Grande Sonate by Franz Danzi ‒ transcribed for Piano and Flute

SOMERVILLE, Mass. - Oct. 28, 2019 - PRLog -- Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC (NSM) is an online sheet music publisher with a catalog of ~180 editions. NSM specializes in sheet music for flute and alto flute. They offer original works by distinguished contemporary composers, re-notated versions or facsimiles of rare historical scores, and unique transcriptions of pieces from the classical repertoire. Selected NSM publications are offered as professionally-printed hard copy editions, and most are available as convenient pdf downloads from the NSM website.

Franz Danzi (1763-1826) was an active musician, cellist, and teacher in Mannheim, Munich, Stuttgart, and Karlsruhe.  A prolific composer, especially of music for the stage and chamber music from keyboard solos to sextets, he revered Mozart and mentored Weber.  His wind quintets are notable.  His Grande Sonate, Op.62, for piano and basset horn, was published about 1823, along with an alternative cello part.

The sound of the basset horn varies widely, depending on its construction, who is playing, what is being played, and who is describing it.  George Bernard Shaw said, ''The devil himself could not make a basset horn sparkle.''  Burnet Tuthill, in Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music (1929), wrote of its "soft mellow timbre of rich beauty." E.T.A. Hoffmann likened its sound to the scent of red carnations (see Georgina Dobré, The Basset Horn, who says, pace Shaw, "Sparkle it certainly can!").  That tent is broad enough to cover the characteristics of both the flute and the clarinet comfortably, and Danzi's Grande Sonate alternates sparkle and mellow rich beauty in large measure. (adapted from John W. Pratt's foreword to the edition

NSM recently published a modern, renotated edition of the Grande Sonate for basset horn that's much easier to read than the original available on imslp.org.  Then, since the NSM editors had grown quite fond of this piece, and because it is well-suited to either flute or clarinet, they decided to transcribe it for both instruments, so they and their friends could enjoy playing it.  The newly-completed piano and flute edition was transcribed and edited by John W. Pratt.  Check it out if you're in the mood to try some new, interesting repertoire.  A clarinet edition will follow in another month or so. https://www.noteworthysheetmusic.com/score-descriptions/38-flute-a-piano/706-danzi-grande-sonate-piano-flute

Browse the entire NSM website at https://www.noteworthysheetmusic.com/ to learn about other outstanding editions, including works for voice, strings, brass, winds, and percussion in addition to a large selection of repertoire for flute and alto flute.