthropology, as well by means of the the
methodology he employed and the unattainable accuracy of his
transcriptions.

The reason of this Sisyphean work can only be explained by the fact
that Bartok saw in the folk music a genuine source of inspiration,
renovation and originality for his own art, his « egoism » as a
creator fully dedicated to his art explaining the energy and unique
dedication he spent as a folk music collector.

From the huge Bartok's folk music collections and transcriptions --
completed by deep and extensive comments on the phenomenon - around
three quarters have as subject the Romanian music from Transylvania :
50000 collected melodies . The 5000 published and reviewed until the
last days of his short live, revealed to the public knowledge a
fascinating musical universe, of an yet unsuspected melodic and
rhythmic richness.
His collecting methods where revolutionary, always looking for the
unalterableness of the source in his natural habitat. And the way he
transcribed in European notation , with an impossible minutia,
revealed infinitesimal and delicious details in rhythm and melody.
As you certainly know, Bartok himself harmonized some of those
collected materials, though proportionally scarcely compared with the
extension of the collections.
On the other hand, when traversing those collections, we can see that
his entire musical universe is immersing in a sonorous world which is
so often Transylvanian and Romanian.

Among the most brilliant examples for the promotion of this Bartokian
endeavour I will only remember the subtle and virtuoso violinist
Sherban Lupu. He dedicated his energies in a brilliant way , few
years ago, and identified every collected melody among those Bartok
used in the Second Rhapsody for violin and orchestra. Then, he
exemplified on the classical violin, aside the very text of the
Rhapsody, the sources from the respective collections, with the
indications, tempo, and all the details as provided in Bartok's
transcriptions.

The task, Lupu confessed, was of a draconian technical difficulty ,
due to the complexity of scordaturas, the speed, the intonations,
the rhythmical irregularities, all fully scored by Bartok with a
phonographic precision. The mimicry of the peasant spontaneous art
seemed, therefore, hard to be reproduced by a classical musician !

On my side, being fascinated since my studentship by Bartok's folk
music collections, I made the commitment -- without any connection
with my work as a composer -- to bring to public light those collection
which make the delight of the anthropologists and specialized
scholars, but remained yet unknown to the music lovers.

I chose Batok's own solution : I first operated a choice among
melodies, then I organized the material into an instrumental suite. I
harmonized and orchestrated it, reshaped it in a « composition », in
a style appropriate with the given material, which I preserved as much
unaltered as possible. The resulting style is sometimes near Bartok's
own language, sometimes, because of the material, more alike Enescu's
or Stravinsky's depending on the circumstances and needs.

The result was therefore Two different suites, arranged for piano ( or
orchestra and string instrument or solo piano)
A suite of 10 melodies arranged in 7 movements, and another of 25
Christmas carols.
In both cases, I avoided when I choose the material, the use the same
melodies Bartok himself employed in his music, as the challenge was
to bring into light as many unknown collected melodies as possible.