Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote in the chapter “Some Refi nements of Accompaniment” in his Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (1753) that the keyboard player must “take the greatest care to realize the intentions of the principal part in union with his partner. I do not know whether the accompanist does not deserve more praise here than he who is being accompanied.”
A little over 200 years later, Gerald Moore, the internationally renowned vocal accompanist, wrote in his book Am I Too Loud? A Musical Autobiography (1962): “[…] I fi nd this one of the most exciting aspects of my work, getting to know my colleague through the music. […]The accompanist has to know when to advise, when to accept advice, when to attack and when to retreat.”
TWOgether presents a stylistically varied and pianistically interesting selection of original¹ compositions in a duet setting for piano and another instrument. It is intended for everyday chamber-music teaching in the music school. Our selection of the pieces refl ects our intent to choose the melody instruments most frequently played by students.
In the forefront is the pianist², whose part is just as pianistically and musically demanding as that of his partner and not – as so often with piano reductions – an awkwardly written thoroughbass realization or simple harmonic accompaniment. With this selection of chamber-music pieces, teachers and students are invited to explore the repertoire, choose an appropriate piece, and then take the initiative and go looking for a partner among the instrumentalists on hand.
Since “getting in tune with one another” is very important for the success of ensemble work, the compositions are prefaced with a short introduction of a few measures by Oskar Aichinger. This intonation gives the players a first musical opportunity to get in touch with one another as individuals and to prepare for the coming piece and the mutual collaboration. It also allows the players to make what are perhaps their fi rst experiences with the sound of an unfamiliar instrumental combination. Moreover, there is also a very pragmatic reason for these intonations, since the tuning of the instruments must also be learned. In these spirited little pieces, we often fi nd the tuning process embedded in unusual harmonic contexts adapted to the successive piece and with tuning notes different than those usually used for the instrument in question. These introductory measures, which can be played as little “overtures” to the pieces at performances, also give room to experiment with the given material and thus perhaps to encourage mutual improvisation while tuning.
In the section “A Note to Teachers” from page 61 on one will fi nd thoughts about chamber-music work with instrumental students, specifi c information to each piece as well as short biographical statements about the composer in regards to his composition as well as aids for understanding the music and tips for interpreting and executing the pieces.
The students can found help for the musical understanding and tips for the chamber music rehearsals at the end of certain pieces. We wish to thank our publishing-house editor Friedhelm Pramschüfer, who loyally stood by the project from the very beginning and gave us valuable and far-reaching support; Wilfried Aigner, who tirelessly proofread; and all the musicians who were open to our questions: Christina Kraushofer-Neubauer, Eva Brunner, Ernst Knava, Eva Landkammer, Fereshteh Rahbari, Michaela Blackwell, Rupert Fankhauser, Reinhard Posch, Christian Maurer, Cornelia Högl, Carol Dawn Reinhardt, Hermann Mitterer, Erik Kern, Leo Kappel, Waltraud Wulz and Stefan Gottfried, who wrote the continuo realizations.
Vienna, Spring 2009

Editorial Notes
• We have only included metronom markings when they were noted in the sources by the composers.
• Additions supplied by the editors were put in [ ] or in broken lines.
• Fingerings were provided by the editors, performance- technical markings of the works with violin by Christina Kraushofer-Neubauer and violoncello by Eva Landkammer.

1) The sole exception is the Romance by Max Reger, which was originally written for violin and piano as well as “La Réjouissance” from Music for the Royal Fireworks by G. F. Handel, which was composed for wind instruments and percussion.
2) For greater clarity, we refer to the chamber-music partners in the male form (“his part,” “his instrument”), even if we obviously mean female players as well.