K54 Duo Concertant
pour violon et piano en cinq mouvements // Partie de Violon avec la collaboration de Samuel Dushkin – Duo concertant (Konzertantes Duo / Konzert-Duo) für Violine und Klavier in fünf Sätzen // Violinpart unter Mitarbeit von Samuel Dushkin – Duo concertant for violin and piano in five movements – Duo concertante per violino e pianoforte. // Parte del violino in collaborazione con Samuel Dushkin
Construction: in five movements; the movements are not numbered and have subtitles in French; movements two and four have sections without bar lines.
Structure
Cantilène crotchet = 88 (64 bars)
Eglogue I crotchet = 76-80 (53 [76] bars = between bar 4 and 5 [bar 27] 23 values without bar line.
Eglogue II crotchet = 44-42 (33 bars)
Gigue dotted crotchet l = 120 (254 bars)
Dithyrambe semiquaver = 60 (22 [38] bars = between bar 7 and 8 [24] 16 values without bar line.
Corrections / Errata
Edition 54-1
Cantilène
1.) bar 37 (p. 3, system III, bar 3) Piano treble: 8th quaver f1 instead of g1.
2.) bar 55 (p. 5, system III, bar 3) Violin: last triplet should be read quaver rest / dotted quaver rhombus c#2 / quaver rhombus e2 instead of quaver rest / g#3 / b2.
3.) bar 55 (p. 5, system IV, bar 1) Violin: 1st quaver triplet should be read rhombus g1 / b bwith rhombus f1 / g with b and rhombus f1 instead of d2-f2-h2.
Eglogue II
1.) bar 18 (p. 11, system IV, bar 4, Piano treble: 2. crotchet (bass clef upper part) f#1 instead of f1.
Gigue
1.) bar 123 (p. 19, system II, bar 5) Piano bass: last ligature A b-b b-rest instead of A b-rest-b b.
2.) bar 182 (p. 22, system II, bar 6) Piano treble: 3. semiquaver ligature accord g2-h2 instead of e2- g2.
3.) bar 183 (p. 22, system III, bar 1) Piano treble: 3. semiquaver a2 instead of g2.
4.) bar 196 (p. 23, system I, bar 4) Piano treble: 1. semiquaver ligature eb2-b1-c1 instead of eb2-g1-c1.
5.) bar 208 (p. 23, system IV, bar 1) Violin: 5. semiquaver (2. note 2. ligature d3 instead of f3.
Dithyrambe
1.) bar 11 (p. 27, system II, bar 4) Piano bass: a natural enclosed in brackets has to be added to f in the four-note chord F b-H-d-f.
2.) bar (3 before end) (p. 27, system 4, bar 3) Piano descant: 3th note value should be two-note chord d1-g1 instead of two-note chord e1-g1; Piano bass: 2nd quaver chord should be two-note chord F-e instead of G-e.
Style:
Neo-Classical; Strawinsky was enthused by ancient pastoral poetry in the months of the composition of the Duo Concertant, in part due to the influence of his close friend, Charles-Albert Cingria. Strawinsky conceived of the idea of writing a lyrical composition, and he sought inspiration from the (in his opinion) most lyrical composer, Peter Tchaikovsky, who had called the lyrical composition the strongest form of composition in a letter; he also looked to Cingria, who explained that a lyrical composition without strict rules would remain in a state of raw emotion that was common everywhere.Cingria had just written (published 1932) his book on Petrarch.*
Movement titles such as ‘Eglogue’ or ‘Dithyrambe’ refer not only directly to the pastoral lyricism of Vergil as well as the form that preceded it, Attic tragedy, but also to its structural strength in the conceptual surrounding in which many of his classical compositions from Oedipus Rex to Perséphone exist. Strawinsky intended to order the five movements symmetrically around the slow middle movement, and he chose a theme which is developed throughout the course of all the movements.
According to his conception, the five movements should form a complete whole and in doing so, should to some extent form a musical parallel to ancient pastoral poetry, which is ruled by considered technique.
The Strawinsky literature has always been cautiously against the work in general. White describes the fourth movement as downright boring and describes the end as being ‘garrulous’.
