Franz Schubert arranged by John W. Duarte
Ut Orpheus: score only: 29 pages
The idea of arranging these works came from Alirio Diaz who commented on how bad some of the existing pieces were. As a result 20 pieces were duly arranged, and nine of them published by Berben, but the others remained unpublished until now, and only one of them still remains unpublished owing to its vocal range, which is outside the ‘high voice and guitar’ that this book is arranged for.
The keys are often changed from the original, usually for the obvious reasons involving suitability of the original key for guitar, and so we have Blumenlied, set in D with a dropped D 6th, from its original key of E, with a very guitaristic accompaniment, Freude De Kinderjahre now in A (original C), Frulingslied in its original key of G, Der Liebliche Stern set in E Major with an instruction to place a capo at fret 3, to take it to G major, where the singer’s part is.
There is Nachtviolen in C Major, Nahe Des Geliebten ( 2nd version) in G Major, with the 5th string to G and the 6th to D, Trauer De Lieber in A Major( original Ab Major) , Die Herbstnacht (Die Wehmut) in its original key of F with a dropped D 6th, Du Bist Die Ruh, in D (original Eb Major) again with a dropped D 6th, and finally Tischlied set in C , but with the guitar part in A , and a capo at the third fret.
All the guitar parts are very natural, fitting really well on the guitar, and are not too difficult, but you do have to be a decent player to get the best out of the music. As for the singer, the range is from Middle C, up to the A , a little over an octave and a half above. So this volume is yet another really good and clever publication of the works of John Duarte, and does definitely provide the musicians with some material they won’t have been able to try out before. It’s worth it!
Chris Dumigan
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