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PRAETORIUS – Gavota – THREE CELLOS (easy)

Other Identification:
Michael Praetorius (1571 or 1573 – 1621) was one of the Lutheran German composers who, after 1600, adopted Italian musical innovations, and did so by studying, copying, and even parodying Italian authors; for example, the influence of Giovanni Gabrielli, a leading composer of the Venetian School who played a very important role in the development of the early Baroque style, was very important in him.

In addition to being an organist, Praetorius was a Kapellmeister and an important and prolific composer, with more than an incredible 1,200 vocal works in his short life; but he is famous especially for being the author of ‘Sintagma Musicum’, a highly valuable treatise, in 3 volumes, which summarizes the musical knowledge of his time, in which he strives to encyclopaedically detail, like no one among his contemporaries, theoretical knowledge, practice musical and the instruments used then.

Movements or sections:
His work ‘Terpsichore’ is a collection of more than 300 dances and melodies, from different authors, which he, in most cases, limited himself to arranging, for example, adding the low voices and stockings. Included in this collection was the Gavotte. The gavotte (gavotta or gavota), is a folk-dance originating in France. It is a dance of popular origin, of peasants, with kisses and mischievous pranks, the favourite of the gavots – hence its name – the natives of Gap, a town in the Hautes Alpes, in the southeast from France. Its popularity soon expanded and became a courtly dance at the end of the 16th century and until the 18th century it was the basis for many instrumental pieces. Among the names of great old masters who composed beautiful gavottes are those of Bach, Telemann, Graupner, Rameau and Händel; it has also been the base for a dance for some modern composers also, such as Prokofiev and Schönberg. This present short dance tune from Praetorius’ ‘Dances from Terpsichore’ is quite famous, often being referred to as the ‘Gavotte of Praetorius’.

Instrumentation: TRIO OF THREE CELLOS
Arranged by David Johnstone

Downloads of 2 PDFs:
[1 – General Score
[2 – All individual parts

Approximate difficulty: EASY
It is ideal for beginning cello ensembles – set in C Major every part is ENTIRELY in first position and no extensions are needed. On top of this, each part has melodic importance by turns, making this a great first ‘chamber trio’ for young ensembles!

Dedicatee of this presentation (if applicable):
This arrangement has been prepared for the cello class of the very fine French pedagogue Maria-Eugenia Maffi

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