My transcription of this popular waltz by Joseph Lanner. There are some acceptable recordings of this but mine is worn out. It was supposed to be my Christmas treat. No real reason to do it other than I wanted to. It turned out differently owing to incompetence on the part of both Lanner and me. Many thanks to the staff of the Wien Bibliothek for solving the problems. Worth it in the end for one or two little details.

Long embarrassing explanation follows. Not compulsory reading though.

April 2025. Wien Bibliothek. Photographed the manuscript. Loose leaf. Double sided – page 3 on the back of page 2 etc. 19 pages according to the catalogue. Pages are numbered.

December 2025. Birchington on Sea. Started transcribing the manuscript. No problems till I got to page 16 and then page 16 and page 17 were out of order. Did not look at the page numbers. Just assumed I’d copied them incorrectly. No problem.

Slightly later December 2025. Birchington on Sea. Transcribed page 17. Pulled up next page. There’s a gap in the music. Looked at page numbers. Page 17, page 19. Obviously have not photographed page 18. Swore. Put score aside until the next time I go to Vienna.

January 2025. Birchington on Sea. Eventually gave in and sent grovelling email to the library asking if someone could send me page number 18.

February 2025. Vienna. A kind person sent me an apology and page number 18. Great.

February 2025. Birchington on Sea. I now have page number 18 and it directly precedes page number 19. Unfortunately, there is still a gap between page number 17 and page number 18. Swore again. Wrote thank you letter to Vienna and said there was still a gap, including a page of the piano score to show where it was. Told them not to waste any more time on it. I’d look at the manuscript next time I was in Vienna

February 2025. Vienna. Kind person in Vienna ignores me and works out that someone (presumably Lanner) has misnumbered page 16 and page 17 and that in fact I already have the music for the gap. I’d forgotten I’d already noticed the pages were out of order. I now have a complete score.

February 2025. Birchington on Sea. So I now have the complete score but why didn’t I photograph page 18 in the first place? I’m really careful. After wearing out a few brain cells I worked out that the leaf containing page 18 and 19 must have been put back in the file the wrong way round. I got to page 19 first, photographed it and since it was obviously the end of the piece, did not turn it over to find page 18 on the back. It’s a monotonous job, but that’s no excuse.

Christmas treat!