Stephen Heller (1813-1888) is, it seems, but little known today, having been largely forgotten by even the time of his own death, nearly a hundred and twenty years ago. He was fairly prolific, however, and, at least for his time, was rather influential. While for myself, I can't claim any great fondness for his larger compositional works, I find that among his short studies and preludes are several pieces I enjoy. Most of them are less than two minutes, many less than one, and yet I still find several charming, and find that they say what they need to in that small window. Perhaps it's only me, or to my taste, but should anyone share it, I will offer here two such little works.
The first is as he wrote it, a brief piano statement, allegretto con spirito, in A minor, being no. 17 of his Op. 47 collection of twenty-five studies for "Rhythm and Expression". It's approximately 52 seconds in length. I am thinking about arranging it as a violin and 'cello duet, but for the moment, for anyone interested, here it is for piano:
The other piece, no. 10, Mit rascher Leichtigkeit hingeworfen, in der Art eine Federeichnung, in C# minor, from his Op. 81, 24 Preludes in all keys, was originally written for piano, though I have chosen to render it somewhat differently. I was thinking originally to make it another installment in my series of doing classical works on the six-string bass (first, second), but, alas, not being Billy Sheehan I don't have quite the requisite speed or precision in my right-handed tapping on a bass to pull it off. Yet the form of this piece, I think, makes it particularly well-suited to the guitar family of instruments, so while I couldn't manage it on the bass, I thought perhaps it would make for an acoustic guitar arrangement. Unable to find an acceptable range for the piece however that would allow me to render it as a solo work on that instrument, I've split it into a duet. I've set the left hand line of the piano to a twelve string guitar played with a pick (for both guitars I have gone with steel strings, as I can't get the crispness of this piece from the nylon strings more typical of classical guitar: note that I'm not saying it's impossible, only that I can't do it). For the right hand, the primary melodic line, I have set it to a six string acoustic played with a plucking finger-style. To get the best range on the guitar, I also transposed this to E from the original C#, minor in both cases. The playtime is exactly one minute.
Finally, to close this with something rather more palatable to the ears than my recent fumbling about, I offer my favorite interpretation of Monti's "Csárdás", performed by the incredibly talented Maxim Vengerov and three of the members of Bassiona Amorosa (with the fab. Roman Patkoló carrying the solo bass), demonstrating that, like the electric bass, the orchestral contrabass is capable of much more than its traditional role of playing a background and supportive role.
Lento en mi sombra, la penumbra hueca
exploro con el báculo indeciso,
yo, que me figuraba el Paraíso
bajo la especie de una biblioteca.—Jorge Luis Borges, "Poema de los dones"
