“Opus 57” is one of several David Grisman compositions known by an opus number; the first volume of his Dawg Works series, which gathers his compositions in the order he wrote them and covers 1963 to 1975, also lists “Dawg Grass (Opus 12),” “Japan (Opus 23),” “Opus 38” and “No You Stand Back (Opus 46).” Its earliest documented recording was made in 1966 in Grisman’s New York apartment, with Bill Keith on banjo and Artie Rose on guitar. That tape stayed in the archive until Sugar Hill issued it on Early Dawg in 1980.
The first release came earlier, through Muleskinner. In 1973 Grisman was in that band with Peter Rowan, Clarence White, Bill Keith and Richard Greene. The group played “Opus 57” in a television taping at KCET in Hollywood on 13 February 1973 and cut it in the studio at the Record Plant in Hollywood that spring. The studio version came out on the Warner Bros. LP Muleskinner in March 1974, titled “Opus 57 in G Minor,” and the television version was issued later on video and CD.
Grisman recorded it again for the first album by his own quintet, The David Grisman Quintet (Kaleidoscope F-5, 1977), cut at 1750 Arch Studio in Berkeley in October 1976: Grisman and Todd Phillips on mandolins, Tony Rice on guitar, Darol Anger on fiddle and Bill Amatneek on bass. A live performance by the Bluegrass Quintet in Japan in May 1976, with Richard Greene on fiddle, was released in 2009. Grisman also paired it with “Flatbush Waltz,” a piece credited to him and Andy Statman, in a performance included in DGQ-20 (1996).
