Duett for trombone and double bass
Encyclopedia
Duett for trombone and double bass is a musical work by the English composer Edward Elgar
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The duet was composed as wedding gift to Frank Weaver, a brother of Helen Weaver to whom the composer had been engaged some four years earlier, and presented to him on 1 August 1887, when he married Fannie Jones. Weaver was about a year older than Elgar; he was a shoemaker and an amateur double bass player, and Elgar played the trombone. Frank and Helen Weaver were among the children of William Weaver, a shoe merchant whose shop was in Worcester
High Street, opposite Elgar's father's music shop.
The manuscript was inherited by one of Frank Weaver's sons, and was eventually published by Rodney Slatford
(Yorke Edition) in 1970.
in which the subject is first played by the double bass
then imitated by the trombone
a fourth higher.
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
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The duet was composed as wedding gift to Frank Weaver, a brother of Helen Weaver to whom the composer had been engaged some four years earlier, and presented to him on 1 August 1887, when he married Fannie Jones. Weaver was about a year older than Elgar; he was a shoemaker and an amateur double bass player, and Elgar played the trombone. Frank and Helen Weaver were among the children of William Weaver, a shoe merchant whose shop was in Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
High Street, opposite Elgar's father's music shop.
The manuscript was inherited by one of Frank Weaver's sons, and was eventually published by Rodney Slatford
Rodney Slatford
Rodney Slatford is an English contemporary double bass player and teacher . He was the principal bass player of the Midland Sinfonia, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and English Chamber Orchestra, a founder of the Nash Ensemble, and has been a principal player in other early music ensembles...
(Yorke Edition) in 1970.
Description
The duet is an Allegretto of length 49 bars. It is in the form of a fugueFugue
In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....
in which the subject is first played by the double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
then imitated by the trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
a fourth higher.