Régi magyar társas táncok

Title
Régi magyar társas táncok
Old Hungarian Ballroom Dances after János Bihari, János Lavotta, Antal Csermák and Márk Rózsavölgyi (18th century)
Language of this work
(Old Hungarian Ballroom Dances)
Duration
11:00
Number of performers
7 - 17
Instrumentation
flute (ad lib.) · clarinet (ad lib.) - strings (5 · 4 · 3 · 2 · 1 ad lib.) or soloistic (1 · 1 · 1 · 1 · 1 ad lib.)
Composition year(s)
1949
Movements

Andante
Allegro - Trio. Pochissimo meno mosso
Andantino maestoso - Trio
Allegro moderato

Extra title
for flute, clarinet and strings
Audio
Copyright

György Ligeti: The Ligeti Project © 2016 Warner Classics 0825646028580

Comment of the composer on the work

While I was still a student at the Budapest Music Academy in 1949, I was requested by public radio to cultivate the “national heritage” by writing a suite on dance melodies of the Biedermeier period, that is, around 1800. The Régi magyar társas táncok (Old Hungarian Ballroom Dances, 1949) are therefore not my own composition, but only a selection of dance tunes by Lavotta, Bihari, Csermák and Rózsavölgyi, which I orchestrated for flute, clarinet and strings. In the same year I wrote some incidental music for a Chinese puppet play. The Big Turtle Fanfare is a melodic fragment from this music. After a lengthy stay in Romania in 1950, I wrote Baladă şi joc (Ballad and Dance) — first for two violins, then for school orchestra. I later developed the Romanian Concerto (1951) from this piece.

© 2001–2003 Teldec Classics & 2004 Warner Classics, Warner Music UK Ltd | Translation: Louise Duchesneau

Publisher