On this occasion, Bartók spent time traveling around Csík County in Transylvania and collecting folk music.

However, the last three were completed in 1917, after a trip around Hungary in 1916 and 1917 where he gathered music from Hungarian soldiers for some other song cycles also finished in 1917 and afterwards.

[1][2] This was the first time Bartók decided to depart from his earlier primitive compositional style, as Bartók's desire to educate the public was so evident that the melody in his folksongs was doubled by the right hand of the pianist (in which case, if there was an amateur singer or no singer at all, the melody could still be heard).

These eight songs, despite being composed ten years apart, were the first example of Bartók not doubling the melodies, and he also followed that style in future collections of folk music.

[5] The set consists of eight untitled folksongs, although the title is generally taken from the incipit of each song.