Oxford Music Online Duet (Fr. duo; Ger. Duett; It. duetto). A vocal or instrumental composition for two performers with or without accompaniment, in which the interest is shared more or less equally between the duettists. The term is not normally applied to the repertory of sonatas for keyboard and another instrument from the 18th century on, although it was often favoured along with ‘duo’, by 19th-century publishers. Some composers have preferred ‘duet’ for vocal and ‘duo’ for instrumental pieces, but that usage is by no means universal except in present-day German. Florid two-voiced tropes and conductus of the 13th century were almost certainly sung by soloists and are early examples of true duets (see HAM nos.37, Rex virginum and 38, Hac in anni janua). In motets and mass settings of the 15th century such passages often alternated with choral sections (HAM no.56, Guillaume Legrant, Credo); in many sources of Dunstaple’s music they bear the rubric ‘duo’ (see MB, viii, 1953). In Gero’s first book of madrigals for two voices (1541) and Morley’s canzonets the duet has become an independent piece. During the Renaissance the vocal and instrumental BICINIUM exemplifies the beginnings of a duet literature which is didactic in intention, and persists through works like Pepusch’s Aires for Two Violins made on Purpose for the Improvement of Practitioners in Consort (1709) and Haydn’s piano duet Il maestro e lo scolare to such 20th-century pieces as the violin duets of Bartók or nos.43 and 55 of his Mikrokosmos. In vocal duets a distinction may be drawn between pieces in which both voices sing the same text and those that take on a dramatic form (as in the 17th- century DIALOGUE or the operatic love duet) where each singer generally has different words. The former type includes, however, a number of curious cases where a single character is represented by two voices. The words of Jesus in Schütz’s Historia der … Aufferstehung (1623) are allotted to vocal duet, as are those of Mary Magdalene, and in 17th-century oratorios the part of the narrator (‘historicus’) was often similarly treated. The tradition was revived by both Britten in the canticle Abraham and Isaac (1952) and Stravinsky in The Flood (1962) for the voice of God. In the Baroque period the duetto per camera was an important form of vocal chamber music of which innumerable examples are found in the works of Cazzati, Agostino Steffani, Alessandro Scarlatti, Handel and others, many conceived as extended cantatas consisting of recitatives, arias and duets, sometimes with instrumental obbligato (e.g. Francesco Durante's Fiero, acerbo destin, HAM no.273). The same treatment was applied to sacred texts in such works as Campra’s motet Cantate Domino (HAM no.257) or, on a more extended scale with orchestra, in Pergolesi’s Stabat mater. In the 19th century duets parallel to the lied in structure form a considerable though now neglected part of the output of Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms. In opera the duet was employed almost from the outset. Monteverdi’s Orfeo and L’incoronazione di Poppea both have duets as concluding vocal items, the latter – a love duet for Poppea and Nero – being the earliest significant example of a genre that persisted until the duet became merged in the general continuity of the music (as in Verdi or Puccini) or dissolved into a musical dialogue in which the voices no longer sang simultaneously (as in later Wagner or Richard Strauss). In 17th-century Italy duets were much used in comic scenes within serious operas; these diversions began to take the form of intermezzos (see INTERMEZZO (II)) during the first decades of the 18th century. In opera seria for much of the 18th century duets were virtually the exclusive province of the principle couple and there were no other ensembles. In comic opera after 1750 large ensemble finales became the norm, and a duet for the principal buffa couple was usually the only other ensemble. Duets quickly became more prevalent, and an opera giocosa could have a duet for both the buffa and the seria couple. In Baroque France the duet was by far the most popular type of concerted number in the tragédie lyrique and showed more diversity of voice pairing than in opera seria, embracing duets of vengeance (usually for rejected suitors) and confontation, and pairings of hero or heroine with confidant(e). Normally both characters sang the same words, simultaneously, thus ensuring the clarity of the text that was always a prerequisite in French opera. The love duet in the Classic era was characterized by much singing in 3rds and 6ths, symbolizing unanimity after the resolution of earlier difficulties or uncertainties. (Mozart’s ‘Là ci darem’ from Don Giovanni and ‘Fra gli amplessi’ from Così fan tutte provide examples of vocal textures changing to symbolize the flux of emotion.) In the 19th century, especially in Italy, the duet assumed an importance equal to that of the aria. In Rossini’s time and after the ‘grand duet’ was normally in three movements: an opening tempo d’attacco, a slow cantabile and a final tempo di mezzo; classic examples are found in Semiramide, Norma and Lucia di Lammermoor). Two- movement duets were also prevalent throughout the century, but single- movement duets are rare outside opera buffa or semiseria (though represented in La sonnambula and Don Pasquale). From about 1870 the structure is governed by the sense of the text, the voices rarely uniting except in an amorous context. Transferred from an operatic context the love duet played a part in the symbolic representation of, for example, Christ and the Soul in Bach’s cantata Wachet auf BWV140. Keyboard duets, both original and arrangements of large-scale orchestral and vocal works, became increasingly popular during the 18th century (see PIANO DUET) and some were even composed for organ (for example by Samuel Wesley). A great deal of music, mostly for two recorders, two flutes or two violins, was published during the century, primarily for amateurs to play (and also serving a useful educational purpose, especially where an instrumental teacher did not have the skill to supply keyboard accompaniment or, indeed, where no keyboard instrument was available); much of it is on a trivial level, but the repertory includes works by Telemann, Geminiani, Leclair, J.W.A. and Carl Stamitz, Boccherini, J.C. Bach, Haydn, Mozart (for bassoon and cello, violin and viola, and two horns) and later Beethoven (viola and cello, clarinet and bassoon), Viotti and Spohr. In the 20th century there were instrumental duets by Reger (two violins), Poulenc (two clarinets, clarinet and bassoon), Ravel and Kodály (both for violin and cello) and Hindemith (violins, flutes, violin and clarinet), as well as Bartók. The term is occasionally applied to pieces for a single performer which simulate the idea of a real duet, e.g. J.S. Bach’s four Duettos BWV802–5 from Clavierübung, iii; Mendelssohn’s Lied ohne Worte op.38 no.6, subtitled ‘Duetto’; and Bartók’s ‘Duet for Pipes’, no.88 of Mikrokosmos.

Bibliography

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