Michael Pamer, Neue brillante Ländler, vol. 10 (1827), part 1

Michael Pamer was a band leader and skilled violinist who is widely acknowledged as a principal influence on the professional dance musicians of Schubert’s generation, in particular on Josef Lanner and Johann Strauss, sr., who effectively apprenticed under Pamer. Born in 1782, Pamer died in 1827, the year that the twelve volumes of his Neue brillante Ländler were published. The title page, below, is translated: New brilliant solo Ländler for the violin with ad libitum accompaniment of a second violin and bass, composed and presented for use in house balls by Michael Pamer, music-director of the Saale zur Schwan in the Rossau [district of Vienna]. The design of the volumes is distinctive: each has two sets of six Ländler in the same key, for which the same accompaniment is supplied, so that the six Ländler are much like variations of each other.

In the two parts of this post, we will look at the six Ländler in the first group of volume 10.

                                          

I am beginning at the end, with ns 5 & 6, because they have clear rising cadence figures. So does n3 (in part 2 of this post series), but the others have mostly open cadences without rising figures. Given the format Pamer has adopted, it is not surprising that ns 5 & 6 have very nearly the same underlying figures: a rising line with accented elements in the first phrase (beamed notes), repeated in the second phrase, and a "one-too-far" flourish that pushes the line up to ^3 (as B5) in bar 4 (circled notes). In n5, note that Pamer has inserted an embellishing flourish (circled C6 in bar3) that makes a nice covering connection to B5 in bar 4.

The second strains of the two numbers differ slightly in that n5 gives—if possible—even more attention to D5 and brings the line up in a quick run, as it did in the first strain, where n6 makes more of the upper register, unfolding D5 to D6 and generating a strong open cadence that implies in the last bar the B5 we heard literally a few bars earlier. The two lines are thus balanced, the cadence open, the lower voice a primitive rising line, ^5-^7-^8.

In Pamer's edition, the second violin and bass parts are placed at the bottom of a tall page, after all six Ländler in each group. I have assembled a score version of n5 below. This is just for reference, as I don't think it tells us anything new about the design or shapes of the violin melody.