Fritz Kreisler

The aubade originated in seventeenth century France as royal wake up music, and here Kreisler rouses his listeners with sounds that are sweet, gentle, and rather melancholy. The piece looks ahead to a style that would permeate much of Francis Poulenc's piano music. Its pattern is ABAB, with the A sections being a somewhat bittersweet, expressive Andante in B flat marked Tranquillo. The violin sings out its melody mainly on the A and D strings, with little hesitations between phrases that continuously shift from duple to triple meter and back. The B sections slip into C minor, but the music, marked Allegro non troppo, doesn't darken; indeed, it becomes more active and upbeat, with strongly marked syncopations and dotted notes disguising the fact that Kreisler is still using essentially the same melody.