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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
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