Nine Romanian Folk Songs is one of Bartók's least known works. It was first published in Volume 10 of the Complete Critical Edition (Z. 15010) in 2024. It survives in a single sketchy manuscript that the composer preserved in a folder labeled ''Reserved Songs,'' a collection consisting mostly of unpublished folk song arrangements. There is no direct data on its genesis; however, based on the folk songs used here and certain features of the manuscript, it is assumed that it was written around 1912.

Three of the nine songs come from Bartók's first Romanian collection, which he completed in Bihor County in the summer of 1909. He wrote to István Thomán: ''The Wallachian songs are the most exotic I've ever heard . . . The many melismas are striking, I've heard veritable coloratura arias.'' Four songs are taken from another collection in Bihor from the winter of 1911-12. Two songs come from an extensive collection from March 1912 in the Banat region.

Although Bartók did not finalize the musical text, Nine Romanian Folk Songs can be considered a finished work. Beyond the sketchiness of the manuscript, a more serious problem is that Bartók left the first five songs without lyrics. The words of these songs have been reconstructed by the editors. He replaced the original words of three of the remaining songs with other folk lyrics, which is relatively rare in Bartók's oeuvre.

This edition reproduces the score from the Complete Edition and is accompanied by a preface in English, German, and Hungarian, and detailed editorial comments in English and Hungarian. The lyrics in the score are in the original language; literal English and Hungarian translations are provided in the appendix.