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Thomas Alexander Erskine (6th Earl of Kelly): The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XXVIII (The Maid of the Mill)

On 28 August 1770, the General Evening Post carried an advertisement for “NEW MUSIC Just published” by Robert Bremner (1725–1789). The listing included “Periodical Overture, No. 28, composed by the Earl of Kelly for the Maid of the Mill.” The advertisement did not use the “This Day is Published” language that was Bremner’s custom when an issue was first released, so it is likely that Periodical Overture No. 28 had been in print for several weeks or months. In any event, it was to be Bremner’s last collaboration with his longtime colleague Thomas Alexander Erskine (1732–1781), the sixth Earl of Kelly (see Periodical Overtures Nos. 13, 17, and 25).

Thomas Alexander Erskine (6th Earl of Kelly (1732-1781) The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – No. XXVIII

Key: B-flat | Movements: 3 (1) Allegro (2) Adagio ma non troppo (3) Minuet Duration: 8:56 Scoring: 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 violins, viola, basso Originally published by Robert Bremner, London, 1770 (RISM E.778)

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The Periodical Overture No. 28 was not a new work when it appeared in Bremner’s series. In fact, it is likely that some of its purchasers had already heard it performed, since it had been composed five years earlier to serve as the overture for the pasticcio comedy The Maid of the Mill. Playwright Isaac Bickerstaffe (1733–1812) based the libretto on a very loose adaptation of Samuel Richardson’s popular novel Pamela. Like most British pasticcios of the day, the majority of the music was borrowed from earlier operatic works, but six pieces were newly composed for The Maid of the Mill: four songs by Samuel Arnold (1740–1802), an aria by Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) (see Periodical Overtures Nos. 1, and 15), and the overture by Lord Kelly. The Maid of the Mill was the season’s chief success after its 31 January 1765 premiere at London’s Covent Garden Theatre. It then enjoyed several revivals in London, ranging clear up to the early nineteenth century. The pasticcio also traveled quite widely, with productions appearing in New York in 1769, St. Petersburg in 1772, and Jamaica in 1779.

Erskine’s overture for The Maid of the Mill enjoyed a life of its own as well. As was the case with his three earlier symphonies published by Bremner, Periodical Overture No. 28 enjoyed numerous performances in meetings of the Edinburgh Musical Society. Scholar Jenny Burchell has tabulated ten documented performances: one in 1771, two a decade later in 1781, and then seven that followed the earl’s death: two in 1782, three in 1783, and single presentations in 1784 and 1786. In a curious bit of programming, The Maid of the Mill overture was even used to precede selections from Handel’s Messiah in at least one concert, although this “unsuitable” pairing did arouse protest. The minister Charles Davy felt these “inconsistencies” were the result of a director lacking “true taste and judgement.” More evidence for the overture’s popularity was the keyboard arrangement that was published in The Piano-Forte Magazine in 1798, more than thirty years after the pasticcio’s premiere. The sustained interest in Erskine’s contribution supported the contemporary view that his music merited “vast applause” and that it was “an outstanding attraction for upper-class visitors to Edinburgh.”

From the Preface to the printed edition: Erskine’s overture amply reflects his Mannheim training with Johann Stamitz (see Periodical Overtures Nos. 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, and 12). The B-flat major “Allegro,” in common time, opens with three hammer blows that are repeated a third higher in the second measure. Interestingly, Kelly may have influenced J. C. Bach in turn, since Bach uses the same two opening bars almost exactly at the start of his Symphony in B-flat, Op. 9/21, no. 1 (1773). After this robust, forte opening, the first theme drops in volume to prepare for a four-measure wind showcase (m. 13). Fans of Stamitz’s music would recognize the Mannheim crescendo (m. 17) that then bridges the first and second themes of the sonata form. The crescendo passage is filled with “crushed” motifs of two thirty-second notes rising to a dotted eighth, supported throughout by steady “drum 8ths.” The quieter second theme (m. 41) relaxes the intensity by using longer note values as well. The development (m. 52) opens with a motif from the first theme, and again spotlights the winds (m. 68), made more dramatic by the use of the minor mode and by short injections of the “crushed” motif in the strings and bassoon. There is a clear drive to the recapitulation (m. 84), which repeats the nuances of the exposition, including its many moments of chromaticism.

The central movement—a lyrical common-time “Adagio ma non troppo” in the dominant key of F major—loosely conforms to the binary-sonata pattern that James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy call a “Type 2 Sonata,” diagrammed as || a/I b/V a(’)/V b/I ||.[1] The horns are tacet, but Erskine continues to employ the oboes and bassoons in addition to the strings. In fact, the second period (m. 7) of the first theme showcases the oboes, followed by some delightful echo effects between the winds and strings. The oboes also introduce the second theme (m. 16), featuring a quick rise and a slower fall, and peppered with trills.

