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26-546: The group began as Fat City, a husband/wife duo of Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert . Danoff and Nivert co-wrote the song "I Guess He'd Rather Be in Colorado" and then, with John Denver , " Take Me Home, Country Roads ", which became a hit single in 1971 and became an official song of West Virginia in 2014. The duo recorded two albums as Fat City ( Reincarnation , Welcome to Fat City ), and two more as Bill & Taffy ( Pass It On , Aces ), all released from 1969 to 1974. In

52-610: A duet could be constructed from any two pre-recorded singers or musicians so long as there are isolated audio channels from each artist. With the advent of audio deepfake technology, it is now possible to create virtual duets using an AI facsimile of a singer (or singers) who never sang the song in the first place. A famous example of this is " Heart on My Sleeve " by ghostwriter977, who wrote and produced an original song using voice models of Drake and The Weeknd . Piano four hands Piano four hands ( French : À quatre mains , German : Zu vier Händen, Vierhändig , Italian :

78-529: A duet, was in many of his compositions which included five sonatas ; a set of variations , two performers and one instrument, and a sonata for two pianos. The first published sonata or duet was in 1777. In Renaissance music , a duet specifically intended as a teaching tool, to be performed by teacher and student, was called a bicinium ( see Étude ). Duets have always been a part of the structure of operas . Early 16th-century operas such as L'Orfeo and L'incoronazione di Poppea involve duets throughout

104-477: A quartet, with piano four-hand accompaniment. An analogous idea was later carried out by Brahms, who wrote two sets of waltzes for four hands and four voices ( Liebeslieder Walzer , Op. 52, and Neue Liebeslieder , Op 65). Among his instrumental four-hands pieces, the best-known is 16 Waltzes, Op 39 . A well-known piece by a French Romantic composer is the Dolly Suite by Fauré . Organ music for four hands

130-415: A quattro mani ) is a type of piano duet involving two players playing the same piano simultaneously. A duet with the players playing separate instruments is generally referred to as a piano duo . Music written for piano four hands is usually printed so that left-hand pages contain only the part for the pianist sitting on the left, while right-hand pages contain only the part for the pianist sitting on

156-408: A standard vocal duet, some songs have been written to be heard as conversations; for example, " Baby, It's Cold Outside ". Other songs are performed around a theme; for example, New York City in " Empire State of Mind ". Occasionally, duets are an improvisation between artists; for example, " Under Pressure " by Queen and David Bowie . Bowie and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury reportedly composed

182-471: Is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony , as the performers take turns performing a solo section rather than performing simultaneously. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is a " piano duet " or " piano four hands ". A piece for two pianists performing together on separate pianos

208-452: Is a " piano duo ". "Duet" is also used as a verb for the act of performing a musical duet, or colloquially as a noun to refer to the performers of a duet. A musical ensemble with more than two solo instruments or voices is called a trio , quartet , quintet , sextet , septet , octet , etc. When Mozart was young, he and his sister Marianne played a duet of his composition at a London concert in 1765. The four-hand, described as

234-413: Is calculated to reproduce the characteristic effects of such works more readily and faithfully than arrangements for piano solo. Sometimes, organ works and works for piano two hands with advanced difficulty have also been arranged for piano four hands, in order to make them accessible to amateurs. Such arrangements were especially popular before the development of recording technology, as the vast majority of

260-490: Is known these were the first compositions of their kind, although the idea of the employment of two performers (but not on one instrument) may have originated with Johann Sebastian Bach , who wrote three concertos for two harpsichords , three for three, and one for four, all with accompaniment of stringed instruments. But the short compass of the keyboard, which in Bach's time and indeed until about 1770 never exceeded five octaves,

286-566: Is more significant. Of the nine pianoforte duets by Mozart two, the Adagio and Allegro in F minor and the Fantasia in F minor were originally written for a mechanical organ or musical clock in a Vienna exhibition, and were afterwards arranged for piano by an unknown hand; among the others, the sonatas KV 497 and KV 521 from the Vienna years stand out. Among the best-known composers, Schubert made

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312-710: The German Romantic composers, the four-hand works of Schumann and Brahms are the most interesting. Mendelssohn wrote only one original work of the kind, although he himself arranged some of his orchestral works and also his Octet , and the Variations in B-flat major for piano, op. 83, in this form. Besides writing a number of small pieces for two performers, Schumann made a very novel and successful experiment in his Spanische Liebeslieder (op. 138), which consist of ten pieces for four voices, being songs, duets, and

338-597: The album also charted . They were nominated for four Grammy Awards in 1977 and won two: Best Arrangement for Voices and Best New Artist , the latter award over the group Boston . The song also reached number 18 on the UK Singles Chart . The follow-up album, Rear View Mirror , did not fare as well, with 13 weeks on the Billboard 200 and a peak of number 104. The band hosted a variety show , The Starland Vocal Band Show , that ran on CBS for six weeks in

364-535: The fullest use of the original effects possible to music "à quatre mains." His compositions include the Sonata in C major for piano four-hands, D 812 , the Divertissement à la hongroise , D 818, and Fantasia in F minor for piano four-hands, D 940 . In addition to these he wrote fourteen marches, six polonaises, four sets of variations, three rondos, one sonata, one set of dances, and four separate pieces. Among

