Maria (West Side Story) Duet
 

"Maria" was written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim in 1959 for the musical "West Side Story".

Even though I have marked this piece with a strict tempo, it really plays best with two players as rubato (without strict tempo). I have not built in any tempo changes except for measure 8. You will note the // before the final note of the measure. This denotes taking a brief pause (and a quick breath) before continuing a tempo on the final note of the measure.

Due to instrument constraints, I arranged this piece in Bb Minor concert. Five flats may be a little difficult for someone learning to play, but the tempo is slow and the key changes in to F Major in measure 9.

Note that Bernstein did not change the key signature back to Bb Minor in measure 30, but chose to mark the variations with accidentals.

If you would like to see the lyrics or the chords, you can use Composer commands to display them: for lyrics use qsl; for chords use qscn.

Ralph R. Rayner