The Decet for winds () in D major, Op. 14, is a chamber music work by the Romanian composer George Enescu, written in 1906 and first performed in Paris the same year. A performance lasts about 23 minutes.
History
Enescu composed his Decet swiftly, in the first months of 1906. He had just finished his First Symphony, Op. 13, the previous year. The Decet was given its first performance in Paris (less than six months after the symphony) on 12 June 1906 at a concert of the Société Moderne d'Instruments à Vent.
Analysis
The Decet is scored for two flutes, oboe, cor anglais, two clarinets, two bassoons, and two horns—in other words, a double wind quintet, with cor anglais in place of the second oboe. It is both a "sensationally orchestrated chamber work" and a "superb symphony in D".
Although it is easy to associate Enescu's Octet for Strings and the Decet because of their similar instrumental scheme (a double string quartet and a double wind quintet, respectively), they are very different in structure and style. While the four movements of the Octet are united by cyclic thematic procedures into a single sonata-allegro form, the Decet is more of a relaxed divertimento on the model of wind serenades of the Classical era, with a nod to the serenades of the Romantic period as well. Enescu’s customary cyclic thematic treatment does not appear in this work: Themes do not recur from one movement to another, nor are multiple themes built from the same generating cells.
The overall rhapsodic quality of the Decet disguises its classical structures, worked out with thematic economy and contrapuntal workmanship of considerable finesse. This relaxed style results in part from the unpredictable spontaneity with which the themes are presented, as well as from the considerable liberty with which Enescu treats the familiar forms. In addition, contrast of tonalities is minimized (similar to the design of Enescu’s Second Violin Sonata, composed seven years earlier), here in the interests of maintaining a unified atmosphere. Instead of a definite contrast, each new theme presents only a new hue. Even the most lively elements, such as the brisk dance-like theme in the middle section of the second movement, or the main theme of the finale do not disturb the predominating feeling of gentle nostalgia and soothed sorrow.
The Decet is in three movements:
Doucement mouvementé
The first movement is in an expanded sonata-allegro form. The gentle opening theme is perfectly diatonic, in D major. The extremely soft dynamic prescribed for all the instruments minimizes timbral contrasts, resulting in the effect of an ensemble of equal voices. The theme is spun out over twenty-three bars in free contrapuntal imitation, after the manner of a ricercar by Andrea Gabrieli. A second theme, also diatonic, is then announced by bassoons and horns, beginning a fugato with six entrances, alternating the relative natural-minor key (B Aeolian) and its upper fifth (F Aeolian), followed by a brief return to the opening theme, now in the dominant key of A major. At first this seems to suggest a complete, compact sonata exposition, but it proves to be a two-part initial thematic group. Instead of the expected transition to a development section, Enescu now presents his second thematic group, which is in two parts like the first. Beginning in the remote key of C major with a theme in the cor anglais marked très expressif (mais) sans rigueur, the group's second theme follows immediately, and the exposition proper ends in the dominant key of A major.
The development section is predominantly melodic, with new large-breathed phrases emerging from the previously presented themes. The fugato second theme at first takes the lead, then is contrapuntally interwoven with the first theme in iridescent orchestrational colours. The unorthodox recapitulation begins with fragments of the first theme presented in various keys, then quasi-developmentally juxtaposing the first three themes for about thirty bars, "the way fragments scattered away by an explosion might fall back again". The two themes of the second thematic group are then recapitulated together, transposed a semitone upward to begin in the tonic, D major (instead of the C major of the exposition), but closing therefore unexpectedly in B major, forte, in the first horn. A developmental coda reworks all four themes in a gradual relaxation in the tonic, D major, and the movement closes with a final statement of the first theme in augmentation, ending with a plagal cadence.