Arthur Honegger

In the early 20th century, composer Erik Satie assembled a group of young musicians who rebelled against the music of Wagner and Debussy. Known as "Les Six," the avant-garde composers collaborated with the poet Jean Cocteau to present a highly successful theater program that became the rage of Parisian artistic circles in the 1920s. Suitable for intermediate- and advanced-level pianists, this original compilation features 20 works by composers Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre.

Composed in August of 1920 while vacationing in his native Switzerland, Pastorale d'ete (Summer Pastorale) evokes a peaceful summer morning in the Swiss Alps. The composer even prefaced the first published edition of the score with an epigraph by Arthur Rimbaud - I have embraced the summer dawn. The premiere took place in Paris at the Salle Gaveau under the baton of Vladimir Golschmann on February 17, 1921. This new study score is a digitally-enhanced reissue of the edition published by Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag in 1922. Unlike so many of the on-demand scores now available, this one comes with all the pages and the images have been thoroughly checked to make sure it is readable. The large conductor's score and orchestra parts are also available from Serenissima Music (98300).