Sheet Music: Jocul cu bâtă

TitleJocul cu bâtă
from Romanian Folk Dances
Alternate titlesJoc cu bâtă from Roman nepi tancok
Dance With Stick
Stick Game
Der Tanz mit dem Stabe
Bot-tánc
Opus numberSz. 56
ComposerBéla Bartók (1881–1945)
InstrumentationFlute solo
KeyA minor
RangeG4–C6
Time signature2/4
Tempo96 BPM
Performance time1:00
Difficulty levelintermediate
Download printable scorePDF Sheet Music (78 kB) (preview)
Download audio tracksMIDI (change tempo/key) MP3 (501 kB)
Date added2009-12-03
Last updated2009-12-03
Download popularity index☆☆☆☆☆ 2.0 (above average)
Categories
20th century, Dance tunes, Gypsy music, Traditional/Folk

Performances

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Thursday 3 December 2009

Tune of the Day: Stick Game

from “Romanian Folk Dances” by Béla Bartók

As a young man, Bartók wrote his mother of his life’s ambition: to contribute to “the good of Hungary and of the Hungarian nation.” Although he made his living primarily as a pianist and teacher, he is now recognized primarily for his compositions and his ethnological work. During his lifetime Bartók collected and classified more than 14,000 folks melodies of Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, Turkish, Bulgarian, and North African origin. He was particularly drawn to the Romanian folk traditions, because he felt that the Romanian groups had been more isolated from outside influences and were therefore more authentic.

Romanian Folk Dances is a suite of six short piano pieces composed by Béla Bartók in 1915, and based on seven Romanian fiddle tunes. The first piece, “Jocul cu bâtă” (“Dance with Stick”, or “Stick Game”), is an energetic and merry dance coming from Mezőszabad, Transylvania.