Canzonetta for String Ensemble, Op. 8b, for Flute and String Ensemble, Op. 8c, for Symphony Orchestra, Op. 8d

The Canzonetta in D major op. 8 was originally written for violin and piano; Dora Pejačević composed it in 1899, dedicating it to her friend Stefi Geyer, the celebrated Hungarian violinist. Quite soon, in 1902, it was published by the Budapest publisher Harmonia. Apart from the collection Six Pieces for Piano, which includes opuses 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10, this was also the first of her works to be printed and the first one to be performed in public. On October 25, 1901, it was performed in Samobor by Stefi Geyer and the pianist Valeria Ipolyi. The young composer later arranged the Canzonetta for flute and string orchestra but we have today no information about the exact time at which given arrangements were produced. Probably the composer arranged the piece as a kind of exercise in instrumentation and arranging compositions for larger ensembles. Although Dora Pejačević composed it when she was still only fourteen, the Canzonetta reveals great musicality and the gift for composition of the youthful artist, above all in the striking and lovely melodic line. The composition is very simple in form – introduction – A – B – A’ and coda. The Coda of the piece is also a moving testimony to the richness of the composer’s acoustic imagination: the flageolets used in the upper register of the violin, apart from confirming her excellent knowledge of the technical and performative possibilities of the violin (she was herself an excellent violinist), they give the composition a special acoustic colour and in fact an ethereal airiness of sound. The composer retains this effect of shifting the acoustic centre of gravity to the end of the composition in a very high acoustic register in transpositions for other ensembles, but achieve them with different techniques of playing, i.e., instrumentation. This edition of arrangements of the composition for flute and string orchestra, flute and symphony orchestra, is based on the composer’s autographs that are kept in the library and archives of the Croatian Music Institute. Composed according to the habits of the music then played in drawing rooms, Canzonetta is an unpretentious work by a young artist in which we still cannot guess at her future impressive development as composer and the outstanding artistic accomplishments of her later opuses. Bu the charm, grace and freshness of expression, the inspiration of the melodic line and the interesting sound quality are features of this likeable and striking musical work.