Mozart Violin Sonata in Eb K380: Transcribed For Cello

Here is the free, downloadable sheet music for Mozart’s Violin Sonata in Eb K380 transcribed for cello. The engraving files (XML format) can also be downloaded at the bottom of the page. In spite of the fact that Eb major can be an uncomfortable key on the cello, this sonata is totally playable in its original key, which means that we can use any standard piano part (available here from www.imslp.org)

FIRST MOVEMENT: Allegro

A third (middle) note has been added to the octave double-stop in bars 1 and 5 (and to the parallel passages in the recapitulation bars 99 and 103). In this way, the “difficult-to-tune” octaves are converted into very easy chords. The final six-note scalic flourishes of bars 57, 161 and 163 have all been renotated in such a way as to start the scales a tiny bit earlier, thus allowing them to sound more clearly, which requires more time on the cello than for either a piano or a violin. There is no need for the piano to change its rhythm.

In bar 117, the cello part has been taken down a fifth because this is certainly what Mozart would have done for the violin if it had a C-string (see bar 20 for the parallel passage in the exposition). The following three bars are a little problematic: do we stay in the low register, using the same logic as for bar 117 or do we stick with Mozart’s register jump which was imposed by the violin’s lack of a C-string ?

1.   Edited Performance Version
2.         Clean Performance Version
3.         Easier Version
4.         Literal Transcription

Here are two downloadable play-along piano accompaniments for this movement, with thanks to the Violin PlayAlong YouTube channel. The first is a little slower than the second. A one-bar introduction has been added to both, so that we can know when to start playing.

SECOND MOVEMENT: Andante con moto

No notes have been changed in this movement.

1.  Edited Concert Version
2.    Clean Concert Version
3.     Easier Version
4.    Literal Transcription

Here is a downloadable play-along piano accompaniment for this movement, with thanks to the Violin PlayAlong YouTube channel.

THIRD MOVEMENT: Rondeau

This rollicking 6/8 rondo is not easy-to-play music. Even when we transpose all the high register passages down an octave (as in the “Easier Version”), this movement still remains difficult because of the need for fast virtuosic playing (bars 116-140) as well as the frequent use of spiccato, complex articulations (bowings), tricky ornaments etc. The only note change in this movement is the revoicing of the chord in bar 189.

1.   Edited Concert Version
2.        Clean Concert Version
3.        Easier Version
4.        Literal Transcription1

Here are two downloadable play-along piano accompaniments for this movement, with thanks to the Violin PlayAlong YouTube channel. The first is a little slower than the second: