Bagatelle

The very first bagatel with the same name was created by Francois Couperin in his second collection of harpsichord pieces, in which one rondo was entitled Les bagatelles (bagatelles, trinkets).

XIX century

Probably the most famous bagatelles were written by Ludwig van Beethoven ( 1770 - 1827 ), who published three collections: “Bagatelles. Opus 33 "," Bagatelles. Opus 119 "and" Bagatelles. Opus 126. " He also wrote several similar works that were not published during his lifetime, including the play, which is best known as “ To Elise ” (opatelist Opus 59, it belongs to 1810 ).

Other notable examples are

“Bagatel without tonality” by Franz Liszt (early study of atonality ),

collection of Antonin Dvořák for two violins , cello and harmonium (Op. 47), collection of Bedřich Smetana ,

Bagatelles Jan Sibelius .

Anton Diabelli also wrote the bagatelle in a short and funny way.

Camille Saint-Saens wrote six bagatelles (opus 3).

XX century

In the twentieth century, several composers wrote collections, including

Bela Bartok , who wrote a collection of fourteen bagatelles (opus 6);

Alexander Cherepnin .

Anton Webern wrote six bagatelists for string quartet (Opus 9);

Gerald Finzi - “Five Bagatelles” for clarinet and piano.

The canonical modern example of bagatelles is the collection of György Ligeti , who originally composed six bagatelles for piano, and later remade them for winds in 1953 (Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet).

William Walton also wrote The Five Bagatelles for solo guitars, which were included in the repertoire of such prominent classical guitarists as Julian Brim , Christopher Parkening and Ana Widovich .

The American composer Charles Vuorinen wrote a bagatel for piano solo, to which he later did the orchestration.

Australian composer Carl Vine also wrote five bagatelles for piano ( 1994 ), which are often performed at piano competitions, especially in Australia.

Of the Russian composers, Edison Denisov is known for writing seven plays-bagatelists in 1960 .

In the latest works of Valentin Silvestrov, the main form becomes the bagatelle. For Silvestrov, there is a deep meaning in it - direct, spontaneous self-expression, improvisational utterance. “An entity can often lurk in trifles,” says the composer. - In a trifle contains a grain of high, as the sun reflects in a drop of dew. We can find this in Bach's inventions , Chopin's preludes , where we see the same height as in large compositions, but concentrated in the instant. ”

• To Eliza