Stamitz, Johann (1717-1757)

The six symphonies published in Paris in 1757 as Opus 3 were not conceived as a set and indeed appear to have been composed over a period of up to nine years. It is not known whether Stamitz was responsible for selecting the works to be published or whether, in the timehonoured fashion of music publishing in Paris, the works were issued without the composer's knowledge or consent. The title page of the Huberty print reads: "SIX / SYMPHONIES / Quatre parties obliges,/ avec les Cors de Chasses / Ad libitum. / Composes / PAR MR STAMITZ. / OEuvre IIIe [sic]..." According to Wolf, the present work, which appears as the last of the set, dates from the years ca 1748- 1752. The scoring may have originally included flutes or oboes as at least four works in Op.3 omit authentic oboe parts. A version of the work printed in London by Bremner in 1764 includes oboes although Wolf believes these parts may have been added by the publisher to make it conform to the a8 format of the series. All other extant sources - and the Breitkopf Catalogue reference (Part I 1762) - give the a6 scoring of Huberty. This edition is based jointly on the Huberty print described above and a contemporary manuscript score now preserved in the Statens musikbibliotek - The Music Library of Sweden as No.8 of a group of ten Stamitz symphonies. In the absence of the autograph score or an authentic set of parts, the edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in the above sources. The notation of articulation and dynamic markings has been standardized, 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, both the print and manuscript are inconsistent in their notation of appoggiature; these have also been standardized to minimize confusion. Obvious wrong notes have been silently corrected; otherwise, any editorial emendation with no authority from the source is placed within brackets. Allan Badley