Three little pieces for strings (op. 19b, 1960)
Movement titles
I. Intrada, II. Melodia, III. Capriccio
Instrumentation
Strings
Duration: 9 minutes
Premiere
Pentecost 1960,
Darmstadt
Student Orchestra of the Darmstadt Academy of Music | Walter Kolneder
Publisher
N. Simrock Berlin-London (Boosey & Hawkes) EE 5329 / ISMN M-2211-2120-2
First edition: Bertold Hummel: Drei kleine Stücke für Streichquartett und Kontrabass, BE 311 Werkreihe "Jugend musiziert" - 11, Gustav Bosse Verlag Regensburg 1960
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18. November 1977
The Würzburg composer was not above writing three short pieces for the youngsters, suitable for strings and full of musical movement, for their astonishingly well-formed bodies of sound.
Preface (Simrock EE 5329, 2006)
In 1956 Bertold Hummel wrote a Little Suite for cello and piano in order to provide his young cello students with an effective performance piece. Since the work was published in 1976 (Simrock EE 2954), it has been one of the most successful standard works in this genre, as has the version for viola and piano (Simrock EE 2954a), which was created in 1990.
In 1960, my father expanded and orchestrated this composition at the request of the publisher Bernhard Bosse, who edited it in the same year under the title Drei kleine Stücke für Streicher. The three different character pieces are now labelled Intrada - Melodia - Capriccio and, with their concise themes and rhythms, give performers and listeners alike the opportunity to listen and play their way into the world of so-called "new music". The level of difficulty of the work has been deliberately kept at a level that allows even those instrumentalists who are only able to play their string instrument in simple positions to enjoy playing together.
With this new edition, the numerous youth and amateur orchestras in search of literature that sounds as good as it is playable once again have a work at their disposal that has lost none of its freshness and vitality even after 50 years.
Martin Hummel
The Three Little Pieces for Strings is an early work that Bertold Hummel composed out of the joy of making music. The level of difficulty of this composition was deliberately kept at a level that allows it to be easily performed by amateur orchestras.
(from the programme of the Basel Chemistry Chamber Orchestra, Muttenz 12.11.1975)
Bertold Hummel seems to possess the very rare quality of writing good music with an elementary structure.
Walter Kolneder (Austrian musicologist and conductor of the premiere)