In several of the preceding Periodical Overtures, Bremner had created three-movement symphonies by eliminating minuets from his continental sources. In the case of The Maid of the Mill overture, however, Erskine’s third movement is a minuet, so Bremner retained it in this publication. Although it returns to the symphony’s B-flat tonal center and is in the customary  meter, Erskine does not use the standard minuet-and-trio form. Instead, the finale is crafted as a conventional five-part rondo (A B A C A). The refrain is a graceful rising line, starting piano but repeating at forte. The first episode (m. 17) has a descending contour and plays with juxtaposed eighth notes and triplets. After the return of the refrain (m. 25), the C episode (m. 41) ushers in some increased drama by its use of a minor mode and an extended woodwind feature. After a brief moment of imitative polyphony, Erskine shifts the focus to short motifs. Another Mannheim crescendo (m. 54) adds to the episode’s intensity, but the mood lightens with the last return of A (m. 65). Overall, Erskine’s effective creativity may explain this overture’s long-term popularity; it also illustrates the “genius for composition” credited to Erskine by Burney.[2] Almost two hundred years later, British scholar Charles Cudworth reiterated that viewpoint, arguing that “after the middle of the century, the Earl of Kelly was undeniably our most gifted symphonist.”[3]

Alyson McLamore

[1] James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 353–4.

[2] Burney, A General History of Music From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1789), 1018.

[3] Cudworth, “The English Symphonists of the Eighteenth Century,” 48.

Jacob Herschel: The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XXVI

In the first twenty-five issues of the Periodical Overtures, publisher Robert Bremner (c.1725–1789) had issued a small handful of works by composers living in (or visiting) Great Britain. This direct contact had certainly been the case with the inaugural symphony by Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), and Bach—still resident in London—had been represented again (less happily) by Periodical Overture No. 15. Bremner’s personal acquaintance with Thomas Alexander Erskine (1732–1781), the sixth Earl of Kelly, clearly had led to the publication of Periodical Overtures Nos. 13, 17, and the most recent issue, No. 25, which appeared in June 1769. It seems quite possible that Bremner also had contracted in person for the right to publish the twenty-sixth symphony in the series, since its composer—Jacob Herschel (1734–1792)—is known to have spent various periods of time in London during a two-year stay in England; in fact, his sojourn in Great Britain did not end until late July 1769, while Bremner’s print was issued just four months later.

Jacob Herschel (1734-1792) The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – No. XXVI

Key: C | Movements: 3 (1) Allegro con brio (2) Andante molto più tosto Allegretto (3) Presto Duration: 7:42 Scoring: 2 violins, viola, basso, 2 oboes, 2 horns Originally published by Robert Bremner, London, 1769 (RISM H.5194)

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From the Preface to the printed edition: As the sole published symphonic music by (Jacob) Herschel—and perhaps the first music of any sort by Herschel in modern edition—Periodical Overture No. 26 presents a very fine calling card. The first movement lives up to its “Allegro con brio” designation with a bold premier coup d’archet in which the full ensemble plays a two-measure unison triadic figure to cement the tonic C major. After these hammerstrokes and several rising and falling scalar lines, the first violins perform an extended descending sequential pattern, supported by measured tremolos and “drum 8ths” in the lower strings. In measure 17, Herschel launches the first of several playful passages in which the first violins rapidly repeat a single pitch at a piano dynamic for two bars before crescendoing to forte. During that quiet passage, however, the violins are interrupted multiple times by the rest of the ensemble who interject quick forte appoggiaturas. After a similar interplay starting at measure 28 (now in G major), the movement takes an unexpected turn to the dominant minor to launch the “B” section (m. 38) of the movement’s ternary form. During this mostly piano passage, Herschel again startles listeners with subito interjections of an ensemble fortissimo (m. 45, m. 53). At measure 74, a return of the dynamic interchange first heard in measure 17 is our cue that a reprise of the “A” section is near, and the opening hammerstrokes make their reappearance at measure 91.

The second movement of Periodical Overture No. 26 mixes conventional and unconventional elements. The drop to a slower tempo and the omission of the winds are both expected, but the “Andante molto più tosto Allegretto” designation is unusually detailed. The change, harmonically, to F major—the subdominant of C major—is a standard transition, but the repetition scheme of ||: a :||: b a :|| c a || is a bit unexpected, expanding what initially seems to be an ordinary rounded-binary structure into a form that might be best described as a rondo. Herschel sets each melody apart, opening the refrain (a) with a five-note ascent (with a bit of chromaticism) that then gradually works its way downward above a busily “seesaw” pattern in Violin II. The b episode, in F’s dominant key, C major, descends more directly, first in sequential three-note groups, and then in a longer scale. The c episode—in d minor—shifts to much longer (and louder) quarter-note values in most of the ensemble; their four-note descents expand on the three-note descents of b.

