This is the seventh installment of the Periodical Overtures in 8 Parts which are being published in conjunction with Musikproduktion Höflich.
Listen here before heading over to musikproduktion höflich to obtain the score and parts.
As had been true in the preceding overture (No. 6) in Bremner’s series, Stamitz used the key of E-flat major throughout Periodical Overture No. 7, and all of the movements—apart from the minuet-and-trio—are in what James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy have called a “Type 2 Sonata” form (||: a/I b/V :||: a/V b/I :||).[1] However, the opening “Allegro” differs from the others by omitting the repetitions that clarify the binary structure. Its opening theme in quadruple-meter is actually dependent on both the violins and the winds; the former play short bursts of eighth notes, separated by rests and emphasized with dynamic contrasts, while the winds play more sustained notes in a syncopated rhythm. The partnership of the first measure is repeated a third higher in the second bar, and this sequential motif becomes a cyclic element throughout the symphony: every movement opens with an upward sequence, most often featuring a rising third. Sudden dynamic contrasts—a Mannheim characteristic—also pervade the entire work.
In the rather brief first movement (only seventy-six measures), Stamitz makes use of many other recognizable “Mannheim” devices, such as “drum 8ths” (i.e., m. 1), measured tremolos (m. 7), and the quick rising-and-falling motif known as the Bebung (m. 41).[2] His own propensity to give special attention to the wind instruments is apparent in the second theme (m. 13), which is presented by the oboes playing in parallel thirds.
The leisurely “Andante,” in cut-time, opens with an upward leap and a descending cascade, along with the sequential repetition that characterizes Periodical Overture No. 7. It also features two uses of a rinzforzando indication in its first two full measures, reflecting Stamitz’s increasing interest in dynamic levels beyond piano and forte, and thereby leading historian Eugene K. Wolf to classify this work as belonging to the middle of Stamitz’s output, probably dating from the early 1750s.[3]
Even though Bremner retained Stamitz’s minuet movement in Periodical Overture 7, he diverged from his possible continental sources in two ways. First, he labeled the second of the rounded-binary structures as a “2d Minuet,” rather than using the “Trio” designation found in both Huberty’s and Hummel’s prints. Second, at the end of that second, quieter minuet, he failed to include any indication to take the customary “da capo al Men[uetto]” (as shown in the Hummel score) or “Al 1o [Primo]” (as indicated by Huberty). Perhaps Bremner assumed that ensembles would be familiar with the expected repetition scheme from their knowledge of the dance itself, even though it had not yet figured very frequently as a movement in British symphonies.
Bremner diverged again from Huberty and Hummel in the tempo designation for the finale: the two continental publishers both called it “Presto,” while Bremner labels it “Allegro.” Probably unwittingly, he thereby reinforced Wolf’s view that this compound-duple finale differed from many of Stamitz’s middle-period works by being “somewhat slower and more dance-like,” and its opening triadic melody certainly has a folk-dance quality.[4] Stamitz continues to showcase the oboes in multiple soli passages, starting in measure 13 when they present the second theme. This toe-tapping finale brings the symphony to a very satisfying conclusion and underscores why Stamitz enjoyed such long-standing popularity in the eighteenth century.
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] Hugo Riemann, ed., Sinfonien der pfalzbayerischen Schule (Mannheimer Symphoniker), in Year 7, Vol. II, of Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern, in Series 2 of Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1906), xvii.
[3] Eugene K. Wolf, The Symphonies of Johann Stamitz: A Study in the Formation of the Classic Style (Utrecht: Bohn, Scheltema & Holkema, 1981), 239.
[4] Wolf, The Symphonies of Johann Stamitz, 226.