He also did not think much of the preceding three movements, because they, in his opinion, did not attain the level of Strawinsky’s other compositions. He only conceded mastery to the final movement. Now the unusually virtuosic Gigue falls out of the context, also disrupting the regular temporal proportions of the
* Charles-Albert Cingria: Pétrarque, Editions L’Age d’homme, Lausanne 1932.
Dedication: According to Robert Siohan, the Duo Concertant must have been dedicated to Samuel Dushkin.
Duration: about 2' 53" + 2' 04" + 2' 55" + 4' 14" + 2' 55".
Date of origin: The work was begun in December 1931 in Voreppe, and was completed on 15th July 1932. One of the sketches from the extensive collection of sketches is dated> 27 XII 31 <, another with> Voreppe / 9 fevr./32 <. The fair copy bears the completion date> 15 July / 32.
First performances: 28th October 1932, Berlin Funkhaus, by Samuel Dushkin and Igor Strawinsky; first public performance in concert was by Samuel Dushkin and Igor Strawinsky on 2nd November 1932.
Remarks: Up to the collapse of the Russian Empire, the income from his Russian interests formed the most important basis of Strawinsky’s gentrified existence. Because they disappeared after 1917, he found himself in financial straits. He received help from friends, for example Princess Edmond de Polignac, Leopold Stokovski or the Mexican Eugenia Errazuriz. He began, on Diaghilev’s advice, to conduct his own works himself and by the beginning of the ‘20s, he had also prepared himself for the concert podium as a pianist, after encouragement from Koussevitsky; after his successful appearance as the soloist in his Concerto for Piano and Winds Instruments, he wrote himself the Sonate, Serenade and above all the Capriccio with the goal of creating his own piano repertoire. Since he was often invited to concerts, and since he would be able to attain this goal most effectively by the composition of chamber music that was easy to perform and required small numbers of instruments, he composed the Duo Concertant for himself and the violinist Samuel Dushkin inside the space of six months between December 1931 and 15th July 1932 for a planned tour of Europe and America. He had only just come to know Dushkin for whom he had written the Violin Concerto. He subsequently supplemented this work with an entire set of arrangements for violin and piano from his previous orchestral and choral works to extend the programme to fill the evening. Almost all of Strawinsky’s transcriptions for violin and piano were therefore written in this context between mid-1932 and mid-1933 and they were played with Dushkin, who acted as advisor, soloist and who played with Strawinsky as piano accompanist for the vinyl recordings. For the original of these arrangements, he sought out the most beautiful-sounding and effective moments from his works up to that point (often known as ‘pearls’). Among these were the ‘Aria of the Nightingale’ and the ‘Chinese March’ from Le Rossignol, the ‘Scherzo’ and ‘Lullaby’ from The Firebird, the ‘Russian Dance’ from Petrushka and Parascha’s Song, a later transcription of the introductory aria from Mavra under the title ‘Song of a Russian Maiden’. He also rewrote the Pastorale, which was intended especially for this, in a somewhat expanded version for violin and piano and compiled a separate Suite Italienne from the Pulcinella Ballet. The Divertimento, which was concert music rewritten as a symphonic suite from the ballet music of The Fairy’s Kiss, was also transcribed for violin and piano. Dushkin played such a large part in all these transcriptions that his name is stated in a prominent position in the corresponding editions. Strawinsky had him to thank not only for the playability of his works but above all for the extension of the violin part in the low and high registers. The fact that Strawinsky, who was a controversial figure in such matters, was prepared to name Dushkin in a prominent place in all these transcriptions proves that Dushkin was more than just an experienced advisor on playing technique. In actual fact, Dushkin was, aside from his career as a concert violinist, a recognised and very hard-working transcription specialist who, independent of Strawinsky, also left behind a comprehensive oeuvre of transcriptions. It was Dushkin who gave Strawinsky the idea at that time of producing a series of violin transcriptions of certain works.
