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. [7]
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
- ^ Moore 1984, p. 132: "That was Frank Weaver, the brother of Helen."
- ^ McVeagh 2007, p. 9: "In 1883 Elgar became engaged to Helen Weaver ... but the following year the engagement was broken off."
- ^ FreeBMD record: Frank William Weaver married Fannie Jones in Droitwich, Worcestershire, 1887, ref. 6c 511
- ^ 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
- ^ Slatford 1970, Editor's note.
- ^ 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)
- ^ Slatford 1970.
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.
