Kawai Piano Prices: Mikrokosmos Volume 4 (Pink) (Mikrokosmos (Boosey & Hawkes)) [Paperback] Review

Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, whose reputation as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century is now firmly established, composed the Mikrokosmos between 1926 and 1939 with the express purpose of teaching his son, Peter, how to play piano, though level IV is the last volume (of VI) intended purely as instructional material.

These pieces are pedagogically and aesthetically impressive.Beginning in book one, Bartok makes remarkable artistic use of the most simple tools, often limiting himself to a set of five notes per hand (exercises without shifts).The works are not all diatonic, encouraging trust in the eyes and a true ability to read not always achieved by more predictable exercises.Skills are developed systematically to tunes beautiful to the ear, delightful to the theoretician, and engaging to the student.

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Product Description:
The definitive edition (1987) of the piano teaching classic. Includes an introduction by the composer's son Peter Bartok. (English/French/German/Hungarian text). In 1945 Bela Bartok described Mikrokosmos as a cycle of 153 pieces for piano written for "didactic" purposes, seeing them as a series of pieces in many different styles, representing a small world, or as the "world of the little ones, the children".Stylistically Mikrokosmos reflects the influence of folk music on Bartok's life and the rhythms and harmonies employed create music that is as modern today as when the cycle was written. The 153 pieces making up Mikrokosmos are divided into six volumes arranged according to technical and musical difficulty. Major teaching points highlighted in Mikrokosmos 4: Thumb undervention, crossed hands, triplets in 9/8 time.