Donizetti: Dance Nº 2 from “La Favorite”: Arranged as a Cello Duo

Here is the second dance (ballet) theme of Piece Nº 8 from Act II of Donizetti‘s opera “La Favorite”. Apart from being wonderful, lively, sparkling italian music it is also a magnificent study for fast binary dotted rhythms played mostly with hooked bowings but also with a variety of different articulations. Originally scored for wind instruments (flute, clarinet, oboe and piccolo), it is offered here as a cello duo in three different versions:

• two “equal” duos in which both cellos play the same lively dotted rhythm but with different harmonisations. The first duo is in simple octaves, as Donizetti wrote it, while the second duo is harmonised, mostly in thirds and sixths by cellofun as an enjoyable experiment
• an “unequal” duo in which the dotted dance melody is played above a simple, undotted, skeletal accompaniment.

1. Donizetti Dotted Dance Duo from La Favorite in Octaves
2.     Donizetti Dotted Dance Duo from La Favorite in 3rds and 6ths
3.      Donizetti Dance Duo from La Favorite: Theme and Simple Accompaniment

1.  Engraving Files (XML)

Here are home-audio recordings of all three of these versions: