Rumanian Folk Music
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Rumanian Folk Music NUMBER 4 IN THE BARTOK ARCHIVES STUDIES IN MUSICOLOGY VICTOR BATOR, Founder-Director BENJAMIN SUCHOFF, Curator Rumanian Folk Music VOLUME THREE RUMANIAN FOLK MUSIC , , by BELA BARTOK Volume Three Texts Edited by BENJAMIN SUCHOFF Text Translations by E. C. TEODORESCU THE HAGUE MARTINUS NIJHOFF 1967 ISBN-J3: 978-94-010-3507-1 e-ISBN-J3: 978-94-010-3505-7 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-3505-7 Copyright I967 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands Softcover reprint o/the hardcover 1st edition 1967 All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form Editor's Preface N January 30, 1944, Bela Bart6k, writing from Asheville, North O Carolina, where he had gone to regain his strength after a long period of ill-health in 1943, commented, Here I have started on a very interesting (and, as usual, lengthy) work, the kind I have never done before. Properly speaking, it is not a musical work: I am arranging and writing out fair copies of Rumanian folksong texts'! Although the date has not as yet been established, the first draft of the Rumanian folk texts as texts per se was written-if an apparent age of the MS. can be considered a clue-sometime before Bartok had emigrated to the United States in 1940. This draft (see description below) had been forwarded for etymological data, according to the non-Bart6kian autography appearing thereon. The identity of the informant or informants involved and the circumstances surrounding this matter remain unknown at the present writing. After Bart6k had made offset prints of the music examples of the first two volumes of Rumanian F olk Music in 1940, 2 the printed but incomplete draft of Vol. II (Vocal Melodies)-comprising 304 of the ultimate total of 659 pages-was sent to Nicholas Vama~escu, then di rector of "The Romanian Radio Hour" (Station W.].L.B., Detroit, Michigan), for correction of the texts, in April, 1941. 3 1 Letter to Joseph Szigeti, in Bartok Bela levelei (ed. Janos Demeny; Budapest: Miivelt Nep Konyvkiado, 1951), p. 184. See also Halsey Stevens' English translation, for the following portion of the letter which discusses statistical findings and specific folk texts, in his book The Life and Music of Beta Bartok (New York: Oxford University Press, 1951), pp. 100-101. 2 See the author's Preface to Vol. I for details. 3 Correspondence between Bartok and Vama~escu is on file at the Bartok Archives (hereinafter abbreviated BA) which were established in New York City in 1953 by Dr. Victor Bator, Trustee of the Estate of Bela Bartok. [ vii ] Editor's Preface Not quite three years later, in March, 1944, Bartok again requested help, this time of his publisher, in locating an expert in Austro-Hungarian army matters.4 And on April 22 a Bartok letter-with rather humorous overtones-inquires: Have you perhaps a "Bordell" expert, too, for the following questions? There occurs a word in these texts: zindiliiu. A Rumanian-speaking acquaintance of mine in Budapest said, it originates from "Singerei" (or "Sangerei") and simply means (in Rumanian) bordello I wonder whether it has the same meaning in German, or does it mean a Tingel-Tangel with the additional function of Bordell or without, or what?5 There is also an undated letter in Bartok's autograph which begins "Dear Mr. Neagoi! Many thanks for your translations!" and goes on to request from him Rumanian equivalents of English titles and sub heads used by the author in classifying the texts in Vol. lIP The events which took place between 1941 and 1944 indicate that Bartok undoubtedly did little more than contemplate "a planned third [volume] which will bring the publication of the complete texts."7 Indeed, this three year period, as the following narrative indicates, was one in which he was more or less involved with other studies, public appearances as concert pianist and as lecturer, and composition. By way of a beginning, we point to Bartok's work on Vols. I, II of Rumanian Folk M~tsic during August, 1941, in Riverton, Vermont,S on the Serbo-Croatian material at Columbia University for the remainder of the year. In fact, he was also concertising (Chicago, Los Angeles, among other cities) beginning in October of the same year. His research work at Columbia continued until] une, 1942, although he became ill beginning in April. The rest of 1942 was devoted to completing his book Serbo-Croatian Folk Songs (New York: Columbia University Press, 1951) and the first two volumes of Rumanian Folk Music. 9 4 Boosey & Hawkes (at that time the New York office was managed by Hans Heinsheimer) arranged for Mr. Roda Roda to supply Bartok with explanations of certain terms which occur in the Soldiers' Songs (Class C). 