The Six German Dances K.509 are one of quite a few sets of these dances
by W.A.Mozart. In fact I believe Mozart wrote more German Dances than
Menuets, although the latter are generally better known. I have no
recording of these, but I think they are meant for a medium-sized group
of wind players. Although the score I had was a piano reduction I chose to
use clarinet and basson which should give some impression of the piece.

The six dances are, as one would expect, quite different in mood and
structure. They all have the A-B-A structure with internal repeats of
themes, but the first and last don't change the key for the trio. The
last one is a lot more elaborate than the first five. I found the
transitions particularly remarkable.

I think there's a joke in bars 21-23 of No.1: it must be very hard to
keep dancing in 3/8 to that melody. And there's of course a fair share
of daring scale shifts and dissonances to surprise the listener.

Michael Bednarek
<mb@tgm.com.au> http://mcmbednarek.tripod.com/