Max Zenger

Sonata

For his now famous private performances, King Ludwig II of Bavaria commissioned three historical ballets. The subjects of these ballets were festivities held at the court of the French Kings Louis XIV and Louis XV, during which the respective kings held dances and shepard's games. Ludwig II required in his ballets the strictest adherance to historical exactitude in all details of the plot. The music too was expected to be exactly in the style of the time. The Munich composer Max Zenger (1837-1911) was entrusted with the commission for the composition of the music because he was considered an outstanding connoisseur of older music. Despite of the fact that Zenger stood rather critical towards the music of Richard Wagner the King liked him and named him Royal Bavarian Professor of Music in 1882. This sonata is part of the ballet 'Amor and Psyche', played originally by twelve pages, it can be performed both as a violin duet and using section strings. It is of intermediate difficulty and an interesting example of historicist music at the end of the 19th century.