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| Prelude, Fugue and Riffs | |
|---|---|
| Composition byLeonard Bernstein | |
 The composer in the 1950s | |
| Composed | 1949 (1949) |
| Dedication | Woody Herman'sbig band |
| Performed | October 16, 1955 (1955-10-16) |
| Movements | three |
| Scoring |
|
Prelude, Fugue and Riffs is a "written-out" jazz-in-concert-hall composition composed byLeonard Bernstein for ajazz ensemble featuring soloclarinet.
The title points to the union ofclassical music andjazz:Prelude (firstmovement) andFugue (second movement) – bothbaroque forms – are followed immediately without a pause by a series of "riffs" (third movement), which is a jazz term for a repeated and short melodic figure.
It features:
Completed in 1949 forWoody Herman'sbig band as part of a series of commissioned works – that already includedStravinsky'sEbony Concerto – it was never performed by Herman, possibly because his orchestra had disbanded at that time.
Instead, it received its premiere on Bernstein'sOmnibus television show,The World of Jazz on October 16, 1955.[1][2] The soloist for the work's TV premiere wasAl Gallodoro;[2] he is seen in the preserved 1955 video playing alto saxophone and then the clarinet solo passages.[3] Some sources instead creditBenny Goodman, to whom the work was dedicated upon its publication.[1]
In 1952 Bernstein revised the score from its original instrumentation for a more conventional pit orchestra, and the work was then incorporated into a ballet sequence in the first draft of themusical comedyWonderful Town. The revised version ofPrelude, Fugue and Riffs did not survive and the majority of the music was cut from the final version of theWonderful Town score with the exception of a few phrases in the musical's numbers "Conquering the City" and "Conversation Piece".
It later was transcribed for clarinet and orchestra byLukas Foss.
In 2025 it was arranged by Simon Wright for trumpet soloistAlison Balsom, and performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the Finale of the Last Night of the Proms 2025 at The Royal Albert Hall.[4]
Recordings by Leonard Bernstein
Recording of big band version
Recordings available on CD
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| National | |
| Other | |
