The trumpeter and folk musician Johann Aregger (1927 – 2007) is known to many alphorn players as the composer of the piece “Uf de Bänklialp”. He is also regarded as one of the founders of polyphonic alphorn music.
In 1971 Aregger self-published the collection “Das mehrstimmige Alphornblasen – Grundlagen & Kompositionen”. In the preface he also mentions a planned (to our knowledge not realized) 2nd volume with external compositions. The collection is now out of print; a copy can be found in the Basel University Library. Certain pieces from it circulate in collections or photocopied sheet music – often on a questionable copyright basis.
The aim of the project here is to make Aregger’s work accessible again to the widest possible circle of alphorn players. Gary Martin has re-set all the pieces and created separate excerpts for solo, duo, trio and quartet in pdf format. For each piece you will also find a zip archive with the MuseScore and Midi files, files in open MusicXML format and a pdf file with the original sheet music. You can print individual excerpts per voice in any paper format from the MuseScore files or create PlayAlongs yourself – see here for instructions. For the transcription, see Gary’s notes on Aregger’s notation.
The sheet music is published here with the kind permission of Johann Aregger’s heirs. You may download it for personal use without restriction. However, the works are protected by copyright until 2077 and their use (performances, recordings) must be registered/licensed with SUISA.
| # | Opus | Solo | Duo | Trio1 | Trio2 | Quatuor | Archivum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alphorn Choral |  | | | | |  |
| 2 | Uf dä Bänklialp | | | | | | |
| 3 | Im Buechli | | | | | | |
| 4 | s'Chli Geissli | | | | | | |
| 5 | Abendrot am Spannort | | | | | | |
| 6 | Gemsjagd | | | | | | |
| 7 | Engelberger Echo | | | | |
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| 8 | Kärnser Michel | | | | |
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| 9 | Holzwurm | | |
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| 10 | Schweizergruss | | | | | | |
| 11 | Abschied | | | | | | |