Sicilienne G minor

The Sicilienne goes back to a commission concerning an unfinished incidental music of Molière's 'Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'. Only after its incorporation into another incidental music (Pelléas et Mélisande) and resurfacing in a new instrumentation (for violoncello and orchestra) was the setting performed for the first time in 1898. The same year, the Sicilienne was published by the Paris publishing house Hamelle in a version for violoncello and piano, with an additional violin part. There are no records testifying to the composer's writing the violin version himself. The work was then reprinted by the publisher Metzler in London as 'Sicilienne pour Violoncelle ou Violon et Piano'. The present edition contains the musical text of the Parisian first edition, with only a few additional violin bars added from the London version. The piano part contains the original phrasing slurs of the violin part. Everybody who wants to know about the original phrasing of the composer has to take a look at the piano part.