Banquet at Nottingham Castle - The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - Korngold (Piano Arrangement)

This piece was written by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

I transcribed the notes by ear, arranged it for solo piano, recorded it for my own learning experience, which I share.

This entire film is a mantel for classic film scoring. The music is very lively. Korngold's style in this film hovers around the character of Mozart/Haydn as well as dipping into Romanticism occasionally.

Although much of this film is very closely matched to action, this cue in particular is and isn't. The form is so square it is amazing it fits.

Basically, the form is AABA, then 16 bars of variation (beginning at on the theme 0:46), then it closes with Maid Marian's theme. All the variation and development that occurs in that is pretty much what you would expect out of a composer like Korngold.

The harmonies are simple classical triads with rare exception (fairly unique to this specific cue). There are a lot of passing tones, neighbor tones, suspensions, etc.

One other interesting thing is that the rhythms are almost exclusively dotted quarter, eighth, quarter (long - short - long) or half then quarter.(long - short).

[epsteinisms]

Your love and devotion to this thrilling music, not to mention your uncanny ear and superb musicianship, shine though in every note! I've spent a lifetime trying to wrap my mind around the truly great and compelling music of Korngold. Could it be that just maybe he is the greatest composer of all time? The first time I ever touched a piano keyboard was at around age six, around 1958 - I had been watching this film on T.V. and was drawn to the keyboard to try to PICK OUT THE THEMES I HAD HEARD ON THE SOUNDTRACK! One of those themes is almost certainly part of your amazingly skillful transcription.

[musicalhartbeat]

Really nice! Love Korngold's music!!

[StewartEngart]

remarkably similar to Jeff Sultanof's 1987 arr.