Zigeunerweisen

Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) (Op. 20) is a piece in C minor for violin and orchestra (or violin and piano) written in 1878 by the Spanish composer and virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate and premiered during the same year in Leipzig. It is based on themes of the Roma people, specifically the rhythms of the csárdás. Zigeunerweisen is of approximately ten minutes' duration.

Sarasate's most popular composition and a favorite among violin virtuosi, the work has remained a staple on records at least since Sarasate himself committed it to wax in 1904; a few of the masters who have recorded it in more recent years would include Nigel Kennedy, Zino Francescatti, Jascha Heifetz, Ivry Gitlis, Itzhak Perlman, Kyung-wha Chung, Gil Shaham, Midori Goto, and Anne-Sophie Mutter. String bassist Edgar Meyer recorded a version with Béla Fleck and Mike Marshall on the album Uncommon Ritual. It was featured in the 2002 film Together, and it provided both the title and much of the soundtrack for Seijun Suzuki's 1980 film Zigeunerweisen. Much of Zigeunerweisen also features in the Hong Kong film Kung Fu Hustle.

Composition

Zigeunerweisen is in one movement but can be divided into four sections based on the tempi:

Moderato: an imposing, virtuosic introduction with slow majestic energy by the orchestra, then a little softer by the violin itself.
Lento: the violin plays in lugubrious lento 4/4. This section has an improvisational quality; the melody, which essentially consists of pairs of 4-bar phrases, is punctuated with difficult runs and other technically demanding figures, including flying spiccato and ricochet bowings.
Un poco più lento 2/4 — The muted soloist plays a melancholic melody with the so-called reverse-applied dotted note (1/16 + dotted 1/8 rhythm).
Allegro molto vivace 2/4 — At this point, the piece becomes extremely rapid. The challenging solo part consists mainly of long spiccato runs, along with double stops, artificial harmonics and left-hand pizzicato.