Servais - Quatre Morceaux de Salon (Urtext Edition)

Quatre Morceaux de Salon is a set of pieces for cello and piano. These works are arguably the composer’s shortest. It is difficult to date these works, as the set was published posthumously. However, comparing the style and musical language to the 1830s manuscripts and published works, it is, perhaps, better to place these works in the 1860s.

In

Quatre Morceaux de Salon is a set of pieces for cello and piano. These works are arguably the composer’s shortest. It is difficult to date these works, as the set was published posthumously. However, comparing the style and musical language to the 1830s manuscripts and published works, it is, perhaps, better to place these works in the 1860s.

In the overall style, these pieces are best classified as pastiches. Whether intentional or not, Servais imitates the language of other composers while keeping his own style of cello writing. Here are the proposed composers whose music Servais is evoking: Schumann (1), Schubert and/or Rossini (2), Rossini (4). No. 3 is based on Ferdinand Fürchtegott Huber’s “Ach! wie churze-n-üsi Tage!” found in Sammlung von Schweizer-Kühreihen und Volksliedern. Servais also used this melody in his Fantaisie La Romantique.

To date, only the No. 2 has been recorded simply as “Piece” by Anner Bijlsma and Gérard van Blerk in 1975, released by Dutch Record Company (OM 555 027). The No. 3 was published by Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York in 1935 in a collection Pieces for violoncello: classic, romantic, modern edited by Albert E. Wier.