Hungarian Folk Song Suite - 2BSN/PN

Hungarian Folk Song Suite
for two bassoons and piano
by Helen Glatz (1908-1996) - British composer

The Hungarian Folk Song Suite arose from the composer's feeling that there is a need for more original music for bassoon(s) as solo instrument(s) with piano. She also noticed the kinship between the bassoon and the Hungarian folk instrument, the tarogato, which is associated with the 18th century national struggle against the Hapsburgs. In the 1890s, during another period of nationalist revival, some Hungarian folk instruments were successfully modernized but the tarogato, a fierce member of the shawm family, was transformed into a wooden saxophone (used by Wagner in Tristan). Helen Glatz's Suite brings together her concern for the bassoon and her love of things Hungarian, and is dedicated to Isolde Summers.