During a concert tour through California in early 1920, Prokofiev composed five songs with piano accompaniment and textless voice parts, which appeared in print as Five Songs without Words op. 35 and with a dedication to the soprano Nina Koshetz. The quasi-instrumental conception of the work as vocalises accompanied by piano suggested an arrangement for violin and piano, which the composer then indeed undertook in 1925. Enriched with octave transpositions, double stops, harmonics and pizzicati, ...