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Work Title Six Melodies for Violin and Piano |
Alt. Title Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard |
Date Composed in 1950. Premiered in Cambridge, Mass., November, 1959. |
Ensemble Type Duo |
Work Length 15 minutes |
Instrumentation For violin and piano. |
Comments This is another of Cage’s compositions comprising melodic lines without accompaniment, using single tones. Intervals are played requiring one or both of the work’s instruments for their production. The music is very simple and its atmosphere similar to that of Cage’s String Quartet in four parts. In fact, in one of his letters to Pierre Boulez, Cage calls the Six Melodies a “postscript to the Quartet,” and he makes use of the same gamut of sounds. The rhythmic structure is 3 1/2, 3 1/2, 4, 4, 3, 4. |
Dedicatee(s) Josef and Anni Albers |
Publication Peters Edition EP 6748 |