Bartόk's Allegro molto (from Quartet No. 4) is one of 9 classical arrangements for intermediate string ensemble included in Richard Young's Comprehensive String Pedagogy & Curriculum. A portion of the proceeds of sales for all CSPC music goes to support free music education at The People's Music School.

Though this brief excerpt from the finale of Bartόk's 4th string quartet is an effective concert piece, perhaps as an encore, the main reason for including it in this curriculum is pedagogical. This is a "classical" piece whose accompaniment has many of the same characteristics and rhythmic challenges as The Simpsons, which makes it very attractive to students. We therefore recommend that they study these two pieces one after the other.
Bartόk's 4th quartet was composed in 1928 during his "middle period" which was characterized by highly extroverted, colorfully dramatic, and sometimes wild expression. He often incorporated folk music that he and Zoltan Kodaly had discovered and documented during their journeys to remote areas of Middle Europe. These folk tunes are unusually expressive and often use complex rhythms and sophisticated metric devices, such as we see in this excerpt. Despite the fact that the meter remains 2/4 throughout the entire movement, it should sound as if it is constantly shifting. Clear and robust articulations are therefore critically important in conveying the appropriate rhythmic character and "shape" of the phrases.
 -Richard Young

Full program notes are included with the score. There are fingerings and bowings in all the string parts of every one of CSPC's pieces. These "cooked-in" technical solutions target the particular levels of the students. They are not just pragmatic but "musical."

Please note that due to a loss of source files, the PDF files of the music have been generated from scanned copies of printed parts. While every effort has been made to produce high quality parts, the limitations of scanning will result in some degredation of print quality.