ADAGIO AND ALLEGRETTO FROM PARTITA FOR SOLO VIOLA, OP. 31

Ahmed Adnan Saygun
(b. Izmir, Turkey, September 7, 1907; d. Istanbul, January 6, 1991), arr. Hsin-Yun Huang

Composed 1955; 11 minutes

Growing up in the twilight years of Ottoman Turkey and the early years of Kemal Atatürk’s reforms, the young Ahmed Adnan Saygun studied both oud and piano from an early age. He was among the first of his generation to pursue advanced music studies in the West. Composition studies in Paris under Eugène Borrel at the Conservatoire and Vincent d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum gave him the necessary technique. On his return, Saygun began to build a substantial catalog of works embracing European genres, including operas, oratorios, concertos, symphonies and string quartets. His work researching Turkish folk song led to collaboration with Bartók and the Hungarian composer’s field trip to Anatolia in 1936. Saygun continued his work in ethnomusicology for many years. In his creative work he declared in a 1947 interview: “My entire aim was to get across the kind of synthesis one can create by using motives based on our national folksongs in Western compositional techniques.” The Partita for solo cello, to be heard today in an arrangement for viola by the performer, came from a commission by the German Consulate marking the 150th anniversary of the death of German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller.