Sarabanda

The Sarabanda for violin and piano (P015a) is a short composition consisting of three pages dated 1897, published here for the first time. The original manuscript is part of the private archive of Potito Pedarra, cataloguer of Ottorino Respighi’s compositional legacy. Ottorino Respighi composed this work during his youth in the same year as the Sonata in D minor (1897, P015), Giga (P015b) and Allegretto vivace (P015c), all scored for violin and piano. In 1898, Respighi transposed the Sarabanda to F major in order to incorporate it into the Suite per pianoforte (P022, unedited). Traces of the Sarabanda’s theme are recognizable in the Grave (Tempo di Sarabanda) of the second part of the unedited ballet Le Astuzie di Colombina (Scherzo veneziano), composed in 1920 (P130, unedited). The autograph manuscript of the Sarabanda for violin and piano has a number of posthumous markings which have not been included in this edition.