Dushkin-Strawinsky-Collaboration: Dushkin, who later maintained his collaboration with Strawinsky in a friendly form by letter, brought with him a great deal of experience with regard to transcriptions. This is attested to by a great many published editions. Strawinsky took his advice very seriously and often made changes following Dushkin’s advice, whilst still placing great value on maintaining the purity of his own style. Since Dushkin was a very good violinist, and thus did not have any fear of technical problems, all his transcriptions, including those that start out very simply, became difficult pieces that not all violinists are capable of. It was already during work on the Violin Concerto that he sought out Strawinsky with the intention of winning transcription work from him, but he was rejected. Dushkin transcribed the Berceuse from the Firebird in order to win him over. Strawinsky however was so little pleased by it that Dushkin felt wounded. To Strawinsky, Dushkin’s arrangement sounded like Kreisler’s arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Hindu Song and, what was worse for Strawinsky, it sounded too oriental to him. Dushkin did not play any part in the reworking of certain numbers from the Soldier’s Tale , which were played in these chamber music evenings. A further transcription from the ballet the Fairy’s Kiss , originally intended for Dushkin, remained a sketch. Strawinsky retrieved it 15 years later as the Ballad for Jeanne Gautier, but did not deign to name her on the title sheet.
Concert tours and recordings: Craft’s bon mot that he was the only person to have survived a dispute with Strawinsky and lived, is also true for Samuel Dushkin. Strawinsky had spent a great part of 1932 and the first half of 1933 after the completion of the Duo with the organisation of his arrangements. Two series of appointments in the same year, 6th and 7th April as well as 6th to 8th June were scheduled for the recording in the Studio Albert in Paris. The Duo concertant was recorded during the first series, movements 1 to 3 and 5 on 6 thApril, and the 4th movement, the Gigue, which is technically very demanding and was taken very fast by Strawinsky, on 7th April 1933. The extended concert tours with Dushkin began immediately after the premiere of the Violin Concerto; they would now be extended and consolidated by the addition of chamber-music evenings. Dushkin and Strawinsky toured together for several years between 1931 and 1937; that it would smoothly was scarcely to be expected with Strawinsky, whose moods could often shift dramatically. Dushkin however was by nature so sensitive, and such a superior human being that it never came to a dispute. Dushkin evidently saw Strawinsky in the same way that Craft did, namely as an anxious man, full of scruples, and often doubting himself, who hid himself behind wit and by distancing others, and thus treated him respectfully and carefully. Dushkin presumably also knew however that his encounter with Strawinsky, from a career perspective, was a godsend for him. Strawinsky made an agreement with Joseph Szigeti for the later recordings after the Second World War.
Situationsgeschichte: Many composers up to the beginning of the Twenties strongly disapproved of combining strings with piano, i.e. untempered instruments with a tempered instrument. A reshaping of the orchestra was necessary with the goal of removing all disharmonious and overtone-rich instruments. This was exclusively concerned with the high strings, i.e. the violins. Winds and low strings were not affected by this proscription. During this period of time, even Strawinsky made some adjustment himself. He gave other reasons attributing the avoidance of the upper strings to the influence of the anti-Romantic and their reintroduction back to the wearing out of wind effects. By 1923, with the rise of new organisational structure, this movement had mostly passed by, and by the time of the composition of the Duo Concertant, it played no further part at all. What remained was the musical aversion to combining tempered and untempered instruments, but for Strawinsky did not care in this particular circumstance.
Versions: The Duo Concertant was published in 1933 by the Russian Music Publishing House of Koussevitzky and was republished in 1951 by Boosey & Hawkes with an indication to the original publishers and with the original copyright mark. There was no revised version in the context of the revised ballet versions. The contract with the Russian publishers bears the Roman numeral XV and was signed by Strawinsky on 9th April 1932 in Voreppe and on 11th April by Gabriel Païchadze in Paris. The contract was returned to Strawinsky on 16th April 1932. A fee of $1,250 was arranged with an immediate payment of $650 upon the settling of the contract. In the first year of publication, 102 copies were sold, and between 1935 and 1938, only a few more than 150 copies were sold. The composition was therefore not an especial commercial success. –The first Boosey edition is different from the subsequent only due to the lack of a printers’ acknowledgement and an Edidit number. Even the movement name ‘Cantilène’, which was falsely printed on the title page of the violin part, survives .
Historical Recordings: 6th and 7th (Gigue) April 1933, Studio Albert Paris, Samuel Dushkin and Igor Strawinsky; 11th and 13th. October 1945, Joseph Szigeti and Igor Strawinsky.
