My transcription of the manuscript of this waltz held in the Wien Bibliothek im Rathaus.

It is much less messy than other Strauss manuscripts I have seen so perhaps it was a fair copy. I’m not 100% sure it’s his handwriting but it probably is. It certainly contains lots of errors of a kind fairly typical in a Strauss manuscript i.e. inconsistent dynamics, phrasing and articulation, pizzes that are never arco’ed and some odd dynamics. I’ve corrected them where they make no sense (but I had to guess where one of the contrabass pizz. sections ended) but there are a couple of places where he marks brass and percussion f when the rest of the orchestra is marked p. They can’t possibly be a slip of the pen. He obviously meant them. I suspect they only sound odd if you know they’re there. His p’s look like f’s and vice versa in isolation. When you put them together it’s obvious which is which but I orchestrated one whole section forte when it should have been piano. It did work.

It’s a super waltz. Oddly, there’s no introduction. I gather (from in depth Google research!) that Strauss’s original title was “Schwarz Roth Gold” and his publisher toned it down to something more politically acceptable. Strauss, unlike his eldest son, was associated with the conservative side of the 1848 revolutions and it is odd that his title refers to the movement and the colours of its flag for German nationalism and unification, something that would not have gone down well in the Hofburg.

There’s a new tune in the coda which is, in my opinion, the best one in the piece which is followed by a slick modulation from E flat major to B major, for no reason whatsoever. Clever clogs.

The scoring is for a fairly large orchestra with four horns, two of which double trumpets. He has made allowances for only having two horns available as when he only needs two horns he uses the ones that double trumpets when it would have been mechanically simpler to use the ones just playing one instrument. There is a cue in bassoon part for a section that should be played if the 3rd and 4th horns aren’t there.

There are only one oboe and bassoon players but the parts split into two at several places showing that he sometimes used a bigger orchestra and made allowances for it.

It has been recorded before for the complete edition. In my opinion that recording is too slow and the dynamic contrasts are too weak. For example, the first section contains four four bar phrases. These are marked ff (actually f○ in old notation), p, ff and ff respectively. You couldn’t guess that from the recording. I don’t think the brass ever plays louder than mf really in the whole piece. This was written for young people to dance to. It must surely quicken the pulse a bit. They don’t seem to have four trumpets at any point either, but that might just be down to my hearing. Certainly in 5A where there is a little trumpet duet section, it is played on one trumpet even though there are two there. Just my opinion, of course, for whatever that’s worth.