Finale Forum

Is it unusual for a single movement of a multi-movement work to be dedicated to someone, while the rest of the work is dedicated to a second person?

The middle movement of my violin concerto was begun as a stand-alone piece, and as such I had dedicated it to someone very important in my life.

However, with time, this single middle movement evolved into the adagio movement of a much larger 3-movement concerto.
I would like to dedicate the concerto to the violinist who will be performing it, but do not know how to handle the single movement dedication.

Any suggestions?

Similar things aren't unheard of. Each movement of Elgar's enigma variations is dedicated to a different person.

I've believe I've also played a Tichelli piece where the middle slow movement was dedicated to a particular person while the entire piece was dedicated to the performer.

I'd put the main dedication to the violinist at the head of the score. For the second movement something like:

Originally composed as Invocation for Violin and Orchestra
Dedicated to Xxxxx Xxxxxxxxx

N.

You can write in your score whatever you please, of course, but make sure that apples will not be mistaken for oranges.

"I dedicate the music from my heart to you who are so dear to me" is quite a different cup of tea compared to: "I offer this score to you out of gratitude for being willing to perform it", isn't it? I'm sure the person to whom you dedicated the slow movement means a heck of a lot more to you than a musician who performs a premiere. There will likely be dozens of musicians performing premieres of your work in the course of your life, but are only a very small handful of people that have true meaning in your life. I wouldn't want to express my gratitude to either in the same way.

in this case they are actually quite close, for different reasons.
one is the surgeon who saved my life a number of years ago, the other is a violinist who believed in my work and has worked tirelessly to promote it, get it performed, and commission new works from me.

However, that said, I've figured out a way of doing the dedications... I will use one of the frontispiece pages for a more detailed dedication, and simply place the violinist's dedication at the 1st page of the score. The larger part of the work is in fact dedicated to her.

Now, however, I've come across a secondary problem, one that comes from my requirements that all text information in my scores be bilingual (other than musical information, of course).

In English one places quotes " " around a title of a work, while in French one writes the title in italic. Even if I were to match and both use quotes, French uses different quote marks: « ». It looks very strange to use the two styles of quotation marks within close proximity. (the French text makes a short paragraph, then a small space, and the English text follows below)

Sigh. It's not always easy editing and getting these scores ready for the publisher and dealing with all of these minor annoyances.

I think it is OK to use Italics without quotes in English as well as in French when referring to the title of a piece. I hope so! I do it frequently and it's never been questioned. Another difference is in capitalization, as you will know Michel, but I'll repeat it as some on the forum may be less sure. All main words (but not ‘the’ ‘and’ and the like) start with capital letters in English titles, but not in French, Italian or Latin. Thus Dona nobis pacem and Grant Us Peace are the accepted forms for these titles.

Thank-you David. I was going by a style guide (I forget which one) which was rather insistent that titles of œuvres be in quotes.
But using italics would definitely improve the overall look of the page.

I'd probably have to look at the printed page to decide, but right now I think it's OK to do this in the different styles you described for English and French. I think it's kind of like celebrating both cultures, and I think that would be more authentic. As I said, I might think differently seeing it on the page.