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Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces)

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) · sheet music

  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 1–4
  • Passages 9

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Béla Bartók, Hungarian modern (1881–1945). The reading release has 9 passages from this piece at levels 1–4; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for the right hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 at level 4.

Your practice path

Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces).

  1. Right hand alone · bars 1–8 level 1
  2. Left hand alone · bars 1–4 level 1
  3. Hands together · bars 1–4 level 4

How to play Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces)

  1. Tempo:Start each piece slowly with a steady beat; these pieces teach one idea at a time, so there is no reward for rushing.
  2. Right hand:Learn the melody by ear as well as by eye, since many of the tunes follow folk song shapes.
  3. Left hand:Give the left hand its own character; in many pieces it plays a melody of its own rather than a simple accompaniment.
  4. Hands together:Where the hands play in unison or imitate each other, aim for the same touch and the same shape in both.
  5. Reading:Do not expect a familiar major or minor key; read the notes and any accidentals directly instead of guessing the harmony.
  6. Rhythm:Count out loud, because some pieces use uneven groupings or shifting accents that a regular beat will hide.
  7. Dynamics:Observe the dynamic and articulation marks closely, as they are part of the lesson in each piece.
  8. Practice:Take one short piece per session, play it five times perfectly, then move on.

Common mistakes

  • Treating each piece as an easy exercise and ignoring the markings. Fix: Play the staccato, legato and dynamic marks exactly, since the piece is built to teach them.
  • Forcing the harmony into major or minor. Fix: Listen for the mode and let the unusual notes sound as written.
  • Jumping ahead to later volumes before the early ones feel easy. Fix: Work through the set in order; the difficulty rises step by step.

Structure: progressive collection of short pieces

Mikrokosmos is not one piece but a graded sequence of 153 miniatures. Each one isolates a skill, such as playing in unison between the hands, small hand shifts, or a particular scale or rhythm. The pieces on this page come from the easiest end of the set.

Vols. 1-2 · Beginner pieces
Very short pieces for young or new players: unison melodies, hands in five-finger positions, and the first modal sounds.
Vols. 3-4 · Intermediate pieces
Wider hand positions, more independence between the hands, and growing use of folk-style rhythm and chromatic color.
Vols. 5-6 · Advanced pieces
Concert-level works with demanding rhythm, including the Bulgarian-rhythm dances, that go well beyond the beginner pieces on this page.

About Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces)

Béla Bartók wrote the Mikrokosmos between 1926 and 1939 and published it in 1940. The six volumes hold 153 pieces that start with simple exercises for beginners and move toward concert-level works. The first two volumes are dedicated to his son Péter.

The title comes from the Greek for a little world, and Bartók described the set as a synthesis of the musical and technical problems he had treated in his earlier piano music. Folk influences, unusual scales and additive rhythms run through it, which is why teachers use it as a bridge from first-year pieces to twentieth-century music.

Bartók first played pieces from the set in public in London on 9 February 1937, before the whole set was finished. The 1940 two-piano arrangements and Tibor Serly's string version, premiered in 1942, show how well the pieces work outside the classroom.

  • Bartók turned down the publisher's suggested subtitle, Progressive Piano Pieces in Modern Idiom, preferring the plainer Progressive Pieces for Piano.
  • The sixth volume ends with Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm, which are dedicated to the pianist Harriet Cohen.
  • In 1940 Bartók arranged seven of the pieces for two pianos, and Tibor Serly later arranged six for piano and string orchestra.

Why the first passage is level 1

That passage is level 1, the first rung: it moves by whole steps or less, in half-note values, in one hand.

These are short, graded pieces that each teach one idea. Read them one hand at a time at first, and expect unfamiliar scales rather than plain major and minor.

Questions about Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces)

How hard is Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces) to play?
Its passages grade from level 1 to level 4 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece sits around early intermediate. The hardest stretch is bars 1–4 at level 4.
Is there an easy part of Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces) for beginners?
Yes. Start with bars 1–4 for the right hand alone, the level-1 passage in the reader at the top of this page.
What key and time signature is Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces) in?
The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces)?
Béla Bartók, Hungarian modern (1881–1945). Béla Bartók wrote the Mikrokosmos between 1926 and 1939 and published it in 1940.
Can I practice Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces) online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 9 graded passages from Mikrokosmos (Selected Pieces) in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
Which Mikrokosmos volumes are for beginners?
Bartók aimed Volumes I and II at beginners, Volumes III and IV at moderate to advanced players, and meant Volumes V and VI as concert pieces.
How many pieces are in Mikrokosmos?
There are 153 pieces in six volumes, arranged in order from beginner to advanced.
What does Mikrokosmos mean?
It comes from the Greek for little world, reflecting the range of rhythmic, melodic and technical problems in the set.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 9 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 1
bars 1–4 left hand · bars 1–8 left hand · bars 1–8 right hand · bars 1–4 right hand · bars 5–8 left hand · bars 5–8 right hand
Level 4
bars 1–4 both hands · bars 1–8 both hands · bars 5–8 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.

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