Anton Diabelli

Let's Swing, Mr. Diabelli!

The success story of Diabelli's 'Melodic Exercises' Op. 149 for piano duet has lasted now for almost 200 years. They are beautiful melodies covering a range of only five tones, perfectly suitable for beginners, with refined and brilliantly designed accompanying settings in the Secondo part. To this day, the pieces are very popular among pupils, teachers and music lovers. Diabelli, born in 1781, was not only a respected piano teacher and composer in Vienna, but also a busy music publisher and friend of Ludwig van Beethoven who jokingly called him 'my diabolus' from time to time. Sometimes he sent themes composed by himself to the then famous composers, asking them to write and return to him some variations on these themes. This led to the creation of the famous Diabelli Variations by Beethoven, a demanding piano work which is performed in the concert halls all over the world still today.

Hopefully, Mr Diabelli would not mind some of his wonderful five-tone melodies being transported into the world of swing, samba and other forms of expression, as has been done in this volume. Apart from some arranged melodies from Opus 149, this volume also contains a few newly arranged pieces, all of them inspired by Diabelli's idea to make music with five fingers as varied as possible. The original arrangement of the keys has been maintained. New inspiration for piano lessons and four-handed piano playing!