Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 12/18/2007, uploaded on 01/13/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Sicilienne and Rigaudon                Fritz Kreisler

The Sicilienne and Rigaudon is one of the many pieces that violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler composed "in the style of" other composers.  When he first presented and published these pieces, he offered them as recently discovered works by those other composers, newly adapted and arranged by himself. In the case of Sicilienne and Rigaudon, it is eighteenth-century French violinist/composer François Francoeur whose name is on the title sheet, though the piece really has nothing to do with Francoeur's style.

The piece is a simple and a charming one, however. The Sicilienne is a binary-form miniature that sweeps along on a characteristic dotted rhythm, with a rather melancholy melody. Think old French ballet. The constant 16th notes of the Rigaudon, give it a character quite unlike that of a traditional rigaudon-a cheerful Baroque dance movement in duple meter.      Yang Xu

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.