Der Bürger als Edelmann (The Bourgeois Gentleman), vol 2 (Cramer) - WW5

Der Bürger als Edelmann (The Bourgeois Gentleman), volume 2
for woodwind quintet: flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon
By Richard Strauss - (1864-1949 - German composer

Op. 60 (1911/1917), TrV 228c, for Molière's 1670 comédie-ballet

VOLUME 2 - Two Scenes
Auftri und Tanz der Schneider
Auftri des Cleonte 

arranged by Trevor Cramer

This is the printed music.  To buy the PDF download click HERE.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

Strauss’s Op. 60, is an orchestral suite compiled by Richard Strauss from music that was originally written as incidental music for Molière's 1670 comédie-ballet. The work has a complex genesis.

Originally, Strauss's collaborator Hugo von Hofmannsthal had the idea of reviving Molière's 1670 play Le bourgeois gentilhomme, simplifying its plot, introducing a commedia dell'arte troupe, adding incidental music, and concluding what would be a long evening with a newly written one-act opera called Ariadne auf Naxos. This idea did materialize, as planned, in Stuttgart on 25 October 1912.

But it was apparent that the result was too long and expensive and that many in the audience who were there for the play were uninterested in the opera, and vice versa. Strauss and Hofmannsthal accordingly opted to separate the two works entirely. The revised Ariadne auf Naxos premiered four years later and has been a success ever since. As regards the play, Hofmannsthal devised an ending closer to Molière's original, with Strauss adding to his existing incidental music to support the new conclusion. This premiered in 1917.

It was from the now-lengthened incidental music that Strauss compiled his orchestral suite. He finished this task on Christmas Day 1917, and the resulting concert work received its premiere in Berlin on 9 April 1918 with Strauss himself conducting.

The full Suite lasts half an hour and is in nine sections, two (Vol. 2) of which are presented here as arranged for woodwind quintet by Trevor Cramer. In this adaptation, judicious edits have been made to content to accommodate a reduction for quintet.

Volume 2 - Two Scenes
Auftri und Tanz der Schneider
Auftri des Cleonte