Duett for trombone and double bass

Duett for trombone and double bass is a musical work by the English composer Edward Elgar.

The duet was composed as wedding gift to Frank Weaver, a brother of Helen Weaver[1] to whom the composer had been engaged some four years earlier,[2] and presented to him on 1 August 1887 when he married Fannie Jones.[3] Weaver was about a year older than Elgar;[4] he was a shoemaker and an amateur double bass player, and Elgar played the trombone.[5] Frank and Helen Weaver were among the children of William Weaver, a shoe merchant whose shop was in Worcester High Street, opposite Elgar's father's music shop.[6]

The manuscript was inherited by one of Frank Weaver's sons, and was eventually published by Rodney Slatford (Yorke Edition) in 1970.

Description

The duet is an Allegretto of length 49 bars. It is in the form of a fugue in which the subject is first played by the double bass then imitated by the trombone a fourth higher.

Notes
  1. Moore, p.132: "That was Frank Weaver, the brother of Helen."
  2. McVeagh, p.9: "In 1883 Elgar became engaged to Helen Weaver ... but the following year the engagement was broken off."
  3. FreeBMD record: Frank William Weaver married Fannie Jones in Droitwich, Worcestershire, 1887, ref. 6c 511
  4. England and Wales census, 1891: Frank William Weaver, age 25, boot manufacturer, with wife Fannie and daughter Marguerite, living at Severn Lodge, Worcester St. Nicholas
  5. Editor's Note in the Yorke Edition publication of the work, 1970
  6. England and Wales census, 1861: William Weaver, boot and shoe maker, 84 High Street, Worcester, with wife Jane and children Ada Clara, Frank and Ellen (Helen)

References
  • McVeagh, Diana M. (2007). Elgar the Music Maker. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-295-9.
  • Moore, Jerrold N. (1984). Edward Elgar: A Creative Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-315447-1.
  • Slatford, Rodney (ed.). (1970). Edward Elgar: Duett for Trombone and Double Bass. London: Yorke Edition YE0016

Duett for Trombone and Double Bass: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project

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