Herschel’s sense of humour seems to be in evidence yet again in the “Presto,” written in a gigue-like meter. As in the first movement, the full ensemble bounces its way through a rising C major arpeggio as a premier coup d’archet—but when the ensemble catches its collective breath on the fourth beat of the measure, the violins quickly fill the silence with racing eighth notes. This lively gimmick is repeated in the second bar and again at many points during the movement. The finale employs two main melodies, a and b, that progress through the tonic and dominant harmonies in an || a/I b/V a/V b/I || pattern. James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy have labeled this structure as a “Type 2 Sonata”; Herschel’s version does not contain the repetition that often divides the form in half.1 In contrast to the a theme with its opening disjunct bounciness, the b melody (m. 11 and m. 50) starts with rising and falling conjunct eighth notes that are occasionally interrupted by a large upward leap. Herschel also interjects short “block-chord” passages, such as measure 16—rather like the c episode in the slow movement—that underpin an effervescent melody in the first violin. In contrast to the flexible dynamics during the preceding movements, the finale sustains a robust forte or fortissimo throughout. Altogether, Periodical Overture No. 26 gives listeners an exhilarating—but regrettably rare—illustration of Herschel’s ample capabilities.

Alyson McLamore

1 James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 353–4.

 

Thomas Alexander Erskine (Earl of Kelly): The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XXV

After a longish gap, perhaps of more than a year, Robert Bremner (c.1713–1789) resumed publication of the Periodical Overtures by issuing No. 25 on 10 June 1769. The composer was Thomas Alexander Erskine (1732–1781), the sixth Earl of Kelly, and this was the third time that Bremner had featured a composition by his long-time Scottish colleague (explore the earlier overtures XIII and XVII). Interestingly, the very first work by Erskine to appear in the series (Periodical Overture No. XIII) had also been issued after a long hiatus; perhaps Bremner felt that offering a work by a British citizen, instead of one of the many foreign composers who had contributed the majority of the overtures, might “kick-start” the renewed series with more energy. In any event, with the release of Periodical Overture No. 25, Bremner’s “Opera Quinta” was underway.

 

Thomas Alexander Erskine (Earl of Kelly) (1732-1781) The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – No. XXV

Key: D | Movements: 3 (1) Allegro assai (2) Andante (3) Presto Duration: 15:28 Scoring: 2 violins, viola, basso, 2 oboes, 2 horns Originally published by Robert Bremner, London, 1769 (RISM E.777)

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From the Preface to the printed edition: Unlike the other three symphonies by Erskine that appeared in the series, purchasers of Periodical Overture No. 25 received the advertised eight-part scoring—with no extra woodwind parts. The symphony also reflected many of the Mannheim traits that Erskine had helped introduce to the British public. The three-movement work opens with a common-time “Allegro assai” in ternary form. The first A section is peppered with oscillating sixteenth notes and it proceeds through a rising stepwise sequence. It is supported initially by “drum 8ths” and, later, measured tremolos. It is possible to see the influence of Erskine’s teacher Stamitz in the central B section (m. 37), which showcases the oboes playing an arpeggiated theme saturated with the short-long rhythms that were even then called “Scots [now Scotch] snaps.”1 A particularly dramatic passage begins at measure 53, which uses an extended Mannheim crescendo and a long stretch of minor mode to lead back to the return of A in measure 86.

The central movement—a graceful “Andante” in the dominant key of A major—conforms to the binary-sonata pattern that James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy call a “Type 2 Sonata,” diagrammed as ||: a/I b/V :||: a/V b/I :||.2 Interestingly, the second theme ends with another string of Scotch snaps (m. 34 and onward), creating a bit of a cyclic connection between the first two movements of this symphony.

Erskine returns to D major for a lively “Presto” finale. Although it employs a sonata-form structure, many of its features are gigue-like, such as the 6/8 time, the bouncy melodies, and the regular four-bar phrases. The first theme features the full orchestra rising and falling in a robust premier coup d’archet passage, while the second theme reduces the ensemble to just the two violin parts and a piano dynamic level. The first violins play a disjunct line in longer note values, supported by a steadily moving series of eighth notes in the second violins. Although Erskine uses the recognizable opening motif from the first theme to launch the development (m. 65), he varies the tone colour by featuring the oboes and then the horns—another touch that his teacher Stamitz would have appreciated. As is true in all the “Lord Kelly” selections published by Bremner, Periodical Overture No. 25 illustrates the “genius for composition” credited to Erskine by Burney.3 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.”4

Alyson McLamore

1 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]), 858.

2 James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 353–4.

3 Burney, A General History of Music From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period (1789), 1018.

4 Cudworth, “The English Symphonists of the Eighteenth Century,” 48.

Francesco Pasquale Ricci: The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XXIV

With Periodical Overture No. 24, Robert Bremner returned to Francesco Pasquale Ricci (1732–1817) after a five-year gap — the longest between appearances by a single composer in the series to that point. The choice was probably deliberate: Ricci’s earlier overture (No. 2) had shown staying power, and his familiar name made him an apt choice to close “Opera Quarta,” Bremner’s only all-Italian set. The connection between composer and publisher may well have been personal: Ricci spent time in London in the spring of 1767, and it is possible that the introduction came through Johann Christian Bach, with whom Ricci had shared the patronage of Count Agostino Litta in Milan. The B♭ major symphony may even have originated in the musical academy that Ricci directed there, bringing amateurs and professionals together in performance.

