The success story of Diabelli's 'Melodic Exercises' Op. 149 for piano duet has lasted now for almost 200 years. They are beautiful melodies covering a range of only five tones, perfectly suitable for beginners, with refined and brilliantly designed accompanying settings in the Secondo part. To this day, the pieces are very popular among pupils, teachers and music lovers. Diabelli, born in 1781, was not only a respected piano teacher and composer in Vienna, but also a busy music publisher and friend of Ludwig van Beethoven who jokingly called him 'my diabolus' from time to time. Sometimes he sent themes composed by himself to the then famous composers, asking them to write and return to him some variations on these themes. This led to the creation of the famous Diabelli Variations by Beethoven, a demanding piano work which is performed in the concert halls all over the world still today.
Hopefully, Mr Diabelli .would not mind some of his wonderful five-tone melodies .being transported into the world of swing, samba and other forms of expression, as has been .done .in this volume. Apart from some arranged melodies from Opus 149, this volume also contains a few newly arranged pieces, all of them inspired by Diabelli's idea to make music with five fingers as varied as possible. The .original arrangement of the keys has been maintained. New .inspiration for piano lessons and four-handed piano playing!

The 11 songs in this collection of mixed-level piano duets (for 1 piano, 4 hands) are arranged for a beginning student to play the PRIMO while the teacher, parent, or an intermediate student plays the SECONDO. All notes in the PRIMO are played singly with the hands in one position centered around middle C and then played one octave higher.

Each song is presented in two formats: on a grand staff (a combined score with both piano parts on each page) plus the alternate format with the PRIMO and SECONDO on separate pages.

Most of the songs are written in the key of C major and do not require using flats or sharps. However, there are a few songs in the key of G major (1 sharp) or F major (1 flat). These songs provide practice playing notes on the black keys (either an F-sharp for the key of G major or a B-flat for the key of F major).

These fun-to-learn arrangements are a welcome addition to the piano repertoire for beginning students and suitable for recitals or just some family fun around the piano during the holiday season. Selections include classics associated with the winter holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year?s. Each song is also available separately with accompanying preview pages and audio samples.

Song titles included in this collection:
Auld Lang Syne
Good King Wenceslas
Hallelujah Chorus
Jingle Bells
Jolly Old Saint Nicholas
O Christmas Tree
Over the River and Through the Woods
Patapan
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Up On the Housetop
We Wish You a Merry Christmas