Sonatina

Bela Bartók said of this piece; This sonatina was originally conceived as a group of Rumanian folk dances for piano. The three parts were selected from a group and given the title of Sonatina. The first movement, which is called "Bagpipers", is a danc, these are two dances played by two bagpipe players, the first by one and the second by another. The second movement is called "Bear Dance", this was played for me by a peasant violinist on the G and D string, on the lower strings in order to have it more similar to a bear's voice. Generally the violin players use the E string. And the last movement contains also two folk melodies played by peasant violin players.