Duet
A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as "piano duet" or "piano four hands".[1] A piece for two pianists performing together on separate pianos is referred to as a "piano duo".
When Mozart was young, he and his sister Marianne played a duet of his composition at a London concert in 1765. While young, he helped introduce what a duet is. The four-hand, described as a duet, was in many of his compositions which included five sonatas; a set of variations, two performers and one instrument, and a sonata for two pianos. These mark the beginning of duet history. The first published sonata or duet was in 1777.[2]
"Duet" is also used as a verb for the act of performing a musical duet, or colloquially as a noun to refer to the performers of a duet. The word is also occasionally used in reference to non-musical activities performed together by two people.
In Renaissance music, a duet specifically intended as a teaching tool, to be performed by teacher and student, was called a bicinium (see Étude).
References
- ↑ Christensen, T. (1999). "Four-Hand Piano". Journal of the American Musicological Society, 52(2) 255–298
- ↑ Miller, H.-M. (1943). The Earliest Keyboard Duets. The Musical Quarterly, 29(4), 438–457.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Duet". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press
External links
The dictionary definition of duet at Wiktionary