Arthur Honegger

Abstract There are three versions of King David. Version I consists of twenty-seven numbers of incidental music for the eponymous play by René Morax. Honegger composed this between 25 February and 28 April 1921, completing the orchestration on 20 May. Marcelle Cheridjian-Charrey, accompanied by her husband, sang six of the solo movements with piano at a Paris concert on 2 June 1921, and Georges Hubbard sang three more at a concert on 7 June. The original King David was a spectacle that took more than four hours, about one hour of it being given over to music. Beginning on 11 June 1921, this was presented ten times that month and in July at the Thétre du Jorat at Mézières in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, with the composer conducting. The percussionist at these performances was the eighteen-year-old Maurice de Abravanel, who in his long career (without the “de”) as conductor would be one of Honegger’s most prominent interpreters.