Classical Music | Piano Music

Béla Bartók

Barcarolla, no. 2 from Out of Doors  Play

Amber Yiu-Hsuan Liao Piano

Recorded on 06/18/2014, uploaded on 11/06/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

A champion of Hungarian folk music, Béla Bartók travelled around the country with Zoltán Kodály to collect and document old Magyar folk melodies. Inspired by the research, he started incorporating the folk elements in his music, including in Out of Doors, a fascinating presentation of aspects of Hungarian peasant life. "With Drums and Pipes" is a rowdy, rustic celebration, followed by "Barcarolle," a traditional boat song in 6/8 full of dark and elusive harmonic and rhythmic twists. The third movement "Musettes" imitates the "out-of-tune" tones of bagpipes and the use of drone bass which can be heard frequently in bagpipe music. In "The Night's Music," we hear a choir of sounds from nature—crickets, frogs, and the murmurs of all living creatures. The perpetual propelling movement in the left hand in "The Chase" brings the suite to an exciting and explosive ending.     Amber Liao