Beck, Franz (1734-1809)

This edition is based on a copy of the Venier print now preserved in the Statens Musikbibliotek - The Music Library of Sweden (formerly Musikaliska Akademiens Bibliotek) - OdB-R. Although each work is described as a sinfonia on the title page, the individual parts are headed Overtura.The only major departure from the Venier text is the omission of the basso continuo figuring on the grounds that it is more likely to be the work a publishers assistant than the composer and is rendered largely superfluous by the publication of the work in full score. Otherwise, in the absence of both the autograph score and an authentic set of parts, the edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in the Venier print. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardised throughout, and, where missing, reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets where appropriate. Like most eighteenth-century sources, the Venier print is 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. Allan Badley