Adagio, Allegretto and Variationen on "The Ploughboy"

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was in his time a highly esteemed pianist and composer, who excelled particularly in improvisation. He studied, among others, with Mozart, Albrechtsberger and Salieri. In his extensive creative output, the variation form is found ever and ever again, so e. g. in his early "Three Variations for Piano, op. 1". The present arrangement for oboe and piano is based on the first of these, its theme being "The Plough Boy", taken from the opera "The Farmer" by William Shield (1750-1819).

Because of the clear division between melody and accompaniment, the piece seems especially well suited for an arrangement of this kind and it reminds of the only work originally written for oboe and orchestra of Hummel's: Adagio and Tema con variazioni, op. 102.

The arrangement has the same key and nearly the same musical text as Hummel's version for piano. A few additional dynamic marks and articulations more appropriate to the wind instrument have been supplemented by the editor.