Six Melodies for Violin and Keyboard



Category: Musical composition
Dated: New York City, April 1950
Instrumentation: Violin and keyboard (piano)
Duration: 15'
Premiere and performer(s): November 1959 (?)
Dedicated to: For Josef and Anni Albers
Choreography: ---
Published: Edition Peters 6748 © 1960 by Henmar Press
Manuscript: Score (holograph copy in ink - 22 p.); Editing instructions, concerning publication (tyoescript with holograph annotation in ink, signed - 1 lf.), both in New York Public Library.


This is another composition with melodic lines without accompaniment, using single tones. Interval are played requiring onr or both of the instruments for their production.
The music is very simple and the atmosphere of it is similar to that of the String Quartet in four parts. In fact, in one of his letters to Pierre Boulez, Cage calls the Six Melodies a postscript to the Quartet, even with the use of the same gamut of sounds.
The rhythmic structure is 3½, 3½, 4, 4, 3, 4.