 

Francesco Pasquale Ricci (1732–1817) The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – No. XXIV Key: B♭ | Movements: 3 – (1) Con spirito (2) Maestoso (3) Allegro Duration: 14:31 Scoring: 2 violins, viola, basso, 2 oboes, 2 horns Originally published by Robert Bremner, London, c.1768 RISM R.127

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From the Preface to the printed edition: The first movement of the B♭ major symphony lives up to its “Con spirito” designation from the start, opening with a bold coup d’archet of an ascending dotted-rhythm pattern for the entire ensemble. “Drum 8ths” sustain the excitement when the dynamic level drops to piano in the eighth bar. Although the meter is a less-common , the structure is an uncomplicated sonata form. The animated first theme is followed by a more delicate second subject at measure 25 in the expected key of F major. Like the quieter second phrase of the first theme, it, too, is supported by steady drum 8ths, and the violins add measured tremolos as they approach the development (m. 41). The sudden transition in measure 41 to a one-on-a-part string ensemble supporting a fairly elaborate Violin I solo gives the passage a concerto-like intensity. The development’s harmonic wanderings are compounded by constant subito shifts between piano and forte, and the passage ends with an exhilarating downward scale into the recapitulation at measure 65, when the full ensemble rejoins at last. The first theme is virtually unchanged during its reappearance, and after yielding to the second theme in measure 96, the first theme’s opening coup d’archet wraps up the movement in measure 115.

The string-only slow movement of Periodical Overture No 24 is unusual in its true “Maestoso” qualities. The unison violins present the stately opening F-major arpeggiated melody for two measures before being echoed by the lower strings in the dominant harmony of C (again in octave unison). This imitative polyphony acknowledges the “learned” approach, which differs markedly from the “grazioso” style of the middle movements in many of Bremner’s symphonies. Like the first movement, the meter is again triple, and the structure is again sonata form, although without repeats. Similar to the development in the “Con spirito,” Ricci reduces the scoring to solo strings repeatedly during the course of the movement, with the first instance occurring in measure five. The second theme (m. 17) is much more conjunct, including a brief chromatic ascent (m. 20), and the exposition concludes with another short but regal passage of dotted rhythms (m. 26) that arpeggiate the C major harmony. The development (m. 29) immediately shifts to the dominant minor, but it is not long until the unison first theme re-enters (m. 41). Another passage in c minor (m. 52) serves as the bridge to the reappearance of the second theme, now in the tonic F major, and—after a fermata (m. 65), which suggests Ricci may have envisioned an opportunity for a brief first-violin cadenza—the dotted rhythms return in measure 66 to conclude the movement.

Ricci changes the mood entirely in the bouncy finale. The lively “Allegro,” back in B-flat major, is yet another sonata form. Its lilting first theme features the rising-and-falling Bebung gesture that was named by scholars who observed its use by composers of the Mannheim school, but which is also widely found in Italian orchestral music of the time. Drum 8ths and measured tremolos add to the zeal of the energetic melody, and their support continues on into the second theme (m. 23). This contrasting melody plays with frequent dynamic contrasts and is somewhat more disjunct than the first theme. Just as in the first movement, the development showcases another extended passage of one-on-a-part string scoring (m. 35). Again, one player propels the whole passage; after two unadorned dotted-half notes, the first violinist embarks on a nearly continuous string of sixteenth notes to drive back to the recapitulation and the return of the tutti (m. 51). The bridge between the first and second themes (m. 71) is underpinned by a six-measure F pedal tone in the basso and horn parts. The second theme’s dynamic contrasts resume in measure 81, while four measures of sustained B♭ major harmony are an emphatic conclusion to the movement as well as to the overall symphony.

Alyson McLamore

Niccolò Piccinni (Piccini): The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XXIII

With The Periodical Overture No. XXIII, Robert Bremner issued the last of four works by Niccolò Piccinni (1728–1800) that he included in the long-running Periodical Overture series. Until this issue, Bremner had never featured the same composer four times in a row. However, all four of the Piccinni overtures were published within “Opera Quarta,” Bremner’s only all-Italian set during the twenty years of his enterprise. As Piccinni was one of the most performed opera composers in 1760s London, it explains why Bremner published four of his overtures in quick succession.

Periodical Overture No. XXIII shares many basic characteristics with the other three symphonies by Piccinni that Bremner published. All of them conform to an (unmodified) three-movement, fast-slow-fast structure, and they all employ solely the advertised eight-part ensemble of two violins, viola, basso, two oboes, and two horns. In addition, Piccinni uses the same tempo indication—“Allegro spiritoso”—for the first movements in all four symphonies. Nevertheless, the opening movement of Periodical Overture No. 23 offers some uncommon features as well. It is set in  3/4 metre, a time signature found in only eight of The Periodical Overtures’ first movements. Curiously, some manuscript copies of the oratorio version—La morte di Abele—employed  6/8 metre instead, presenting the same melodies but grouping their eighth notes differently.[1]

The form of the first movement was much more typical of the overall Periodical Overtures. It is a straightforward sonata form (without repeats), comprised of two distinct melodies. The first of its themes employs six-bar phrases that gradually ascend through arpeggiations of the tonic F major harmony for four bars before cascading downward rapidly for two measures. The lower strings provide a steady “drum 8ths” support throughout. Alternating bars of measured tremolos in the violins coincide with the long transition (m. 15) to the dominant. The second theme (m. 30) moves primarily downward, and it showcases rapid on-the-beat turns that create a “Scotch snap” effect.

