me du Public pour les excellens materiaux que j'ay mis en oeuvre, Votre goût, Monsieur, si delicat et si eclairé en même tems, m'apprendre si mon auteur n'a rien perdu dans son travestissement, et jusqu'ou je peux porter la hardiesse pour étendre un instrument que vous desirez de voir perfectionner. Cet essay vous prouvera du moins publiquement l'envie que j'ay de vous plaire et le respect avec le quel je Suis Monsieur votre tres humble et tres obeissant Serviteur Chédeville le Cadet." [Trans SB: "Sir, when I undertook to adapt the great compositions of Antonio Vivaldi in a pastoral style, for an instrument which is the entire object of my work, I was certain of the esteem of the Public for the excellent materials that I have brought together, Your taste, Sir, so delicate and so piercing at the same time, will inform me if our author has indeed lost nothing in this pastoral disguise, and how far I may take this liberty to extend an instrument that you would like to see perfected. This essay will prove to you, by these public means the desire I have to please you and the respect with which I Am Sir your very humble and obedient Servant Chédeville the Younger."]
Nicolas indeed described his arrangement as "The Printems ou les saisons amusantes..." but did not confine himself to the concerti of the 'Four Seasons' but included also among these six concerti put together from various concerti of Vivaldi from the opus 8 series. The movements used by him come from the following concerti of Vivaldi:
Chédeville's latest selection and the arrangements of the individual concerti cannot be explained in reference to the technical limits of the hurdy-gurdy or the musette. The remaining movements do not go beyond the usual range and could have been used as well. His selection was apparently subjective and the movements so arranged according to how he thought they best fit together and reflected the mood indicated in the title.
Chédeville transposed the individual movements from their original keys into the principal keys of the hurdy-gurdy and bagpipes, C and G. Movements in a minor key were transposed into a minor key corresponding to the hurdy-gurdy's keys. Chédeville changed the keys of the first concerto, 'La Primavera', E major -- c#minor -- E major into C major -- c minor -- C major. In all the concerti he replaced the minor key movements always with the minor version of the principal key on account of the tuning of the drone strings. In order to avoid retuning the drone between the individual movements (see page 57, page 68). All the movements of a concerto had to be in one major key or the minor version of it.
Vivaldi's instrumentation with solo violin, two violins, viola, violin and cello, contrabasses and organ or harpsichord was reduced by Chédeville to one hurdy-gurdy or musette which replaced the solo first violin, flute and violin (or two violins) and organ and violin cello as basso-continuo instruments. The coupling of organ and violin cello [?] was also used by Vivaldi, who likewise has the cello almost always in unison with the organ. In addition comes the general bass on the organ or harpsichord. In Chédeville's work the contra bass is missing and the three middle voices of Vivaldi are decreased to two which however does not cause any significant change, since the middle voices in the original concerti are often played in unison, or else the solo violin and the other violins play in unison.
Since the violin has a greater range than the hurdy-gurdy Chédeville could not always adopt the voice of the solo violin in his arrangements. In so far as the first violin was played in ensemble with the other instruments, he did not need to change anything since the range then did not exceed that of the hurdy-gurdy. In the solo passages however the limits of the hurdy-gurdy become apparent (ex. 31, ex. 32) as well as its inability to modulate well through the various keys on account of the drone. It is bound to a narrow harmonic range which is determined by the tonic and the dominant; chords of other keys can appear only in passing