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Dohnányi Ernő: Pastorale

Hungarian Christmas-Song

Category: Piano
Genre: Christmas music
Extent: 12 pages
Format: 23 x 30,2 cm (Bach)
Weight: 0.076 kg
Publication: September 1, 1961
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Editio Musica Budapest
Catalogue number: 3581
ISMN: 9790080035818
In the period after World War I, Dohnányi began composing nationalist works. This included his Pastorale on a Hungarian Christmas Song, which he premiered in Budapest on 27 December 1920. This work is based on a traditional Hungarian melody: the Christmas carol 'Mennyből az angyal' (The Angel from Heaven), a song about the angel who appeared before the shepherds to announce Jesus's birth. In keeping with the standard conventions for composing Pastorales, Dohnányi's contribution to the genre features drones in the bass that imitate shepherds' bagpipes and a lilting siciliana in the upper register that is reminiscent of shepherds' shawms. The Hungarian Christmas Song finally enters during the repetition of the siciliana, as counterpoint to that melody.

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