390-591: The group reunited for a few concerts, often featuring the children of the four original members as additional vocalists. In 2007, they appeared on a 1970s special on the New Jersey Network (NJN) , singing "Afternoon Delight". In 2010, Billboard named "Afternoon Delight" the 20th sexiest song of all time. Due to its success, the song was featured in such films as PCU , Anchorman , and Good Will Hunting , and used in episodes of numerous TV shows, including The Simpsons and South Park . In 2011, it

416-463: The lyrics in a day by improvising together. Duets are also common in musical movies and musical theatre ; " Fit as a Fiddle " for the 1952 movie Singin' in the Rain and its corresponding play of the same name . In addition to traditional duets performed live—either in front of an audience or recorded in a studio—a so-called virtual duet can be created by having a singer (or musician) perform over

442-419: The mid-1970s, Starland Vocal Band was formed and subsequently signed to Denver's label Windsong Records . Starland Vocal Band also included Jon Carroll ( keyboards , guitar , vocals ) and Margot Chapman (vocals). Carroll and Chapman also became a couple, marrying in 1978. The group's debut album was the self-titled Starland Vocal Band and included " Afternoon Delight ". The song was a US number one hit and

468-442: The performance. In 17th-century Italy duets were often used in comic scenes within serious operas. In Baroque France the duet was popular in tragedies, such as songs of vengeance and confrontation. The love duet was characterized by singing in close harmonies of 3rds and 6ths, symbolizing unity after conflict. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, duets have been common in the popular music of their respective eras. In addition to

494-819: The pianoforte à quatre mains were published in London in January 1777, when Charles Burney printed four duets for four-hand piano, with a preface explaining this unusual practice. Another early exemplar followed in Dessau about 1782, under the title Drey Sonaten füre Clavier als Doppelstücke fur zwey Personen mit vier Handen von C. H. Müller . However, before this, Ernst Wilhelm Wolf , the musical director at Weimar in 1761, had written one or more sonatas for two performers, which were published after his death. The young Mozart , too, wrote four-hand pieces for himself and his sister to play; K.381 in D Major dates from 1772. So far as

520-492: The right. The upper part (right) is called primo while the lower part (left) is called secondo . By far the greater proportion of music "à quatre mains" consists of arrangements of orchestral and vocal compositions and of quartets and other groups for stringed instruments. Indeed, scarcely any composition of importance for any combination of instruments exists which has not been arranged and published in this form, which on account of its comparative facility of performance

546-580: The same song. Virtual duets may also be done live via video link (such as Shaun Escoffery duetting with the late Eva Cassidy 's videotaped performance of " Over the Rainbow " in honour of the late Sir Terry Wogan ) or be constructed manually from two pre-existing recordings, generally where each singer/musician can have their own isolated audio channel in the form of a stem . Entire albums of virtual duets have been created, including albums by Frank Sinatra ( Duets and Duets II ) . Theoretically,

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572-448: The summer of 1977. David Letterman was a writer and regular on the show, which also featured Mark Russell , Jeff Altman , and Proctor and Bergman . April Kelly was a writer for the series. Unable to match their previous success, the band broke up in 1981. Carroll and Chapman divorced later that year followed by Danoff and Nivert in 1982. All four members went on to pursue solo careers. They have remained on friendly terms, and in 1998

598-413: The time there would be no other way to hear many of the best-known works of music. However, the increase of power and variety obtainable by two performers instead of one offers a legitimate inducement to composers to write original music in this form, and the opportunity has been by no means neglected, although cultivated to a less extent than might have been expected. The earliest known printed works for

624-668: The top of a pre-existing recording. Such a duet is a form of overdubbing . A virtual duet is sometimes done when the singer (or musician) of the original recording is deceased; for example, a live performance by Paul McCartney on " I've Got a Feeling " with an isolated vocal recording of John Lennon from The Beatles ' famous rooftop performance , or a recording of Judy Garland being dubbed over by her daughter Lorna Luft on " Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas ". It can also be done with an earlier version of oneself (such as Yusuf / Cat Stevens on " Father And Son "); incidentally, Ronan Keating did his own virtual duet with Yusuf on

650-633: Was ill-adapted to the association of two performers on the same instrument, and it is doubtless on this account that the earlier composers have left so little music of the kind. Haydn and Beethoven appear to have had but little inclination for this description of composition. According to Fétis , Haydn wrote but one piece 'à quatre mains,' a divertissement, which was never published (two other sonatas published under his name, op. 81 and 86, are spurious). Beethoven left but one sonata, op. 6, three marches, op. 45, and two sets of variations, none of which are of any great importance. The work of Mozart in this field

676-630: Was performed in the musical television series Glee . A CD compilation album, Afternoon Delight: The Best of the Starland Vocal Band , was released in 1995 by K-tel . Also in 1995, Collectables released Afternoon Delight: A Golden Classics Edition which included all tracks from the first two albums. The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences . The band won two awards from four nominations. Duet (music) A duet

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