Four emphatic chords—followed by a beat of silence for the full ensemble (m. 44–45)—signal the arrival at the development, which introduces several striking contrasts. It drops instantly to a piano dynamic level and it also omits the wind instruments for its entire duration of twenty-two measures. It also begins in the dominant’s parallel minor, creating quite a bit of drama on multiple fronts. The recapitulation (m. 68) shakes off all those features and returns to F major and the first theme in a robust forte for the full ensemble. A tonic version of the second theme is ushered in at measure 89, although the first theme will seize the spotlight a final time at measure 100. Piccinni then blends motifs from both of the themes in alternation as he approaches the cadence and the concluding set of four strong chords.

The central “Andantino” creates a very different atmosphere. Like the first movement’s development passage, the winds are tacet. The rondo structure alternates between two tonal centers—B-flat major (the first movement’s subdominant) and its own dominant (F major). The A refrain is filled with thirty-second notes and Scotch snaps with numerous short silences; its dynamic changes between piano and forte are abrupt and frequent. The first episode (m. 11) initially resembles the refrain, but B then moves on to some brief scales. The refrain reappears, largely unaltered, at m. 16, again in B-flat major. The C episode modulates back to F major once more (m. 22). Although C is also rhythmically dense with frequent rests, it is much more disjunct in character, and it remains at piano for a much longer stretch. Measure 27 then pulls us back to where we began, reestablishing B-flat major and reiterating the A refrain once again.

The closing “Allegro” movement’s form is a pattern that James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy label a “Type 1 Sonata.”[2] This pattern is sometimes called a sonatina; it is, essentially, a sonata form without development. It has much in common with the finales of the other Piccini works in Bremner’s series: it is full of bouncy energy in  meter that evokes a gigue. (Periodical Overture No. 22 employed  instead, but to similar effect.) The modulation from the tonic F major to the dominant C major is straightforward, but Piccinni keeps us guessing in many places with his use of irregular phrase lengths. Although the first theme (m. 1) and the second theme (m. 17) have much in common rhythmically, many of their phrases move in opposite directions. The recapitulation reestablishes F major at measure 39, and it reconciles the second theme to that harmony at measure 56. Heads are likely to nod along during the rollicking ending, and the appealing qualities of this sinfonia make it understandable why Piccinni chose to deploy it multiple times.

Alyson McLamore

Purchase the score and performance materials: https://repertoire-explorer.musikmph.de/product/piccinni-piccini-niccolo-4/

All audio previews for this series (Nos. I–XXII on Bandcamp; XXIII onwards on YouTube): https://www.barnabypriest.com/editing-arranging/1169742-the-periodical-overtures-in-8-parts/ https://barnabypriest.bandcamp.com/music

Notes:

[1] https://rism.online/sources/400012152.

[2] James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 345–6.

Niccolò Piccinni (Piccini): The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XXI

With this, the twenty-first instalment of the Periodical Overtures in 8 Parts, we continue Bremner’s publication of  overtures written by Italian composers whose music was all the rage in London towards the end of the 1760s. All 61 overtures, actually symphonies, in the complete series are being published monthly by Musikproduktion Höflich. Listen here before heading over to musikproduktion höflich to obtain your copy of the score and parts.

There is some uncertainty about the dating of Periodical Overture No. 21. In his seminal study of the series, David Wyn Jones cites a 24 September 1767 advertisement in The Public Advertiser.[1] However, that issue of the newspaper does not seem to contain any advertising at all by Bremner. Moreover, in an advertisement published three days earlier—on 21 September—Bremner lists the previous symphony, No. 20, as “just published,” with no mention of an upcoming No. 21.[2] It seems unlikely that Bremner would have issued two overtures in the same month, so it is more probable that the second symphony by Piccinni was introduced in October, November, or very early December. It is true that the first advertisement to mention Periodical Overture No. 21—which was published in the 8 December–10 December issue of The St. James’s Chronicle; or, The British Evening-Post—lists the overture (with other works) under the stock heading “New Music. This Day were published. . . .”[3] However, Bremner’s third symphony by Piccinni was announced only two weeks later—on 22 December—so it is possibly the case that Bremner had released No. 21 quite a bit earlier than 8 December and had not bothered to revise the language of the advertisement.