CD edition: VII-2/1-5 (Recording1945).
Autograph: Score in the collection of Dr. Maurice Gilbert in Paris: a complete sketch of the score is in the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel.
Copyright: 1933 by Édition Russe de Musique (Russischer Musikverlag) Berlin.
Editions
a) Overview
54-1 1933; Russischer Musikverlag Berlin; 27 pp.; R. M. V. 564.
54-1 Straw ibd. [with corrections].
54-2 (1951); Russischer Musikverlag / Boosey & Hawkes London; 28 pp.; 16373.
54-2 [52+] [1951+] ibd.
54-2 [65] [1965] ibd.
b) Characteristic features
54-1 IGOR STRAWINSKY / Duo Concertant* / Pour* / Violon & Piano / en cinq mouvements/ [drawing] / Edition Russe de Musique // IGOR STRAWINSKY / DUO CONCERTANT / pour VIOLON et PIANO / Prix : RM. 7.= / Frs.** 8.=/ EDITION RUSSE DE MUSIQUE / RUSSISCHER MUSIKVERLAG (G. M. B. H.***) / FONDÉE PAR S. ET N. KOUSSEVITZKY / BERLIN · LEIPZIG · PARIS · MOSCOU · LONDRES · NEW YORK · BUENOS AIRES / [°] / S. I. M. A. G. - Asnières-Paris. / 2 et 4, Avenue de la Marne – XXXIII**** // (Edition [library binding] 27 x 34.5 ([4°]); 27 [27] pages + 4 cover pages [front cover title partly in fancy letters with vignette 10 x 5 of a piano keyboard, violin and notes on the stand of the grand piano, 3 empty pages] + 2 pages front matter [title page, empty page] + 1 page back matter [empty page] + 12 [11] pages enclosed violin part; title head >DUO CONCERTANT / pour VIOLON et PIANO<; without dedication; author specified 1st page of score paginated p. 1 [violin part paginated p. 2] above and next to unnumbered movement title >Cantilène< [violin part below movement title] flush right centred >IGOR STRAWINSKY / 1932<; collaborator specified 1st page of score and part below type area flush left >Partie de Violon avec la collaboration de Samuel Dushkin.<; n ame of the instrument [exclusively part] 1st page of score above type area centre >VIOLON<; legal reservations score and part 1st page of score below collaborator specified flush left centred >Propriété de l'Editeur pour tous pays. / Edition Russe de Musique.°°° / Russischer Musikverlag G. m. b. H. Berlin.< flush right centred >Copyright 1933 by Russischer Musikverlag G. m. b. H. Berlin. / Tous droits d'exécution, de reproduction et / d'arrangements réservés pour tous pays.<; plate number [score and part] >R. M. V. 564<; without end of score dated; production indication score p. 27 flush left centred >S. I. M. A. G. - Asnières-Paris. / 2 et 4, Avenue de la Marne – XXXIII< part p. 12 > S. I. M. A. G. Asnières-Paris.< flush right as end mark score and part >GRANDJEAN GRAV .<) / (1933)
° Dividing horizontal line of 0.8 cm.
°° The score has no full point, but the part does have it (in the part, the point appears as if it is not correctly printed, and appears only thinly).
* Quasi-handwritten script.
** Currency units appear under another.
* G.M.B.H. is printed in smaller letters whereas B. and H. are printed below the G. and M.
**** The London copy > h.3992.b.(7.) < contains at the bottom of the page a stamp mark > MAJORATION 400 <, the copy Basel >62 / STRAW / 191< > 500< .
54-1Straw
Strawinsky’s copy of his estate is on the front cover page below >IGOR STRAWINSKY< signed and datet >Igor Strawinsky / Voreppe / le 7 Août 1933<. The copy contains corrections pp. 3, 5, 11, 19, 21, 22, 23, 27 (see Corrections / Errata).Difficult to read he notes in red: >Correctetd copy / of the so many / performances by / myself with / S. Dushkin / ISTR<.
