Bertold Hummel

14 Dances from the Black Forest

The tales of Heinrich Hansjakob (1837 - 1916), the chronicler of life in the Black Forest, tell of folk musicians, wandering buskers, wedding party fiddlers, pipers and trumpeters to whose music the people of the Black Forest danced and celebrated. In a tradition spanning centuries, original folk tunes were passed on - mostly orally - from generation to generation, with very few of them being preserved for posterity in the form of sheet music. In 1957, the young composer Bertold Hummel, born and bred in the Black Forest himself, was commissioned by the radio station Südwestfunk Baden-Baden to go out in search of this music. Thus he arranged 14 dances from the Black Forest region for the traditional instrumentation of two clarinets, trumpet, two violins and string bass. This edition with its as yet unpublished music will prove to be a valuable addition for lovers of original folk and dance music. The pictures of landscapes painted by Sepp Wurster, Hummel's friend, give this edition its unmistakable Black Forest character.