Bartók makes an extensive use of pentatonic scales, modes, novel harmonies and ostinato. All the pieces have a duration of about one or two minutes. Out of all 11 pieces, only three are based on folk tunes: numbers three, six and eight. The rest of the pieces were created in their entirety by Bartók, who used to make a great number of short pieces for piano using folk-like structures and melodies. The dedication uses material that he associated to his friend, the violinist Stefi Geyer, to whom he dedicated his first violin concerto. The motif in this dedication was thoroughly used both in the concerto and in his Two Portraits, as well as in the last of his Fourteen Bagatelles, all of them written between 1906 and 1908.
