With the twenty-seventh issue of the Periodical Overtures, announced in early April 1770, publisher Robert Bremner (1725–1789) [1] did something he had never done before: he printed a symphony by an English composer, Thomas Augustine Arne (1717–1778). True, the Scot Thomas Alexander Erskine (the Earl of Kelly) had been featured three times up to this point, contributing Periodical Overtures Nos. 13, 17, and 25. Arne, however, appeared only this one time in the series, and while Erskine would figure once again—in fact, in the subsequent issue, Periodical Overture No. 28—no other British composers were represented in the sixty-one symphonies.
The inclusion of Arne’s piece was itself a bit surprising, even though Arne had been a long-standing and prominent musical figure in Great Britain. When his comic opera The Guardian Outwitted premiered at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, on 12 December 1764, it lasted only six nights.[2] Ironically, a string of critiques—some in prose, and some as satirical odes—were published over the next several weeks, persisting much longer than the opera itself.[3] Despite the production’s relatively brief run, Bremner published a vocal score (with Arne’s dedication to Queen Charlotte) early in 1765, containing songs and duets along with a keyboard arrangement of the overture.[4] It was that same overture—some five years later—that would comprise Periodical Overture No. 27.
Thomas Arne (1717-1789) The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – No. XXVII
Key: G | Movements: 3 (1) Con Spirito (2) Andante Larghetto (3) Andante Amoroso Duration: 5:43 Scoring: 2 oboes, 2 flutes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 violins, viola, basso Originally published by Robert Bremner, London, 1770 (RISM A.1834)
Purchase the score and performance materials:
From the Preface to the printed edition: It is easy to argue that the overture of The Guardian Outwitted is a very fine introductory piece for listeners who are new to Arne. He demonstrates his awareness of changing trends in theater overtures, since he incorporates several of the structural elements of stand-alone concert symphonies, such as the shift from G major in the outer movements to the parallel minor for the central “Andante Larghetto.” Like members of the Mannheim school, he gives significant attention to the winds; he also expands the ensemble from Bremner’s customary “eight parts” by requiring flutes in the finale and a pair of bassoons throughout.
The opening “Con Spirito” seems to reflect a composer who was straddling the divide between the Ancients (those who valued the traditions of Baroque music) and the Moderns (fans of the newest compositional trends). This first movement presents a blend of older overture conventions with newer symphonic techniques, such as its proto-sonata-rondo form. Arne’s first theme is full of sudden contrasts: it opens with a full-ensemble hammer-blow and then immediately shifts to delicate, piano, staccato notes in the upper strings; the full group re-enters at a forte for six measures until returning to the opening material. This time, though, the six-measure passage is expanded to eight bars, and it transitions to the dominant minor for the movement’s lyrical second theme at measure 19. This theme—with its “real harmonic character”—features the oboes, who play conjunct pairs of notes in alternation with small flurries of sixteenths in the violins.[5] After this brief four-bar passage, the full ensemble returns to the first theme at measure 23, now in the dominant major. Arne does not repeat the exposition; instead, the first theme launches the development at measure 31, while it is the second theme that heralds the return to the tonic G (m. 60), but again, in the parallel minor. Four measures later, the first theme solidifies the sense of closure with its robust scoring in G major.
In contrast to the numerous modern features of the first movement, the tiny ten-measure “Andante Larghetto” resembles the slow “bridge” transitions between movements in Baroque structures such as concertos and trio sonatas. It differs significantly from the keyboard reduction in the older vocal score, and it is unknown which version more accurately represents the overture actually performed in Covent Garden. In any event, the simpler rhythmic passages in the Periodical Overture provide a clearer showcase for the orchestral timbral effects. The oboes take the lead, while the strings play pizzicato until the final two bars. The movement culminates with a fermata in measure 8 that suggests an opportunity for a brief cadenza (and which was specified in the keyboard version). The oboes then fall silent and the strings play an arco half-cadence, pausing on D major before an implied attacca into the finale.
The “Andante Amoroso” does not evoke the “gigue” finales heard in the majority of Bremner’s Periodical Overtures. Instead, it suggests a different, more sedate dance, such as a minuet or even a Ländler. It contains three themes in an a-a-b-a-c-b-c-a pattern. While the quiet first theme (a) puts an emphasis on beat 2 with its opening quarter-note/half-note rhythms and prevalent rinforzandi, it starts to introduce Scotch snaps in measure 5, and these quickly prove to be a dominant feature throughout the finale. The first violin often bypasses steps four and seven in the scale (as in, for example, measure 5), giving those passages a pentatonic flavour. The b theme (m. 17) then features the Scotch snap in almost every bar, while the c motif (m. 32) reduces but does not eliminate the distinctive folk rhythm. All through the movement, the strings and woodwinds are showcased in alternation. Moreover, the bassoon takes on an independent role—the first extended example of this type of scoring to appear in Bremner’s series. The overall effect is charming; it is also an ample illustration of Arne’s “God-gifted” melodic expertise.
Alyson McLamore
[1] Bremner’s birth year differs from the “c.1713” currently listed in most published sources; it is based on information from Scottish baptismal records that was kindly conveyed to us by Rudolf Rasch.
[2] “London Stage Event: 12 December 1764 at Covent Garden,” London Stage Database, accessed April 8, 2026, https://londonstagedatabase.uoregon.edu/event.php?id=32448.
[3] P.C. Roscoe, “Arne and ‘The Guardian Outwitted,” Music & Letters 24, no. 4 (Oct. 1943): 239–244.
[4] British Library, G.230.(2).
[5] Richard Platt, “Thomas Augustine Arne, 1710–1778,” in The Symphony and Overture in Great Britain: Twenty Works, ed. Richard Platt, Susan Kirakowska, David Johnson, and Thomas McIntosh, Series E, Volume I of The Symphony, 1720–1840 (New York: Garland, 1984), lxvi.