Description
Bartók's "Romanian Christmas Songs" are based on folk melodies that originated in a pagan celebration of the winter solstice. He felt these melodies gave "the impression of a fiery, war-like type of song, rather than a pious and religious one." Nevertheless, Bartók chose 20 of these "colinde" melodies and published them as "Christmas Songs." In the 1918 first edition, they were written for children's hands and published "without octaves." However, in his revised 1936 edition, presented here, Bartók added an appendix featuring "concert versions," confirming these miniatures were also suited for public performance. This Urtext edition, based on the Bartók Complete Edition, integrates those concert variants directly into the musical text for the first time. Additionally, the original melodies and translations of the "colinde" texts are provided, offering insight into the origins of this unique Christmas music
