A duet with a violin

[danse˛]

My friend is a great violinist, and I wanted to do a duet with him.  They're aren't any particular songs that pop into my head though.  Any suggestions?

[xvimbi]

How about Beethoven or Brahms violin sonatas? Surely overplayed, but a good learning experience nevertheless.

[James B]

well there are many things....

How good is your friend? Maybe discuss it with him/her whether or not (s)he would be prepared to play a concerto/sonata/suite/impression (etc, you get the picture! hahah). Your friend might also know pieces that (s)he wants to play...

[Rach3]

Liszt double concerto!

Just kidding. Seriously, try sight-reading the Brahms or Beethoven sonatas together and see what happens. Or look at some later pieces, the impressionistic Faure sonata or (my favorite) the Franck (4th mov. is gorgeous). Brahms 3 is really cool, the second is very underrated. I don't care for the first. Kreutzer is the best known Beethoven sonata, but they are all very good (Beethoven isn't known for writing mediocre sonatas [op. 49 excepted]). Or if you need something simpler to get the feel of accompanying, do some baroque stuff (Handel wrote many violin-keyboard things).
You can even do a violin concerto (reduced part) for fun... it's useful practice and some arrangements work quite nicely with piano reduction (mozarts especially). Extremely useful skill to accompany concerto soloists; and your friend most likely would really appreciate it.
One rather short intermediate-level piece came to mind - Brahms' 'sonatensatz' (sonata movement) in c minor, small-sized show piece if you've never accompanied before.
If you've never accompanied a violinist before, perhaps a few Words of Warning: violinists are very finicky musicians, they get really overexcited about some strange things like 'staying in tempo', it's some violinist eccentricity. Oh yeah, and never, ever suggest that they are out of tune. You won't live to regret it.

-Rach3

[steve]

Well my friend is also a very good violinist and asked me recently whether I wanted to play a duet, so I rooted around for some good stuff to play and one that really leapt out at me (other than the stalwart Franck) was Debussy's sonata, where the piano and violin get equal billing for a change, rather than the usual case where the piano is more an accompaniment.

You can get the sheetmusic for it here: https://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bhr8964/large/index.html

[richard w]

Thanks Rach3! Ever since I read this thread I've been trying to figure out what duo piece I had in mind. I played it once with a violinist, so I should really have known. I had this idea that it was Franck's Sonata, but when I went to look at the score (which happily is available at sheetmusicarchive.net) it didn't match. Until that is you pointed out the 4th movement. I've just checked it now, and that is exactly what I was thinking of.

That's my recommendation, anyway.

Oh yeah, and never, ever suggest that they are out of tune. You won't live to regret it.

Very true. Good pianists are able to move the piano around the platform, thereby taking advantage of the Doppler effect, and subsequently remaining in perfect harmony with the violinist. Wearing roller skates can help with this. This is a necessary skill when accompanying violinists.

[dinosaurtales]

Mozart wrote several violin/piano sonatas.  They are quite doable.  If you are killer sight reader (I am not) you could actually sight read the things.  I actually had to practice mine.

[danse˛]

You guys stated all of these composers, but are there any specific pieces that you could tell me?

[Etude]

My friend is a great violinist, and I wanted to do a duet with him. They're aren't any particular songs that pop into my head though. Any suggestions?

I don't think the violin can sing songs but here is a piece of which the piano part seems fairly simple but the violin part is just crazy: Moto Perpetuo by Paganini

violinists are very finicky musicians

Hey, I'm a (terrible) violinist, I'm not finicky, I just  once spent about quarter of an hour tuning up at an orchestral rehearsal before I was happy. 

violinist eccentricity

fair enough. 

[sirpazhan]

I got two perfect pieces for piano and violin:

1) Carlos Gardel - Por Una Cabarez (Tango song from True Lies)
     https://www.todotango.com/english/biblioteca/partituras/partitura.asp?id=224
     you can even listen to the song.

2)  Felix Mendelssohn - Concerto for Piano & Violin in D minor
https://www.elenakuschnerova.com/MP4-Audio/Mendelssohn-VPC_d-moll-3-Gelbard-Kuschnerova.mp4

I'll go for these two.. the tango song is the best ,,, and if you can manage to get the concerto down,, wow,, thats all I have to say.... Hands down,, your the .......


-as

[dlu]

Ravel-Tzigane

I have the sheets if you need them. Just post your e-mail address.

DLu

[Melanie]

hey, im thinking about doing a duet with my friend too (her violin, me piano)  could you email me the sheets to me too?

thanks

melonhead810@gmail.com

[scrabble]

DLu, could I have a conpy of the Tzigane? Thanks. My email is Scrabble176@yahoo.com

I find that playing chamber music on the piano is much more difficult than playing alone. When listening to the other instrument, I easily make mistakes. It's true that chamber music requires more listening and in that way it is supposed to be harder, but I don't have the same problem on violin. Perhaps it is two lines of music as opposed to one. Has anyone discovered the same thing?

[minimozart007]

What about Ravel's Sonata?

[danse˛]

DLu

my email is

audiohabit@hotmail.com