"Csárdás" (or "Czardas") is a rhapsodical concert piece by the Italian composer

Vittorio Monti Vittorio Monti (6 January 186820 June 1922) was an Italian composer, violinist, mandolinist and conductor. His most famous work is his '' Csárdás'', written around 1904 and played by almost every Romani orchestra. Monti was born in Naples ...

. Written in 1904, the well-known folkloric piece is based on a Hungarian

csárdás Csárdás (, ; ), often seen as Czárdás, is a traditional Hungarian folk dance, the name derived from ' (old Hungarian term for roadside tavern and restaurant). It originated in Hungary and was popularized by bands in Hungary and neighboring l ...

. It was originally composed for

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, or

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. There are

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

s for

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

and for a number of solo instruments. "Csárdás" is about four-and-a-half minutes in duration.

Structure

The piece has seven different sections, usually of a different tempo (and, occasionally,

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

). The first half of the piece is in

D minor D minor is a minor scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has one flat. Its relative major is F major and its parallel major is D major. The D natural minor scale is: Changes needed for t ...

; it modulates to

D major D major (or the key of D) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor. The D major scale is: : Ch ...

, then back to D minor, and then finally finishes in D major. The sections are as follows: The tempo changes make the piece exciting and interesting, but even with all of these tempo changes, it is generally expected that there should be some

rubato Tempo rubato (, , ; 'free in the presentation', literally ) is a musical term referring to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor. Rub ...

to add feeling to the piece. There are also many different dynamic changes in the piece, ranging from ''

pianissimo In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings still require interpretation by the performer dependin ...

'' to ''fortissimo''. In the ''Meno, quasi lento'' section, the violin plays

artificial harmonic Playing a string harmonic (a flageolet) is a string instrument technique that uses the nodes of natural harmonics of a musical string to isolate overtones. Playing string harmonics produces high pitched tones, often compared in timbre to a wh ...

s. This involves the violinist placing their finger down on the note and playing another note, with the finger only just touching the string 5

semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most dissonant when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent no ...

s above. This gives the effect of the violin sounding two

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

s (24 semitones) higher.

Published scores

*Monti: Czardas per violino e pianoforte. Z. 13 700 (Editio Musica Budapest). *The Celebrated Czardas by V. Monti F 102595 F ( G. Ricordi & Co., London Limited)

References

External links

* *
"Czardas" sheet music
kreusch-sheet-music.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Csardas (Monti) 1904 compositions Compositions by Vittorio Monti