Bartók's earliest works for piano and voice were modeled after the German Lied: his songs from around the turn of the century use German texts, and clearly show the influence of such famous lied composers as Schubert and Schumann. However, in the early years of the century, Bartók's music in general began to assume a more Eastern European flavor, as he began transcribing and collecting folk songs from his native Hungary and the surrounding countries. Village Scenes is just one of several large groups of folk songs composed by Bartók over the course of twenty years, including the Hungarian folk song collections of 1907 and 1917, and the Twenty Hungarian Folksongs of 1929.

Village Scenes was first composed as a group of five songs for female voice and piano, later scored for voice and chamber orchestra. The tunes were taken from actual folk songs, transcribed by Bartók in the Zolyom county of Old Hungary during the years 1915 - 16. This work, in many ways, recalls Stravinsky's hybrid ballet/cantata The Wedding, which Stravinsky finished a year before Bartók's work. While the two composers probably did not directly influence each other at the time, there are many striking parallels in their stylistic development: both made extensive use of their own national folk music and were eventually able to compose their own original folk tunes, and both composed music in a neoclassic style in the 1920s and 30s. For Stravinsky, The Wedding represented the perfect assimilation of the Russian folk style, an abstract representation of Russian peasant wedding rituals. Bartók's Village Scenes is also concerned with authentic folk music and, at least in part, with peasant wedding scenes . Village Scenes is a cycle, comprised of dance songs, lullabies, haymaking songs, and wedding songs.

The original folk melodies are modal, using Lydian and Mixolydian modes. Typical of Bartók, the interval of a fourth is prevalent, in particular the augmented fourth—or tritone—a dissonant interval popular in both early twentieth-century music and in the Slovak folk music tradition. In some of the songs, Bartók's piano accompaniment uses notes derived from the folk melodies, as the composer strove to unify piano and voice, to make these songs homogenous compositions. In other songs, Bartók uses broken chords or folk dance rhythmic figures to set the original melodies.





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2.Bei der Braut

At the Bride's is an arrangement of a Slovak folk song, as are the other four works that comprise Village Scenes. Actually, Nos. 3 and 4 use two folk songs each. Bartók's sparing harmonies for all five were not fashioned in the traditional manner, but were derived from elements of the folk tunes themselves. At the Bride's, like No. 1, Haymaking, is in binary form, and also features a rather rudimentary piano accompaniment.

It begins with a wistful melody that seems to float effortlessly along in the gentle vocal line. The text of the song tells of a maiden's gathering of the peacock's feathers to fill a pillow. She is admonished to be aggressive in her endeavor, since her groom will soon be laying his head on it. The mood of the song is rather melancholy, hardly the kind of manner associated with the festivity and joy of marriage. If the first song, Haymaking, has a forthright, muscular character, with a Stravinskian influence à la Les Noces, this song straddles a Romantic and Impressionistic sound world, where the beauties of its melody are surrounded by hazy mists and hints of darkening clouds. Lasting about one-and-a-half minutes, it should appeal to a wide audience.

© Robert Cummings, Rovi

5.Burschentanz

In 1922 Bartók met Stravinsky and became quite enamored of his music. He would acknowledge a Stravinskian influence in several of his future works, including the Second Piano Concerto (1930 - 1931). One also notices hints of Stravinsky's style in the Five Village Scenes, particularly in the odd-numbered members of the set. These five works are actually arrangements of Slovak Folksongs and feature harmonies not fashioned in the usual manner but from the thematic material itself.

One notices right off that the piano accompaniment in "Lads' Dance," while clearly featuring Bartók's own percussive style and a folkish brio, divulges a brittle Stravinskian character as well. The vocal line is not as dominant here, the piano, as in No. 3, "Wedding," sharing an equal role in prominence. The vocal theme is vigorous and lively, sometimes turning frenetic, especially near the end. The song has a rondo-like structure, with the opening piano material serving to close the piece and alternate with the vocal line in the interior sections. The folkish text admonishes creatures of nature to dance while they can, and the young lad to drive the goat herd. This song, along with Nos. 3 and 4, were adapted by Bartók for female chorus and chamber orchestra as the Three Village Scenes. All five Villages Scenes exist in versions for orchestra, as well.

© Robert Cummings, Rovi