Product Description
The first of its kind, this is a genuinely playable piano/vocal reduction of "O Sachs! Mein Freund!", Eva's aria from Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. Dramatic sopranos who love this aria no longer need to fear bringing it in for auditions, last-minute performing engagements, or other situations in which the pianist is unlikely to know this aria and may become rattled by the chaotic piano reductions in the currently available vocal scores. Pianists with limited practice time may now enjoy playing this aria comfortably as well.
Because vocal line/orchestral doublings are characteristic of Wagner, those have been preserved in this edition.
All Accessible Accompaniments, including this one, boast several unique features:
1. No reduction ever requires stretches of over an octave, not including bass notes meant to be held or fudged with the pedal (though octaves may also contain chord tones within them). This reduces the amount of rearranging that smaller-handed pianists must already do. Obviously, further reworkings are to be expected and pianists should feel free to add to or modify what Ive provided.
2. Ive included less essential, but potentially desirable additional voices/passages in cue-size noteheads so that pianists can easily see them, but know that they are not necessary in a sink or swim accompanying situation. Presenting less essential material in cue-size noteheads also reduces visual clutter on the page.
3. In addition to the composers markings, when needed, I have included hints on particular notes to bring out when the singer is likely to need them as a pitch anchor or when it is not obvious which line should be brought out within the texture.
4. All page turns have been carefully selected so as to result in the least possible disruption to the pianist when possible. When an inevitable page turn precedes a potentially surprising note or chord, Ive included the next downbeats notes in cue-size stemless noteheads at the end of the preceding measure.
5. When known, Ive noted alternate cuts that singers might like to take within certain arias.
6. In some cases Ive modernized spelling conventions for easier readability (for example, by replacing ß with ss in German arias) and occasionally I've enharmonically respelled brief passages for greater clarity.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.