Although Periodical Overture No. 21 seems to have achieved only a tiny fraction of the popularity of its immediate predecessor, it did demonstrate a certain amount of staying power. Scholar Jenny Burchell has documented two performances that took place in concerts of the Edinburgh Musical Society in 1783, sixteen years after the symphony was published: one occurred on 2 May and the second on 16 June. Two years later, it was presented again, during a 24 June performance.[4]

The structural similarities between Periodical Overture No. 21 and the subsequent two Piccinni works, which both are known to have come from operas, are additional arguments for No. 21 having had a theatrical origin as well. It is in three movements, with the first marked as “Allegro spiritoso,” the identical tempo marking that is used for the opening in all four of Piccinni’s works in the Periodical Overture series. This F major work is structured as a sonata form without repeats, although it is “Haydnesque” in its re-use of the common-time, upward-zigzag first theme in the second tonal area of C major (m. 27). During the theme’s first appearance (m. 1), it is supported by a murky bass (m. 7) and then “drum 8ths” (m. 12). The bridge between the two harmonic areas, starting in measure 16, is peppered with subito contrasts between piano and forte, and the same is true for the development, which starts in measure 36 after three quick hammer blows mark the end of the exposition. Here, though, the contrasts are even greater, shifting suddenly between pianissimo and fortissimo. The opening theme returns at measure 46 and is reiterated at measure 62, driving to a final set of hammer blows in measure 70.

The central movement moves to the contrasting subdominant key of B-flat major, and it is set in a not-terribly-slow “Andante grazioso”; all three of the other Piccinni symphonies also employ some version of “Andante” in their second movements. All four also reduce the ensemble to strings alone, although this is true for over half of the symphonies in Bremner’s series. Within the ternary form, Piccinni’s A melody works its way downward gradually. The B theme (m. 20) makes use of numerous suspensions and dramatic dynamic contrasts. When the A theme returns (m. 32), it also features many sudden and dramatic dynamic changes.

Piccinni is again consistent in his use of bouncy, gigue-like, compound-subdivision finales. Three of the four closing movements—including Periodical Overture No. 21—are in  time, and two of the other symphonies are marked “Allegro,” while one is labeled “Presto.” Periodical Overture No. 21 perhaps straddles the line by calling for “Allegro Presto.” Returning to the F major home key, it travels a lively journey through a sonata form, starting with strong, ascending block chords in the upper strings and winds. The second theme (m. 35) features busy rising-and-falling sixteenth notes. The development (m. 44) drops to a hushed piano dynamic and reduced scoring of violins and violas only, sustained for eighteen measures. A subito return to forte and a quick downward scale set the stage for the recapitulation (m. 64) and the reprise of the block chords. Piccinni may also be emulating a little bit of Haydnesque playfulness by tossing in a “false reprise” of the second theme’s busy motif in the “wrong” key of C major at measure 90. It reappears in a clear, forte F major at measure 101, propelling the overture to its final emphatic triple-stop chords in the violins—again a characteristic shared by all four of the Piccinni Periodical Overtures.

Alyson McLamore

[1] David Wyn Jones, “Robert Bremner and The Periodical Overture,” Soundings 7 (1978): 74.

[2] The Public Advertiser, 21 September 1767, p. 1.

[3] The St. James’s Chronicle; or, The British Evening-Post, 8 December—10 December 1767, p. 2

[4] Jenny Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?: Concert Management and Orchestral Repertoire in Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle, 1730–1799, Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities, ed. by John Caldwell (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996), 337, 344.

 

Niccolò Piccinni (Piccini): The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – XX (Overture to La buona figliuola)

With this, the twentieth instalment of the Periodical Overtures in 8 Parts, we continue Bremner’s publication of  overtures written by Italian composers whose music was all the rage in London towards the end of the 1760s. All 61 overtures, actually symphonies, in the complete series are being published monthly by Musikproduktion Höflich. Listen here before heading over to musikproduktion höflich to obtain your copy of the score and parts.

advertisement for publication of music by Piccinni

Announcement of the publication of Overture XX.

[The popularity of the publication of Piccinni’s overture to La buona figliuola as Periodical Overture in 8 Parts XX] is evident in the numerous keyboard arrangements published until the end of the century. A circa 1800 print by T. Williamson seems to be based directly on Bremner’s score for the full opera, since it is set in three movements with almost identical notation.[1] Others, such as the prints sold by James Aird (1785) or G. Walker (1800), were newly engraved.[2] The same is true for a 1785 arrangement made by Thomas Carter and published by John Preston, which was designed “for Two Performers on One Harpsichord or Piano Forte.”[3] A copy of Carter’s four-hand arrangement was in Jane Austen’s personal library, suggesting the ongoing appeal of the work on into the nineteenth century.[4]

It is interesting that Senex, [an anonymous] nineteenth-century magazine correspondent, had singled out Piccinni’s overture as the exemplar for the model mid-century symphony, since its second and third movements were usually performed without a break (contrary to Bremner’s three-movement structure in the keyboard reduction for his opera print). Still, Senex is correct about the overture’s other large-scale characteristics. The work is scored for the ubiquitous eight-part ensemble of two violins, viola, basso, two oboes, and two horns, and it conforms to a typical fast-slow-fast tempo plan.

