The present work, like the majority of Dussek’s symphonies, cannot be dated with any certainty and survives in a single source, in this case, a set of MS
parts formerly belonging to Count Clam-Gallas and now in
the possession of the Narodní Muzeum in Prague (shelfmark
Clam-Gallas XLII E 131). The wrapper reads :“No 8 /
Sinfonia in B / ŕ / Violini 2 / Oboe 2 / Corni 2 / Viola /et / Basso / Del Sig: Franc: Duschek”.
In the absence of the autograph score and an authentic set of parts the edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in this
source. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic
markings have been standardised throughout, and, where
missing from the source, markings reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets. Like most eighteenth-century sources, the present manuscript is very inconsistent in its notation of appoggiature; these too have been standardised to minimise confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been corrected without comment; editorial emendations with no authority from the source are placed within brackets.
