Hungarian Rhapsodies virtuoso pianist as well as a composer). Liszt incorporated many themes he had heard in his native western Hungary and which he believed to be folk music, though many were in fact tunes written by members of the Hungarian upper middle class, or by composers such as József Kossovits, often played by Roma (Gypsy) bands. The large scale structure of each was influenced by the verbunkos, a Hungarian dance in several parts, each with a different tempo. Within this structure, Liszt preserved the two main structural elements of typical Gypsy improvisation—the "lassan" ("slow") and the "friska" ("fast"). At the same
Piano Sonata (Bartók) movement calls for these keys to be used (to play G). Bartók had previously written a piano sonata in 1896, which is little known. Piano Sonata (Bartók) The Piano Sonata BB 88 (Sz. 80) is a piano sonata by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, composed in June 1926. 1926 is known to musicologists as Bartók's "piano year", when he underwent a creative shift in part from Beethovenian intensity to a more Bachian craftsmanship. The work is in three movements, with the following tempo indications: It is tonal but highly dissonant (and has no key signature), using the piano in a percussive