Légende (Enescu)

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Legende
Classification

Chamber Music

Playing range

Written range:

Légende (1906) is a solo work for trumpet and piano, composed by George Enescu and premiered by Merri Franquin, professor of cornet at the Paris Conservatoire. It reflects the impressionistic style of Enescu's teachers Jules Massenet and Gabriel Fauré.[citation needed] The title is an homage to Professor Franquin. The piece reflects an important step in the evolution of the trumpet from a more archaic limited instrument, to a fully chromatic and soloistic instrument.[citation needed] The fact that Enescu found it unnecessary to specify "chromatic trumpet" or "trumpet in C" in the work's title (which might have been normal just a few years earlier) is seen as a testament to Franquin's influence (Shamu 2009, 1).

Légende's range extends from a low A-flat to a high C, with an ossia passage that extends only to high B-flat. The piece requires extensive triple tonguing and an unspecified mute.[citation needed]

Légende is in the key of C minor, and begins with a simple lyrical melody which reappears twice. The second time, it is played during the climax in the higher octave, and in the muted conclusion, it appears again in the original low register. In between each statement of the melody are technical passages which require extensive triple tonguing and chromatic fingering. The piano accompaniment is chordal in the lyrical passages, and virtuosic in the technical sections, matching the difficulty of the trumpet part with extensive runs and arpeggios. A simple listing of the performance indications which follow each other in the score indicates the constantly evolving character of the music: doux, grave, hésitante, pathétique, gracieux, mouvement agité, chantant, vif, furieusement, rêveur (Hoffmann and Raţiu. 1971, 328).

Sources

  • Shamu, Geoffrey. 2009. "Merri Franquin and His Contribution to the Art of Trumpet Playing". DMA dissertation. Boston: Boston University. ISBN 978-1-109-00171-6.
  • Hoffmann, Alfred, and Adrian Raţiu. 1971. "Afirmarea". In George Enescu: Monografie. 2 vols., edited by Mircea Voicana, 1:239–455. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România.

External links

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