Bartók's Three Burlesques were composed not long after his Elegies, works which eschewed the simplicity of the folk music idiom generally associated with Bartók, in favor of a more virtuosic, bravura style. With the Burlesques, however, Bartók returned to the relatively simple, spare textures and the directness of gesture found in his other folk-inspired work. The Burlesques were intended to be an accessible addition to Bartók's concert repertoire, as his fame as a concert pianist was spreading early in the century.

The first of the three Burlesques is entitled "Quarrel," and it is a work of extreme textural simplicity, comprised solely of unison and two-part textures. The second piece, "A Bit Drunk," also has a simple texture consisting of mostly parallel triads. The third Burlesque, which has no title, has a linear texture similar to the first Burlesque. It is interesting to note that the first two Burlesques are subtly programmatic: the first lives up to the title "Quarrel" with its conflicting polyrhythmic patterns (two beats against three); the second, "A Bit Drunk," combines fourth chords with a slightly irregular, stumbling rhythm to suggest its title. Despite their deceptively simple textures and Bartók's return to folk-inspired music, these three Burlesques also have a number of "modern" qualities: they are decidedly angular in character, with sudden, unexpected accents, and are often harshly dissonant.

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