54-2 [65] igor stravinsky / Duo Concertant / pour violon et piano/ édition russe de musique · boosey & hawkes // Igor Stravinsky / Duo Concertant / pour violon et piano/ Édition Russe de Musique (S. et N. Koussewitzky) · Boosey & Hawkes / London . Paris . Bonn . Johannesburg . Sydney . Toronto . New York // (Edition [library binding] 26.6 x 33 (2° [4°]); 28 [27] pages + 4 cover pages tomato-red on grey beige [front cover title, 2 empty pages, page with publisher’s advertisements >Igor Stravinsky<* production date >No. 40< [#] >7.65<] + 1 page front matter [title page] without back matter + 12 [11] pages enclosed violin part [library binding] 22.9 x 30.7 (2° [4°]) with 1 page front matter [front cover title >DUO CONCERTANT / pour VIOLON et PIANO / IGOR STRAVINSKY** / VIOLON** / 1932**]; title head score and part >DUO CONCERTANT / pour VIOLON et PIANO<; authors specified 1st pages of score and of part unpaginated [p. 2] score above and next to movement title [part between movement title and name of the instrument centre >VIOLON<] flush right centred >IGOR STRAVINSKY / 1932<; collaborator specified 1st page of score and of part below type area flush left >Partie de Violon avec la collaboration de Samuel Dushkin.<; legal reservations 1st page of score + violin part above title head flush left in a text box >IMPORTANT NOTICE / The unauthorized copying / of the whole or any part of / this publication is illegal< below type area flush left below collaborator specified >Copyright 1933 by Édition Russe de Musique (Russischer Musikverlag) / Copyright assigned 1947 to Boosey & Hawkes Inc., for all countries / All rights of reproduction in any form reserved<; platte number >B. & H.16373<; production indication 1st page of score [score + part] below type area flush right >Printed in England<; without end marks) // [1965]
* Compositions are advertised in two columns without edition numbers, without price information and without specification of places of printing >Operas and Ballets° / Agon [#] Apollon musagète / Le baiser de la fée [#] Le rossignol / Mavra [#] Oedipus rex / Orpheus [#] Perséphone / Pétrouchka [#] Pulcinella / The flood [#] The rake’s progress / The rite of spring° / Symphonic Works° / Abraham and Isaac [#] Capriccio pour piano et orchestre / Concerto en ré (Bâle) [#] Concerto pour piano et orchestre / [#] d’harmonie / Divertimento [#] Greetings°° prelude / Le chant du rossignol [#] Monumentum / Movements for piano and orchestra [#] Quatre études pour orchestre / Suite from Pulcinella [#] Symphonies of wind instruments / Trois petites chansons [#] Two poems and three Japanese lyrics / Two poems of Verlaine [#] Variations in memoriam Aldous Huxley / Instrumental Music° / Double canon [#] Duo concertant / string quartet [#] violin and piano / Epitaphium [#] In memoriam Dylan Thomas / flute, clarinet and harp [#] tenor, string quartet and 4 trombones / Elegy for J.F.K. [#] Octet for wind instruments / mezzo-soprano or baritone [#] flute, clarinet, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets and / and 3 clarinets [#] 2 trombones / Septet [#] Sérénade en la / clarinet, horn, bassoon, piano, violin, viola [#] piano / and violoncello [#] / Sonate pour piano [#] Three pieces for string quartet / piano [#] string quartet / Three songs from William Shakespeare° / mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet and viola° / Songs and Song Cycles° / Trois petites chansons [#] Two poems and three Japanese lyrics / Two poems of Verlaine° / Choral Works° / Anthem [#] A sermon, a narrative, and a prayer / Ave Maria [#] Cantata / Canticum Sacrum [#] Credo / J. S. Bach: Choral-Variationen [#] Introitus in memoriam T. S. Eliot / Mass [#] Pater noster / Symphony of psalms [#] Threni / Tres sacrae cantiones°< [° centre centred; °° original mistake in the title].
** The author’s name is centred flush right, and the names of the instruments are flush left between the name and number of the year.
K Catalog: Annotated Catalog of Works and Work Editions of Igor Strawinsky till 1971, revised version 2014 and ongoing, by Helmut Kirchmeyer.
© Helmut Kirchmeyer. All rights reserved.
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