Here's another arrangement I've written for this year's String Fest. I've included two sections plus a DC al Fine to end up with an ABA form for "Blue Danube Waltz." The intermediate parts give the melody to violas and cellos in the A section and to violins in the B section, while the basses get a more traditional bass part. Harmony parts are either "boom" or "chick-chick," intentionally simple so we can spend more time working on the melody parts in small groups. Violas and cellos have to play C# on the G string, while violins go up to F# on the E string. All intermediate parts (except basses) include slurs. I've also written parts for a beginning orchestra. The A section is a simplified melody with notes on the D and A strings, and the B section is mostly open strings. While the intermediate arrangement can stand alone, the beginning orchestra arrangement needs the addition of the intermediate arrangement to fill it out (and to provide a melody for the B section).
I introduced this piece to my sixth graders by listening to a recording of this famous Strauss waltz. Many students had heard it before and were excited to be learning this piece in orchestra. Students also learned how to dance a waltz--"forward-side-together, back-side-together" starting on left foot for the leader or "back-side-together, forward-side-together" starting on right foot for the follower. A few kids partnered up and tried the dance together, while everyone else was content to just try the steps themselves.
Sheet music (all PDFs):
Audio (WAV files) to preview or for students to play along with to practice:
Intermediate melody (first 4 lines only), which I used when introducing the piece:
Again, I like to use clip art instead of labeling parts "beginning" and "intermediate," so you'll see matching images within the beginning and intermediate parts and scores.
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