Duration: 4 minutes

Description: Reynaldo Hahn (1874–1947) composed Romanesque in 1910, adapting and expanding music originally written in 1905 for his Renaissance-inspired suite Le Bal de Béatrice d’Este. The title evokes the graceful romanesca, a dance and harmonic pattern popular during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, showcasing Hahn’s lifelong fascination with the elegance and refinement of earlier musical styles. A close friend of Marcel Proust and one of the leading figures of Parisian musical life, Hahn cultivated a distinctive voice that favored lyricism, clarity, and understated charm over the more radical innovations of his contemporaries. Romanesque unfolds as a single, flowing movement in which the flute and viola exchange long, singing melodies over a delicately supportive piano accompaniment, creating an atmosphere of warmth and quiet nostalgia. The work has since become one of Hahn’s most frequently performed chamber compositions, holding a secure place in the chamber music repertoire for its uncommon instrumental combination and admired for its effortless elegance, melodic beauty, and quintessentially French refinement. Reprint edition.

• M344991 / 36-M344991 ROMANESQUE SC/PTS $6.95Buy Now