Dance Suite: 4 Clarinets & Optional Percussion Score & Parts

These four dances arrive fully orchestrated for clarinet quartet, giving you accessible Baroque material without the labor of arranging it yourself. Arranger David Marlatt preserves the character of Praetorius's originals while crafting parts that sit comfortably in the clarinet range, making this a genuine ensemble builder rather than a technical gauntlet.

These dances pulse with the energy of a Renaissance court: elegant, rhythmically bright, and designed for movement rather than introspection. Four clarinets together create a warm, unified voice that carries the simple melodic lines with surprising richness and clarity.

Clarinet quartets seeking repertoire that bridges accessibility and artistry, and ensembles preparing for contest or festival performance. This works equally well for school-based quartets and community or semi-professional groups wanting to program recognizable Renaissance-Baroque material.

• Shape each dance with rhythmic clarity and forward motion; Baroque dances gain their character from bounce and articulation rather than dynamic swells, so keep the pulse alive across all four voices.
• Blend the clarinet sonority by matching vibrato speed and extent across players, especially in the sustained sections where the ensemble harmony is most exposed.
• If using percussion, keep it light and supportive; these pieces are lean enough that heavy accompaniment will obscure the clarinet writing.
• Mark your phrasing clearly in rehearsal so the four parts breathe together, preventing the ensemble from feeling fragmented across the four independent lines.

Open a chamber concert with one or more of these dances to establish a historical context for your program, or use them as interludes between larger Romantic or contemporary works. The seven-minute total duration makes the suite manageable as a single block or allows you to program individual dances as breathers between longer pieces.

• Ensemble balance across four equal melodic lines
• Baroque articulation and phrasing conventions
• Rhythmic precision in simple dance meters
• Coordinated ensemble breathing and phrase shaping
• Reading multiple independent clarinet parts simultaneously