Slovakian Dance is a piece for solo piano by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók

Béla Bartók

Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...

. It was presumably composed in 1923, but it had not been published until 1999.

Composition

This scherzo-style composition was meant to be placed between the second and the third movement of Bartók's Dance Suite

Dance Suite (Bartók)

Dance Suite, Sz. 77, BB 86 , sometimes also called Tanz Suite, Sz. 77, BB 86, is an orchestral suite composed in 1923 by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. In 1925, the composer himself wrote a reduction of this piece for piano, which has become also as well-known as the original...

, but he eventually refused because of his mathematical principles

Golden ratio

In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.61803398874989...

, as placing it in the Suite would ruin the proportion of the whole work. Since Dance Suite was an orchestral suite, this Slovakian Dance remained as a sketch, unpublished and unorchestrated, until his son, Peter Bartók, made slight changes for it to be published in 1999. The movement Nos. 1 and 2 from the Dance Suite contains thematic references to this piece.

As this is one of the sketches that he dismissed, there is no identification number for this composition, and most catalogs do not include it.

Notable recordings

Notable recordings of this work include:

Piano Solo	Record Company	Year of Recording	Format
Jenő Jandó Jeno Jandó Jenő Jandó is a Hungarian pianist and Professor of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary.He studied piano at the Liszt Academy with Katalin Nemes and Pál Kadosa, later going on to win many major international piano competitions, including the Georges Cziffra and Ciani Piano...	Naxos Records Naxos Records Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...	2005	CD