Guide to Early Keyboard Music – Hungary for Piano or Harpsichord

This series is intended as a guide to the keyboard music of the 16th to 19th centuries for pupils of the piano and the harpsichord, as well as of other early keyboard instruments. Each volume contains pieces by well-known and lesser-known composers from one country or region. The main purpose of the series is to extend the repertoire and stylistic knowledge of both pianists and harpsichordists while also presenting fine pieces and typical genres based on original sources. Our edition retains the performance indications of the composers' manuscripts and contemporary editions. Each volume includes:

- suggestions for stylistically appropriate performance both on the piano and on period instruments

- suggested elaborated versions of some pieces and excerpts

- a fold-out list of ornamentation signs and the composers' own tables of ornamentation signs

- information on the composers and the sources of the pieces

- translations of foreign-language performance indications

- facsimiles.

The book devoted to keyboard music from Hungary includes close to 50 showy and relatively easy works - dances, a suite, a prelude, sonatas, and character pieces - from the second third of the 16th century until the 1820s. The highlights of this volume include a contemporary keyboard version of the Andante from Haydn's Symphony No. 94 ('Surprise') published in Hungary, a sonata by Mária Koháry, the first Hungarian woman composer known by name, and the earliest known arrangement of the famous Rákóczi March for piano solo.

Károly Sziklavári, Szilvia Elek