Search

Here you can search for data of both the folk melodies used by Bartók and the arrangements themselves.

Composition data

In the search fields Title and Movement you can write one or more words or word fragments. These fields are not case-sensitive or accent-sensitive, but the order of words affects the search result. In the field Movement you can search either for titles or numbers of individual movements, or, if they do not have a title, for their text incipits or tempo markings.

In the field BB number you can search for the works’ worklist numbers. (A list of Bartók’s works ordered by BB numbers is available here.) Writing in this field will return a result only if you give in an existing worklist number in its entirety. (For example, your search will result Rhapsody for Violin and Piano No. 2 only if you write “96a”; or it will result the violin-piano arrangement of Romanian Folk Dances only if you write “68add”.)

In the field L number you can search for the catalog number of Bartók’s folksong arrangements in Vera Lampert’s Folk Music in Bartók’s Compositions. Also here, your search will return a result only if you give in an existing catalog number in its entirety.

Folk melody data

In the search field Incipit you can search for text incipits of the arranged folk songs. (You can write an incipit either according to the version in the arrangement or in the usual form.) Here you can write one or more words or word fragments. This field is not case-sensitive or accent-sensitive, but the order of words affects the search result.

In the fields County and Locality you can search for the provenances of the folk songs. (Provenance means the informant’s place of origin, where he or she learnt the song in question. It can be different from where the recording actually took place.) Both historical and current official names of places are given in the list.

In the field Informant you can search for the original performers of the folk songs (those who sang or played the folk song recorded). Here you can write one or more words or word fragments. This field is not case-sensitive or accent-sensitive, but the order of words affects the search result. You can write not only names of informants but also their ages, for example.

In the fields Performance and Ethnicity you can search for the original ways of performance (such as voice, peasant flute, or bagpipe) and the ethnicity of the informant.

In the field Collector you can search for the names of collectors of folk songs.

In the field Year you can search for the year of folksong records. Here you can write either an exact year or a fragment of a year. (For example, writing “18” in this field will return results for the year 1918 and for all years between 1800 and 1899.)

In the field Recording you can search for the reference codes of the original sound recordings of folk melodies. You can find the abbreviations of collections of sound recordings here [link: Sources and Abbreviations]. The reference codes contain the abbreviation of the collection and the catalog number of the recording in the following format: KF_173d, MH_0958c, TF_1512b. Your search will return a result even if you do not write an entire reference code.

Advanced search

If you write into more than one search fields, your search will return results only that match all search criteria. (For example, if you write “For Children” in Title and “1907” in Year, and you select “Slovakian” in Ethnicity, your search will return only those Slovak folksong arrangements from For Children, whose melodies were recorded in 1907.)