Commentaries on Compositions

Musique de ballet for piano, Op. 7 (1926)

Piano Works, Work with Opus Number

Manuscript: Unknown

Publication: Józef Koffler. Musique de ballet for piano solo. Op. 7. Editions Maurice Senart, Paris. Copyright 1927. E. M. S. 7228. 9 pages.

Premiere: No data available

First press mention of [radio] performance: Lwów, 28 May 1931, Leopold Münzer – piano (Kurier Lwowski 1931, no. 145)

Movements: I. March; II. Waltz; III. Tango; IV. Galop. Finale

I. Marche
II. Valse
III. Tango
IV. Galop. Finale

Performer: Elżbieta Sternlicht – piano
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Józef Koffler: Musique de ballet op. 7, movement IV, fragment of the score published by M. Senart from the collection of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music Library in Katowice.
Józef Koffler: Musique de ballet op. 7, copy of the score published by M. Senart with the composer's dedication to Witold Frieman. From the collection of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music Library in Katowice.
Józef Koffler: Musique de ballet op. 7, movement I, fragment of the score published by M. Senart from the collection of the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music Library in Katowice.
Koffler’s first dodecaphonic piece,

written in August 1926 during holidays spent in Stryj, is a kind of dance suite in four movements, opening with a March and ending with a Galop dance.

Each movement consistently employs the twelve-note technique. At the same time, however, traditional formal and textural models continue to be applied.
Radio programme announcing the performance of excerpts from Koffler's Musique de ballet Op. 7 by pianist Jan Gorbaty, Antena 1938, no. 16

The first three sections are in the ABA form, whereas the last one contains elements of a rondo and can therefore be represented as ABACA. Each movement uses a different twelve-note row. However, Koffler evidently aimed to achieve a certain degree of consistency in sound by favouring seconds and thirds. Each series has its thematic function in this suite, which means that the serial syntax is fully correlated with the musical one. That Koffler’s dodecaphonic debut is a suite of dances does not seem like a coincidence. He was, after all, inspired to take up Schönberg’s method by, among others, such works as that Viennese master’s Klaviersuite, Op. 25.