The present work was published in orchestral full score by William Warrell in ca 1778; the only known copy is preserved in the British Library under the call-number G.805.j.6. The title page reads: “ THE / FAVORITE SCOTCH AIRS / IN SCORE / For two Violins two Hautboys two French Horns a Viola / & Violoncello with a Thorough Bass for the Harpsichord, / Or the Piano Forte / as they are PERFORM’D in the TRAGEDY of MACBETH at the / Theatre Royal / IN THE HAYMARKET./ [ripple rule] / To which is Added, / The March in Bonduca / Composed by / Dr Arnold / [swelled rule] / London / Printed for Wm Warrell at his Music Shop No 35 / Tavistock Street Covent Garden / Price 4 s ” This was Arnold’s only theatre work to be published orchestrally; no autograph survives.
For this edition the style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardized throughout, and, where missing from the parts, reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets. The notation of appoggiature has also been standardized to minimize confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been corrected without comment; editorial emendations with no authority from the source are placed within brackets. I have emended song-titles where necessary: “Birks of Invermay” for “Berks of Endermay”, “Ballenden” for “Baladine”, “Lochaber” for “Lohaber”, “The Earl of Douglas’s lament” for “Earl Douglas’s Lamentation”, and “The favorite March in [Purcell’s] Bonduca” for “The favorite March in Bonducca”. For dramatic coherence, I have also made a sequential change, placing the banquet minuet before “Lochaber” (it originally followed “The Earl of Douglas’s lament”).