The first movement, “Allegro spiritoso,” reflects Piccinni’s independence from the sonata-form domination that characterized the Mannheim compositions of the day. Its architecture is an energetic but overall rather simple ternary structure. The arpeggiated opening theme is succeeded by a second motif (m. 10) that features downbeat thirty-second-note flourishes, which is then followed by a variant of the opening arpeggiation (m. 20) in the dominant key of A major. Measured tremolos (m. 28) and a murky bass (m. 44) drive the movement toward its B section (m. 53). The dynamic level drops to piano while the violins play a lyrical theme that shares some resemblance to the measure 10 motif. Again, the build-up of tremolos and murky bass herald the shortened return (A’) of the first motif and the tonic D major (m. 84).

Piccinni uses several similar strategies for the “Andante” movement, including a ternary form. The movement opens in the parallel key of D minor, scored only for strings, and after a disjunct opening measure, the A melody descends an octave by means of staccato eighth notes. The central B section (m. 9) initially repeats the first theme—now in the relative key of F major—but when the key shifts to g minor (m. 17), a new motif appears. It is characterized by sudden piano—forte juxtapositions, and thus it contrasts with a third motif containing frequent eighth rests, coinciding with a modulation to A major (m. 29). This is, of course, the dominant of D minor, and thus prepares listeners for the return of the opening A material in measure 39. The dynamic level then increases, retreats, and increases again as the movement pushes—without pause—toward the “Presto” finale, where the overture’s initial D major tonality is restored and the winds rejoin the ensemble.

The finale retains the same  meter of the slow movement, and it again unfolds as a ternary form. This time, however, there is a clearer distinction between the themes for the A and B sections, although both are bouncy and gigue-like. The first motif moves initially in an ascending direction above “drum 8ths,” and it is set in a slightly higher register than the second theme (m. 49). The B material, in the dominant key of A major, has a primarily descending contour. The A theme and the home key of D major return in measure 63, and the lively movement concludes with a series of emphatic triple-stop chords.

[1] The British Library, g.443.p.(13).

[2] The British Library, g.1126.c.(3) and g.354.o.(2).

[3] The British Library, h.3290.aa.(4).

[4] Patrick Piggott, The Innocent Diversion: A Study of Music in the Life and Writings of Jane Austen, The Clover Hill Editions (London: D. Cleverdon, 1979), 143.

Alyson McLamore

Franz Xaver Richter – The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts XVIII

With this, the eighteenth instalment  of the Periodical Overtures in 8 Parts, we are almost one third of the way through this extended 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.

 

Bremner’s one issue by [Franz Xaver] Richter … had staying power. Bremner drew from a French source for the symphony in D major that became “Number XVIII” of the Periodical Overtures. Georges Cousineau had published it in Paris circa 1765 as No. 5 of Sei Sinfonie a Otto, billed as Richter’s opus 7. No newspaper advertisement survives to pinpoint the date of Bremner’s subsequent British issue, but it was announced at the bottom of Bremner’s list of “New Music” on 7 February 1767, so it is likely to have been released at the start of the month or perhaps even earlier.[1] Scholar Jenny Burchell has documented at least five subsequent performances of Periodical Overture No. 18 at concerts of the Edinburgh Musical Society, starting in 1769 and persisting for at least seventeen years, until 1786.[2]

In a small way, Bremner modified Richter’s already-conservative symphony to make it even more old-fashioned: he added figured bass to the Basso part, which had not been present in the Parisian print. Still, that was Bremner’s customary practice throughout the series, and Richter’s symphony still retains many features that speak to its “modern” Mannheim origins. The first movement opens with four measures of a bold premier coup d’archet, made even more dramatic by two weighty pauses prolonged by fermatas. This “first strike of the bows” is followed by quiet but vigorous measured tremolos that climb in stepwise fashion, supported by “drum 8ths.” The same pairing recurs in measure 51 to mark the start of the sonata form’s development, while the movement’s second theme—a showcase for the oboes at measure 28—is the first melody to return in the recapitulation (m. 108). The first theme makes only a brief reappearance at measure 124, shortly before the end of the “Allegro spiritoso” movement.

Richter shifts to the dominant key of A major for the strings-only “Andante” movement, and he employs a binary-sonata pattern that James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy call a “Type 2 Sonata”; it can be diagrammed as an ||: a/I b/V :||: a/V b/I :|| structure.[3] The florid first theme, played by the violins, interlocks contrapuntally with the lower strings. The second theme (m. 18) layers the string instruments in four ostinato-like rhythms: the first violin plays off-beat pairs of sixteenth notes; the second violin performs three eighth notes after a downbeat eighth rest; the viola sounds steady sixteenth notes, while the cello and bass play an eighth note on each beat of the duple meter. Bremner’s edition marks this passage “dolce”—an indication that is lacking in the Parisian print.

