Béla Bartók wrote the first four volumes of the Mikrokosmos as a series of beginning Piano exercises for his son Péter. The great Hungarian composer's completesix-volume collection represents one of the most comprehensive anthologies of contemporary technique ever assembled.

This edition, consisting of the first two volumes, presents more than 100 pieces of studymaterial suitable for first- and second-year students.

In a 1945 radio interview, Bartók explained, 'The Mikrokosmos is a cycle ...