Samuel Dushkin wrote several violin transcriptions of then known and popular melodies, naturally taken from works by his friend Stravinsky, but also by other composers such as Bizet and Rakhmaninov, Gershwin and Boccherini, and others. Dushkin formed a deeply moving lament for violin and piano out of the monologue of self-doubting Boris Godunov from the opera of the same name by Modest Mussorgsky.