Badinerie

The mystery of where this piece went and why it wasn’t in my father’s list of works will probably never be resolved. The manuscript is headed op.32 and written in my father’s typical handwriting, with a felt-tip pen. Around the mid-1960s he wrote several guitar duets, all with French titles. In late 1964 he wrote a Badinerie, the third movement of a planned Suite française for the Presti/Lagoya duo . It was posted to Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya, probably before Christmas 1964 and, in a letter dated 14 January 1965, Lagoya acknowledged its receipt and apologised for the delay in writing to thank him. We have no other mentions of this planned suite until 19 February 1967, when my father wrote to Idalex (Ida and Alex):

“I have just finished the Carillon and I see the French Suite as: Prélude, Chanson populaire, Badinerie, Carillon, Basse Danse. You already have two movements. Do you want me to send you the Carillon, or do you prefer that I keep it until the completion of the entire Suite? If you receive each movement without delay, you can inform me in good time if you want me to change something. What do you prefer?”

The Carillon was assigned op.33 and later used in Suite française op.61, but we are still missing one of Prélude, Chanson populaire and Basse danse. On 7 April 1967 Presti replied: “For the French suite we prefer to receive the complete suite. It is by playing it in full that a work can be judged. Which will give us joy at the next London concert, to be your happy interpreters.”

Writing in his unpublished Autobiography, my father wrote about the Greek duo, Evangelos and Liza: “When they had first visited me in 1967 they had asked for (and received) copies of everything I had written for two guitars. It included the Variations on a French nursery song and, inter alia, the Carillon, the only movement I had completed for the Suite française. My intended response to Presti’s request for a new major work.”

We now know that two other movements had been written, but forgotten about. I emailed the manuscript to Evangelos Assimakopoulos, but he knew nothing about it. I am very grateful to Byron Fogo for contacting me about his discovery and my good friend Antonio De Innocentis, who has provided fingerings and some pertinent editorial advice as well. I hope guitar duos around the world will be interested in adding this piece to their repertoire.

Christopher Duarte, May 2019

 

In March of 2017 while doing an Internet search for vintage guitar music, I came across a site offering both manuscript and printed editions for sale. Among the many items listed were a group of manuscripts shown as coming from the archives of Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya.

During my survey of this group of items I came across a work bearing the title Badinerie by John Duarte. This immediately caught my attention, as I was already very familiar with Mr Duarte’s works, having had contact with him via mail many years ago. At that time he had provided me with a list of his opuses up to that date. Nowhere on that list was a work having this title. On examination of the sample pages provided on the site I also noted that the work was listed as Op.32 and recognised that this number had previously been published as Variations on a French Nursery Song for two guitars, also dedicated to Presti and Lagoya.

Having felt that I had come across something very unusual I purchased the item. I then was able to obtain an email address for Christopher Duarte, the composer’s younger son, who verified that this was a previously unknown work. I was happy to provide him with a copy of the piece for preparation of publication, in anticipation of the 100^th anniversary of the composer’s birth in 2019.

Byron Fogo

Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, May 2018