Mozart Piano Sonata in C K545: Transcribed for Cello

Here is the sheet music for the entire Mozart Piano Sonata K545 in a transcription for cello + accompaniment.

When we take the melodic line out of any piano piece and give it to the cello, then the accompaniment that is left is very sparse and simple. Probably too simple for an accomplished pianist, who might well be both bored at having to take such a minor role as well as offended at having to accompany the thief who stole their beautiful piece. For this reason, the accompaniments to this sonata would probably be best suited to guitar or harp except for the fact that there are – in the first and third movements – some quite fast articulated passages which may be impossible or very difficult on those plucked instruments. Perhaps then the ideal accompaniment for those two movements is after all with the piano, while we will prefer the guitar (or harp) for the divine slow movement. The accompaniments offered here are simple skeletons which we can adapt to whichever instrument that might be playing them. We can even play them as cello duos!

MOVT I: ALLEGRO

  1.   Edited Version
  2.   Clean Version
  3.   Easier Version
  4.   Accompaniment Score

A play-along audio of the piano accompaniment for this movement can be found here below. It starts with a very unimaginative two-bar introduction to allow us to both get ready and to know when to start. In this audio, both sections are repeated. If we actually download it then we can play it at different tempi with the wonderfully useful and simple Amazing Slowdowner program:

 

MOVT II: ANDANTE

Here, for the moment, only the cello part (melodic line) is presented. The accompaniment part – perfectly suited to harp or guitar  – will need to be played from the original piano music, downloadable here from www.imslp.org.

  1.    Edited Version
  2.    Clean Version
  3.    Easier Version

MOVT III: RONDO ALLEGRETTO

  1.    Edited Version
  2.    Clean Version
  3.    Easier Version