His set of 36 Original Dances (Op. 9 D365) provides a quite different impression of Franz Schubert than we are used to. Much of Schubert’s work is melancholic and romantic with complex musical and harmonic structures. This is particularly apparent if you listen to Listz’s paraphrases for piano of Schubert’s songs.
This romantic melancholy is almost absent in this work. Schubert brings the cosy atmosphere of the Laendler, the well-known Austrian peasant dance. I guess he met some of these tunes on his walks on the Austrian countryside.
The Original Dances are very short pieces, most waltzes fit within two or three lines of scores. This arrangement includes dances 1 and 3. Very brief pieces which are fun to play.
The two little waltzes are arranged by Ronald Jhu from Canada. He kindly sent me these pieces and gave permission for publication on the DOS Amigos Homepage. Mr. Jhu transposed the original waltzes from A flat to A major, which is a good thing, because many guitarists do not like flats (no open strings, you see).