5 This letter to Boosey & Hawkes was written in New York City (Hotel Woodrow). 6 This letter, its address also missing, was sent to Peter Neagoe (American writer of Rumanian descent, 1881-1960) probably late in 1944 when the Preface to Vol. III was being drafted. The letter (on file in the BA) was returned to Bartok with Neagoe's translation pencilled thereon. Other letters written in 1944 which refer to Vol. III of Rumanian Folk Music will be found in B.B. lev. (op. cit.), pp. 189-191, and 194. 7 See Vol. II, p. xxvii. 8 At the home of Agatha Fassett. See the narrative in her book The Naked Face 01 Genius (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1958), Chap. 9. 9 According to a letter written to Wilhelmine Creel, on December 31, 1942, in B.B. lev. (op. cit.), pp. 174-75. [ viii ] Editor's Preface In 1943 Bela and Ditta Bartok prepared for the premiere performance of the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra which took place on January 21 at Carnegie Hall, Fritz Reiner conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. (This was the last public concert played by Bartok.) The next month Bartok began a series of lectures at Harvard University, but these were cut short by illness culminating in hospi talization for two weeks in March and five weeks in April-May. During the latter period he began work on his "Turkish Folk Music from Asia Minor,"lO which was completed in June prior to his leaving for Saranac Lake, New York.ll In August Bartok started composing the Concerto for Orchestra, a major endeavor occupying most of his time until October. Yet he still found time to continue the frustrating task of attempting to find a publisher for Rumanian Folk Music and, later, the Turkish material.12 Finally, just before he left for Asheville, North Carolina, the master sheets of both collections were deposited in Special Collections (Butler Library) of Columbia University.13 Concurrent with his work on the Rumanian folk texts, in the early part of 1944, Bartok composed his Sonata for Solo Violin (March-April). He returned to New York at the end of April, and, apparently, he then completed the master sheets of the texts and deposited them at Columbia University on July 1. His plans for the summer-at Saranac Lake were "completely disturbed by the Columbia Press, who at last sent me my corrected Ms. of the Serbo-Croatian book. To insert counter corrections took me almost a month."14 Those plans included, of course, the drafting of the prefatory matter for Vol. III of Rumanian Folk Music. As the first draft of his Introduction to this volume shows (see below), Bart6k could not have completed his preliminary writing before Sept. 13, 1944. 10 Manuscript deposited in Columbia University Music Library. 11 According to a letter from Bartok to Ralph Hawkes (the composer's publisher, then head of Boosey & Hawkes, Ltd.), dated July 31, 1943, in the BA. 12 The correspondence in 1943 between Bartok and the New York Public Library indicates that that institution had indicated a willingness to publish Rumanian Folk Music, a notion which was discarded when cost factors involved in the publication were ascertained. Then, in September, when Ralph Hawkes assured Bartok that publication would be undertaken by Boosey & Hawkes, but that it "must be postponed until the war is over" (letter from the publisher to Bartok, dated Sept. 8, 1943, in the BA), Bartok vainly attempted to persuade the Library to publish the Turkish collection (letter from Bartok to the N.Y. Public Library, dated Oct. 3, 1943, in the BA). 13 On December 14, 1943, according to the University's memorandum on the deposit. See also B.B. lev. (ap. cit.), p. 181, for the author's letter to Wilhelmine Creel, in regard to this matter, dated December 17, 1943. 14 Letter to Boosey & Hawkes, dated Sept. 12, 1944, in the BA. See also B.B. lev. (ap. cit.), p. 188. [ ix ] Editor's Preface The final copy of the Serbo-Croatian book was submitted to Columbia University Press about mid-December; the preliminary draft of the Addenda to Vol. III of Rumanian Folk Music was finished sometime between mid-January and March, 1945; and, as the master sheets of the Introduction to Vol. III disclose, Rumanian Folk Music was brought to a close on March 30, 1945. THE MANUSCRIPTS Texts.-The first draft of the Rumanian folk texts, like the melodies of Vol. II, can be found in the field recording transcriptions, the bulk of which Bartok left behind in Budapest.Is The second draft comprises forty-four pencilled leaves and fifty carbon copies, 8" X 14" in size, in Bartok's autograph.I6 This collection apparently represents the first compilation of the extracted poetic texts, for the reference (melody) number following each text, later changed in Vol.