Commissioned by the music publisher Rózsavölgyi and Co., Béla Bartók and Sándor Reschofsky assembled their Piano Method for beginners, which was first published in 1913. Pianist and composer Reschofsky devised the framework and wrote the exercises for Piano Method, while Bartók composed 48 short performance pieces on the basis of the exercises. In a review published in the journal Nyugat (Occident) on 1 November 1913 musicologist Antal Molnár enthusiastically welcomed the pieces by Bartók, which include both folk song arrangements and original compositions prefiguring the style of Mikrokosmos. We can see [here] that a piece for beginners can also be alive and vibrant' declared Molnár. It can stir the soul and move the mind / Piano
