【Romanian Folk Dances】: Duet for Flute and Marimba - Arranged by Joanna Wu & Georgi Videnov

In 1905, Bartók, together with composer Zoltán Kodály, began collecting and publishing Transylvanian and Balkan folk songs. And in the following years he succeeded in publishing several musical masterpieces, such as Mikrokosmos, musical works for strings, percussion and steel sheet piano, as well as concerto works for orchestra. The piece "Romanian Folk Dances", on the other hand, fully demonstrates how Bartók has incorporated these ethnic elements into his musical style.

Bartók's collection of folk melodies was often played on flute-like or woodwind instruments, such as the Bulgarian Kaval, Hungarian Furulya and Serbian Dvojnica, as well as many other instrumental variations. in 1917, Bartók formed a small chamber orchestra and adapted the Romanian Folk Dance from a solo piano to a duo work. Since then, there have been many versions with the violin or flute as the soloist, accompanied by piano or guitar instruments.

The version adapted by Joanna Wu and Georgi Videnov brings new possibilities to this work. The marimba instead of piano accompaniment makes the piece more "ethnic" and "primitive", and the beautiful sound of the flute is a perfect match.

Track Info.
Difficulty: Med-Advanced
Duration: 5 minutes
Instrument: Flute, 5 octave marimba