Autograph Musical Quotation of Schumann’s Album für die Jugend, Signed and Inscribed by Béla Bartók.
Budapest: 1904. Handwritten note in ink, signed in Budapest: 26 January 1904. Text reads “Szíves emlékül” (“As a pleasant memory”). Ca. 18.5 × 11.5 mm. Folded once. In fine condition.
A signed, autograph score detail from Schumann’s Album für die Jugend Op. 68 No.12 Knecht Ruprecht by Béla Bartók.
Around 1903–1904, Bartók gave numerous concerts, sometimes at 3–4 different venues and countries per week, where he often played Schumann’s compositions. Schumann’s work had a big influence on him in other ways as well: according to Suchoff, Bartók found Schumann’s Album für die Jugend one of the few good material available for beginners. “From 1908 to 1909 he [Bartók] worked on a collection of eighty-five piano pieces, titled For Children, which were based on Hungarian and Slovakian folk music. In his lecture notes, Bartók explains his purpose in composing this work: Already at the very beginning of my carrier as a composer I had the idea to write some easy works for piano students. This idea originated in my experience as a piano teacher; I had always the feeling that the available material, especially for beginners, has no real musical value, with the exception of very few works—for instance, Bach’s easiest pieces, and Schumann’s Jugendalbum.” (Suchoff, 2004).
Literature: Suchoff, B. (2004): Bartók’s Mikrokosmos: Genesis, Pedagogy, and Style, p. 13. Rowman & Littlefield.
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Price: €5,000.00