Duo for Violin and Piano for violin and piano

Year
1973 - 1974
Duration
18'
Category
Chamber

Dedication: For Helen [Carter]
Buy Score: Associated Music Publishers
Manuscripts: Paul Sacher Stiftung

Premiere: Mar 21, 1975/ Paul Zukofsky (vn), Gilbert Kalish (pno)/ Cooper Union, New York, NY

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The Duo for Violin and Piano derives its character and expression from the contrast between its two very dissimilar instruments—the bow-stroked violin and the key struck piano. The mercurial violin music, at times intense and dramatic, at others light and fanciful, constantly changes its pace and tone of expression; the piano plays long stretches of music of consistent character and is much more regular both in rhythm and in style. The piano makes extensive use of the pedal to mask one sonority with another and then gradually to uncover the second- as in the very first measures. In fact, the long opening section for the piano forms a quiet, almost icy background to the varied and dramatic violin, which seems to fight passionately against the piano. After this beginning, the music is joined seamlessly until the end. In the course of the work, the violin focuses on one aspect of its part after another—and often on two or more aspects at a time-playing in a rubato, rhythmically irregular style, while the piano constantly plays regular beats, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Toward the end, while the violin is involved in a very fast impassioned music, the piano becomes more and more detached, playing a series of regular rhythmic patterns, each successively slower than the previous one. As the piano reaches a point of extreme slowness, the violin is heard increasingly alone, isolating for a few measures at a time the various elements of its part, with the quiet and more lyrical aspects given more prominence than previously. The general form is quite different from that of the music I wrote up to 1950. While this earlier music was based on themes and their development, here the musical ideas are not themes or melodies but rather groupings of sound materials out of which textures, linear patterns, and figurations are invented. Each type of music has its own identifying sound and expression, usually combining instrumental color with some “behavioral” pattern that relies on speed, rhythm, and musical intervals. There is no repetition, but a constant invention of new things-some closely related to each other, others, remotely. There is a stratification of sound so that much of the time the listener can hear two different kinds of music, not always of equal prominence occurring simultaneously. This kind of form and texture could be said to reflect the experience we often have of seeing something in different frames of reference at the same time.

– Elliott Carter

Upcoming Performances (2)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Photo by Marco Borggreve.

Dec 4, 2026 7:30 pm

Thomas Zehetmair & Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Thomas Zehetmair, violin; Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin, Germany/More Info

Recordings (8)

American Violin Music 1947 to 2000
Centaur CRC4070 (2024)
Rolf Schulte, violin | Ursula Oppens, piano
Miranda Cuckson & Blair McMillen: Carter, Sessions, Eckardt
Urlicht (2014)
Miranda Cuckson, violin | Blair McMillen, piano
Elliott Carter: Musique de chambre
Arion ARN 68495 (2000)
Patrick Gallois, flute | Maurice Bourgue, oboe | Michel Lethiec, clarinet | Amaury Wallez, bassoon | André Cazalet, horn | Claire Désert, piano | Gérard Poulet, violin (+1)
Ursula Oppens; Arditti String Quartet: Elliott Carter: Chamber Music
Auvidis Montaigne MO 782091 (1998)
Ursula Oppens, piano | Arditti Quartet: Irvine Arditti, violin; Graeme Jennings, violin; Garth Knox, viola; Rohan De Saram, cello
Ole Bøhn & Noël Lee: Contemporary Music from America
Victoria VCD 19094 (1996)
Ole Bøhn, violin | Noël Lee, piano
The Group for Contemporary Music: Elliott Carter: Eight Compositions (1948-1993)
Bridge Records BCD 9044 (1994)
Charles Neidich, clarinet | Harvey Sollberger, flute | Fred Sherry, cello | Rolf Schulte, violin | Martin Goldray, piano | David Starobin, guitar | Charles Wuorinen, piano
Elliott Carter: The Four String Quartets; Duo for Violin and Piano
Sony S2K 47229 (1991)
Robert Mann, violin | Christopher Oldfather, piano | Juilliard String Quartet: Joel Smirnoff, violin; Samuel Rhodes, viola; Joel Krosnick, cello
Elliott Carter: Double Concerto; Duo for Violin and PIano
Nonesuch H-71314 (1975)
Paul Jacobs, harpsichord | Gilbert Kalish, piano | The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Arthur Weisberg, conductor | Paul Dunkel, flute | Raymond DesRoches, percussion | Claire Heldrich, percussion (+14)