The year after Lanner’s death in 1843 Haslinger published several volumes of waltz tunes as Lanner’s Nachlass. These are probably the contents of Lanner’s desk drawer. Some of the pieces look as if they have been there for some time. They are all typical Lanner tunes and wouldn’t sound out of place in any Lanner waltz but there is a lack of the Lanner magic. Almost all of the tunes are exactly 16 bars long, most of the harmonies are more or less tonic/dominant and there is little in the way of extended melodic writing. They could all have turned up in a Lanner waltz but, in the later ones at least, I would expect a leavening of sections with more adventurous harmonies and better tunes.

I have picked some of the better tunes and assembled them into a waltz with introduction and coda, transposing as necessary and orchestrating them in an appropriate manner. They make a pretty good waltz. All of the music is Lanner’s apart from 6 bars of musical glue (one of them silent!) provided by me.

The complete publication is available for digital download from the Austrian National Library, if anyone else fancies a go. I think once is probably enough for me.