Zigeunerweisen

Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs), Op. 20, is a musical composition for violin and orchestra written in 1878 by the Spanish composer and virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate and premiered during the same year in Leipzig. It is based on themes of the Roma people, specifically the rhythms of the csárdás.

Sarasate's most popular composition and a favorite among violin virtuosi, the work has remained a staple on records at least since Sarasate himself recorded it in 1904. It has also been recorded by Mischa Elman, Nigel Kennedy, Zino Francescatti, Jascha Heifetz, Ivry Gitlis, Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Kyung-wha Chung, Gil Shaham, Midori Gotō, Sarah Chang, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and David Garrett. String bassist Edgar Meyer recorded a version with Béla Fleck and Mike Marshall on the album Uncommon Ritual. It was featured in the 2002 film Together, and it provided both the title and much of the soundtrack for Seijun Suzuki's 1980 film Zigeunerweisen.

Composition

Zigeunerweisen is in one movement but can be divided into four sections, the first three in the key of C minor and the last in A minor, based on the tempi:

1. Moderato: an imposing, virtuosic introduction with slow majestic energy by the orchestra, then a little softer by the violin itself.
2. Lento: the violin plays in lugubrious lento 4/4. This section has an improvisational quality; the melody, which essentially consists of pairs of 4-bar phrases, is punctuated with difficult runs and other technically demanding figures, including flying spiccato and ricochet bowings.
3. Un poco più lento 2/4 – The muted soloist plays a melancholic melody with the so-called reverse-applied dotted note: 1/16 + dotted 1/8 rhythm.
4. Allegro molto vivace 2/4 – At this point, the piece becomes extremely rapid. The challenging solo part consists mainly of long spiccato runs, along with double stops, artificial harmonics and left-hand pizzicato.

External links

Pablo de Sarasate plays "Zigeunerweisen", c. 1904 on YouTube (piano accompaniment, first and fourth movements)