Schubert Dances, arranged for recorders and guitar

These well‐loved pieces will never take the place of the Art of Fugue or
the C# minor string quartet Op. 131, but they are a reliable recipie for
happiness.   They  are  offered  here in new arrangements for guitar and
recorders, which should be useful for busking, or  for  social  recorder
playing  where  half  a  dozen  players  take a few dances each and come
together for the Wiener Deutsche.

The originals for piano are available from Dover, who in 1989  reprinted
the editions by Breitkopf & Härtel of 1889 and 1897.

                          Acht Ländler D.378

The   Acht   Ländler  were  written  on  13  February  1816.   In  this
arrangement, the guitar is written transposing with a capo on the  first
fret  (alternatively,  if A 415 recorders are available, the capo is not
needed).  The guitar fingering often uses high positions on  the  fourth
and  fifth  string  to give strength to the bass line.  Number 6 needs a
Tenor recorder, but an Alto can used if the low E's are played  as  G's.
If two recorder players are available the second halves of numbers 4 and
5 might also benefit from the change  in  tone  colour  offered  by  the
Tenor.  In number 8, the ff second half has been transposed up an octave
to give a strong conclusion to the set.

                         Acht Ecossaises D.529

Originally written  in  February  1817.   In  the  Dover  edition  these
Ecossaises  are  split  into a group of three, and another group of five
which is incorporated into the twelve German Dances D. 420, so the order
as reconstituted here is somewhat conjectural.

                       Wiener Deutsche D.128 no 2

This  is  the  second  of  the  Twelve  Viennese  Dances, D. 128 and was
originally written in about 1812.   The  original  takes  place  in  the
treble  clef,  so  this  transcription  for AATB recorders sounds at the
original pitch.  The melody is given to the Alto recorder.   Because  of
divisi  in  the lower voices, there should be at least two Tenors and at
least two Basses, so the minimum ensemble would be 2 Altos, 2 Tenors and

                             ‐2‐

2 Basses.

                         Fünf Deutsche Tänze

This  selection of German Dances has been arranged for two recorders and
guitar.  They are D.971 no. 1,  D.420 no. 10,  D.769 no. 1,  D.971 no. 2
and  D.420 no. 12.   They  are taken from Three German Dances D.971, Two
German Dances D.769 (written in January 1824) and Twelve  German  Dances
D.420  (written  in  1817).   The  first three are arranged for Alto and
Tenor recorders and guitar, then D.971  no.  2  for  Soprano,  Alto  and
guitar, and D.420 no. 12 for two Altos and guitar.

In  D.971  no.  2, the Alto recorder has an eight‐bar contribution which
gives the opportunity for some practice in C# major scales.  The  middle
f#  is  more fluent with the alternative fingering using just the thumb,
and the low G# can be omitted if necessary.  Lucky  owners  of  an  A415
instrument  could play the passage a semitone up in D major, though this
tranposition has not been written out here.  In D.420 no. 12, the  final
note  in  the  top voice has been moved up from e to a, to give a strong
conclusion to the set.

In these dances, the guitar part follows the  left  hand  of  the  piano
almost exactly − scarcely one note has been added, omitted or transposed
− and the result is almost embarrasingly guitaristic.   It  is  hard  to
imagine  that  Schubert did not create these pieces on the guitar before
writing them out for the piano.

                             Peter J Billam

                             www.pjb.com.au