Richter retains both the Type 2 sonata form and duple meter for the D major “Allegro molto” finale, but his proclivity for the learned style makes a clear appearance here as well. The first oboe and first violin play an ascending melody that opens with half notes, then adds to the rhythmic energy with increasingly shorter note values. Two bars later, the second oboe and second violin echo the melody, creating a fugato passage, while the low strings play drum 8ths. The full ensemble then participates in a brief but effective crescendo (m. 7), reflecting Richter’s Mannheim background as well. The first violin plays the lyrical second theme at measure 34, at which point the supporting oboes are instructed to play “dolce,” an indication again absent in the Cousineau print, and the rest of the strings add quiet drum 8th pulsations. The second half of this binary sonata (m. 92) again opens with a fugato passage and a brief tutti crescendo. This time, however, the transition back to the second theme and the home key (m. 150) is much longer; it is filled with measured tremolos, sequences, and various interlocking patterns. Although Charles Burney sometimes found such sequential passages tedious, feeling they indicated a “want of invention,” he still regarded Richter’s themes as “often new and noble,” and saw “great merit” in Richter’s music—a view clearly shared by many of his fellow British citizens.[4]

Alyson McLamore

[1] The Public Advertiser, 7 February 1767, p. 1.

[2] Jenny Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?: Concert Management and Orchestral Repertoire in Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle, 1730–1799, Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities, ed. by John Caldwell (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996), 313, 316, 330, 344, 347.

[3] James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late-Eighteenth-Century Sonata (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 353–4.

[4] Charles Burney, The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Provinces, 2nd ed., corrected (London: T. Becket, J. Rosson, and G. Robinson, 1775), II: 329.

Thomas Alexander Erskine (The Earl of Kelly) – The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts XVII

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.

Carl Friedrich Abel, The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts: XVI

With this, the sixteenth 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.

Abel’s symphonies tended to be somewhat less substantial than those of his colleague Johann Christian Bach (periodical overtures 1 & 15), but they showed a similarity in the structures that were becoming the rage in England: an opening movement showpiece, a simpler and lyrical slow movement, and a light-hearted finale.[1] In fact, the observer William Jackson, writing in 1791, felt that Abel had “very successfully” followed the model of Franz Xaver Richter (Periodical Overture 18), the earliest of the Mannheim composers to have symphonies performed in England.[2] Periodical Overture No. 16 is, overall, an excellent illustration of Abel’s compositional traits. It features the standard (but not inevitable) “eight parts” of the Bremner series, and its contrasting middle movement shifts to the subdominant key of G major. Lacking repeated sections altogether, it is also one of the shortest of all the Periodical Overtures.

The Allegro is the most elaborate of the three movements. After an emphatic tutti opening chord, the upper strings proceed through delicate upward and downward scalar passages in common time, supported by steady “drum 8ths” in the violas. The accompaniment soon shifts to even more animated measured tremolos. The sonata form’s refined second theme features a “learned” passage of contrapuntal interplay between the strings, while the closing theme returns to an embellished scalar ascent in the oboes and first violins above vigorous measured tremolos and drum 8ths. The development  relies on motifs from the first theme to return the movement to D major. The closing theme makes two reappearances during the recapitulation, framing the return of the contrapuntal second theme.

In contrast to the largely conjunct melodies of the first movement, the Andante relies on considerably more disjunct motion. It opens at a quiet piano dynamic, but jumps to a subito forte in the fourth bar. The second theme, like the first, contains numerous leaps, but also plays with the contrast between sixteenths in simple subdivision and triplets. The sonata form ushers in the tiniest whiff of a development, while both of the themes are shortened during their recapitulation.

Abel employs a sonata form for a third time in the jaunty finale. This Presto puts the whole orchestra to work in a unison tonic-chord ascending arpeggiation for the first six bars. Abel also displays the era’s increasing interest in greater orchestral color by giving the oboes the conjunct second theme in harmonized thirds; drum 8ths in the second violin and viola provide steady support. The development  plays with ostinato-like repeated rhythms before driving to a robust recapitulation of the first theme. The transition between themes is even more expansive than it had been in the exposition, and one of its highlights is an orchestral crescendo which reflects Abel’s awareness of the orchestral devices that were being popularized by the Mannheim composers. The second theme, again in the oboes, reenters at last, while another full-ensemble tonic-chord arpeggiation, this time moving in a downward direction, pulls the movement (and symphony) to an emphatic close.

Alyson McLamore (adapted)

[1] Franklin B. Zimmerman, ed., “Introduction: Carl Friedrich Abel,” in Carl Friedrich Abel, 1723–1787: Six Symphonies, Opus 1 / Johann Christian Bach, 1735–1782: Six Symphonic Works, Series E, vol. II of The Symphony (New York: Garland Publishing, 1988), xiii; Sanford Helm, ed., “Preface,” in Carl Friedrich Abel: Six Selected Symphonies, vol III of Recent Researches in the Music of the Classical Era (Madison: A-R Editions, 1977), viii.

[2] William Jackson, Observations on the Present State of Music in London (Dublin: A. Grueber, J. Moore, J. Rice, W. Jones, R. M’Allister, and R. White, 1791), 16.