Waterloo by ABBA String Quartet - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1079900

Waterloo is used as a synonym for an epic fail. Like the history book on the shelf, history repeated itself in 1815, when French recklessness contributed to a crushing defeat, as it had, for instance, at Crecy (1346), Agincourt (1415) and Dettingen (1743). Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle was literally his Waterloo. ABBA, the Swedish pop phenomenon, burst onto the scene in April 1974 by winning the Eurovision Song Contest with an uptempo-rock-shuffle number called Waterloo, as a metaphor for the theme of voluntary surrender to all-consuming love "...I win when I lose". The battle of Waterloo was known in France as the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean - so their voters might not have taken offence – but we'll never know, since their entry was withdrawn from the contest at the last minute out of respect for the recent death of President Pompidou. On the theme of France, here's a nerdy factoid, if you're still reading,: The first chord changes in Waterloo mimic the standard opening of the French Overture; Chords I - II 7, 3rd inv. – V, 1st inv., although in this case, the normally diatonic chord II is treated as "Lydian" and changed to major, as a superimposed secondary dominant. Fans of John Williams' film music will feel at home in this sequence. This arrangement for string quartet is a relatively straight-forward idiomatic transcription in the same tonality as the original recording, so you could even play along with it for fun. The level is in the middle of “intermediate”; very quickly rehearsed by professional quartets and an accessible challenge for experienced students. Enjoy!