With this, the seventeenth instalment of the Periodical Overtures in 8 Parts, we are now well on our way to the halfway mark in the publishing project. All 61 overtures, actually symphonies, are being published monthly by Musikproduktion Höflich. Listen here before heading over to musikproduktion höflich to obtain your copy of the score and parts.
As had been true with Erskine’s first symphony within the Periodical Overtures series [overture 13], purchasers of No. 17 got quite a bit more than the “8 Parts” they would have expected. This time, in addition to the standard string complement of first and second violins, viola, and basso, there were cues for bassoon in the basso part. … Besides the usual two horns, the winds included two flutes and two B-flat clarinet parts—the first time any of the Periodical Overtures had featured clarinets. [Kelly’s] Biographer David Johnson notes that the flutes play only with the full ensemble; he speculates that Erskine was writing with the Edinburgh Musical Society in mind, whose flutists were amateurs (professionals were hired for the other wind parts). Johnson suggests the flutes were deployed “only where they would cause minimum damage.”[1]
The increased number of winds resembled the typical scoring for outdoor wind-band groups, while the breadth of available colour allowed Erskine to pursue the concertante style that was growing in popularity.[2] In fact, although Erskine had gained early fame for introducing British audiences to the Mannheim idiom, he spent several years in London in the early 1760s, and seems to have absorbed ideas from Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) and Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–1787). H. C. Robbins Landon sees a resemblance between Erskine’s wind-band solos in Periodical Overture No. 17 and the similar solo passages in the Abel symphony that had once been credited to Mozart as K. 18.[3]
Nevertheless, Erskine’s symphony still contains plenty of features that evoke the Mannheim approach. The opening “Allegro,” in cut-time, is supported by “drum 8ths,” measured tremolos, and a few passages of murky-bass oscillations. The sonata-form movement contains three themes: the first opens with triple-stop chords in the upper strings, followed by an arpeggiated passage. It also contains numerous instances of the quick rising-and-falling motif known as the Bebung. The second theme drops the dynamic to piano and moves in a conjunct descending direction, while the third theme showcases the wind[s].
The “Andantino,” in , moves to the relative key of c minor. Like the first movement, it is structured as a sonata form without repeats, shifting (rather abruptly) to E-flat (III) for its secondary key area. Unusually, this slow movement employs the full ensemble, rather than reducing the scoring to strings alone. It opens pianissimo and features many upper-neighbor gestures. The wind band is again prominently featured. … The progressively shorter note values in the final fifteen bars are a nice illustration of the Classic era’s fondness for building excitement by means of increasing animation.
The energy rises even more for the “Presto” finale in , again in sonata form, but this time with repetitions of the exposition and development/recapitulation subsections. The tutti ensemble opens with a vigorous unison arpeggiation that is a commanding premier coup d’archet, while the tone color shifts to strings alone for the piano second theme. The full orchestra returns for a forte closing theme, filled with drum 8ths and measured tremolos for extra flair. Overall, Periodical Overture No. 17 illustrates the “genius for composition” credited to Erskine by his contemporary Charles Burney.[4] It certainly supports the British scholar Charles Cudworth’s view that “after the middle of the century, the Earl of Kelly was undeniably our most gifted symphonist.”[5]
Alyson McLamore
[1] David Johnson, ed., Preface to Symphony in E Flat (Periodical Overture 17), by Thomas Erskine, Earl of Kelly, Musica da Camera 31 (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), [ii].
[2] Simon McVeigh, “The Symphony in Britain,” in The Eighteenth-Century Symphony, ed. Mary Sue Morrow and Bathia Churgin, Vol. I of The Symphonic Repertoire (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012), 647.
[3] H. C. Robbins Landon, Review of Symphony in E-Flat Major (Periodical Overture 17) for Flutes, Clarinets / Oboes, Bassoon, Horns, Strings and Continuo by Earl of Kelly, ed. by David Johnson, Notes 33, no. 3 (March 1977): 676.
[4] Charles Burney, A General History of Music From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1789), Vol. II, ed. by Frank Mercer (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, [1935]), 1018.
[5] Cudworth, “The English Symphonists of the Eighteenth Century,” 48.