Stravinsky's Elegy was composed in 1944 in memory of Alphonse Onnou, the founder of the Pro Arte Quartet. According to Eric Walter White, "This Elegy for unaccompanied viola (which may also be played a fifth higher by an unaccompanied violin) is a two-part invention in ternary form....The first section is a kind of chant played above a simple flowing accompaniment. The middle section is skillfully written to give the impression of a fugue....At the climax the fugal subject is answered by its inversion at a distance of a single bar. (A single bar) forms a bridge leading to the recapitulation of the first section with an altered cadence in the last four bars. The viola (or violin) plays con sordino (with mute) throughout."

There are no other works either for solo viola or accompanied viola in Stravinsky's oeuvre, and the only other solo violin work is a brief transcription of La Marseillaise (1919). Indeed, works featuring any solo stringed instrument are rare in Stravinsky's work with the Violin Concerto (1931) and the Concertino (1952) being the two most prominent exceptions. Works of an elegiac quality are almost as rare, with the Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920) in memory of Debussy, the Ode for orchestra (1943) in memory of Natalie Koussevitzky, In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954), the Double Canon—Raoul Dufy in Memoriam (1959), and Elegy for J.F.K. (1964) being the only other works in this category.

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