Three Dances in the Old Style belongs to Auerbach’s intimate chamber music for strings. The work is compact, direct, and finely etched: three movements that suggest inherited dance forms without becoming pastiche.

The violin and violoncello are treated as a complete miniature theatre. Their gestures are elegant and slightly distanced, but the score’s coloristic details — flautando, sul ponticello, pizzicato, muted playing, and delicate articulations — give the old-style surface a distinctly contemporary inner life.

• Form Three short dances.
• Forces Violin and violoncello.
• Publisher Sikorski via Boosey & Hawkes.

The score’s contents page lists three movements: Andantino scherzando, Andante, and Andante. The first movement opens with the instruction elegantemente, while the final movement begins con un sorriso — with a smile.

These markings define the work’s scale and tone: not a large sonata, but a refined set of character pieces in which dance, memory, and instrumental dialogue are compressed into a few minutes.

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