Old Schwyz dance music
The violin dances in Anton Hotz's dance book offer both playing pleasure and an insight into the development of dance music in Switzerland.
Müliradverlag has published another interesting book of sheet music for violin or other melody instruments. It contains folk dance music from the first third of the 19th century and thus offers an insight into the early days of couple dance music; the collections known to date are almost all from later decades.
The booklet contains one hundred dances, most of them in three-four time. The discovery of the collection is due to the editor Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser. Nothing is known about the original owner Anton Hotz, but Bachmann credibly locates the dances in the Höfe/March area in the canton of Schwyz thanks to her immense knowledge of the sources.
Co-editor Christoph Greuter has transcribed the dances and provided chord indications, which are very useful for the accompaniment. You can tell that Greuter is an excellent expert on the subject. The dances are written down with a practical orientation, without ornaments and without first and second endings in the repetitions. At the time, it was left to the players' taste to make the pieces appealing. The notes were merely a template or reminder for the individual performance.
The pieces are attractive to play because the tonal language of the early dances differs significantly from those at the turn of the 20th century. In some cases, modal influences are still present, which later give way to cadential harmony. However, the booklet also offers historically interesting insights: Half of the dances are still in two parts, the other half are already in three parts. The term "Ländler" appears in some of the dances and is thus the earliest evidence of the term being used in Switzerland; others are referred to as "Walz" or "Walzer", some also as "Langus". The few two-quarter dances are entitled "Allemander" or "Allimand"; "Polka", "Galopp" or "Schottisch", on the other hand, do not yet appear.
The booklet, which is supplemented with informative information on its origin and edition, is therefore not only a pleasure to play, but also a rich source for the development of dance music in Switzerland.
Old Schwyz violin dances - The dance book by Anton Hotz, Höfe/March around 1830, edited by Christoph Greuter and Brigitte Bachmann-Geiser, Mülirad no. 1069, Fr. 38.00, Mülirad, Altdorf
