Anton Fils (Filtz): The Periodical Overture in 8 Parts – No. VIII

When Bremner issued Periodical Overture No. 8 in February 1764, he used the “Filtz” spelling that had appeared on the cover of Periodical Overture No. 4, but unlike his earlier publication by Fils, No. 8 employs the standard two oboes that characterized the majority of pieces in Bremner’s series. His decision to feature Fils a second time seems to have been shrewd, judging from the records of the eighth overture’s ten performances in the concerts of the Edinburgh Musical Society over an almost twenty-year span from 1768 to 1786, while an unspecified overture by “Filtz” was played as late as 1799. In some of the Edinburgh concert seasons, Periodical Overture No. 8 was the only work by Fils performed (even though the Society owned the other two Fils prints by Bremner), and in two seasons—1770 and 1786—Periodical Overture No. 8 was performed twice.[1] During the first of those seasons, the eighth overture is known to have been performed across the Atlantic: it closed the first half of the 9 February 1770 benefit concert at “Mr. Burn’s Room” on behalf of a Mr. Stotherd, a very active French horn player in New York.[2]

Nearly all of the elements that Schubart applauded can be found in Periodical Overture No. 8—and the symphony also reflects the young composer’s full awareness of the Mannheim orchestral conventions. The rhythmic unison that characterizes the robust premier coup d’archet also showcases a descending E-flat triad that is heard at the opening of numerous other symphonies; historian Jan LaRue points to works by Johann Christian Bach, Carl Friedrich Abel as well as symphonies by Wagenseil, Montoro, and Kreusser.[3] Fils immediately makes the familiar motif his own, however, with an abrupt switch to piano for a staccato ascent. The shifts between forte and piano occur more rapidly during the bridge (m. 17), which is filled with measured tremolos and upward arpeggios. When the bridge reaches the dominant key, B-flat major, the second theme (m. 27) sustains a piano dynamic for a full four measures, during which the first violins invert the staccato scalar motif heard in the first theme. The second theme then makes its own sudden dynamic switch to forte (m. 31) and introduces the short-long Scotch snaps (or Lombardy rhythms) that will be a unifying device for the majority of the symphony. The last portion of the “Allegro’s” exposition presents a short “Mannheim crescendo” (m. 35), and—as is true for most of Fils’s opening movements—the sonata form continues without a repetition directly into the development (m. 45) and onward to the recapitulation (m. 61).

The Scotch snaps that had played a secondary role in the “Allegro” move into the foreground at the start of the “Larghetto.” This triple-meter movement, in the dominant key of B-flat major, reduces the ensemble to strings alone, and is again in sonata form, this time set in two repeated sections. Fils creates another instance of tight interconnections between themes: the first melody opens with a quick leap of a third and a descent to the tonic, followed by a rising series of Scotch snaps. After repeating those opening bars at a higher pitch level, the third phrase of Theme 1 (m. 5) opens with an F, an upper-neighbor G, and then four more repeated Fs. This “inner” motif then becomes the opening of the second theme in m. 13. It, too, is followed by a measure of Scotch snaps, but the upward leaps comprise larger intervals.

As the “Minuetto” demonstrates, Fils was not finished with Scotch snaps. The rounded-binary form (for the tutti ensemble) opens with a rather dramatic opening leap of a tenth from the tonic E-flat to a G, then descends more gradually. The consequent phrase (m. 5) then employs several of the familiar “snappy” rhythms, also in a descending phrase. The “Trio,” however, contains no rhythms shorter than eighth notes, and the majority of its phrases tend to ascend. Unusually, the “Trio” does not reduce the scoring, but rather retains all of the wind instruments for harmonic support throughout its binary structure.

Fils concludes the symphony with a lively gigue-like finale. This, too, is in sonata form, and “drum 8ths” support the bouncy opening theme that leaps upward sequentially for four measures, then descends more gradually through strings of eighth notes. Perhaps echoing the opening theme of the “Minuetto,” the finale’s second theme (m. 17) is launched by an upward leap of a seventh from F to E-flat, and then—after descending five steps—it rockets even higher, reaching a B-flat. Interestingly, when the second theme is recapitulated (m. 67), Fils reverses the order of its first two phrases, perhaps reserving the rocketing ascent to help drive the propulsion to the finish of this exuberant “Presto.” Bremner’s selection of this work for publication as Periodical Overture No. 8 may have again made his customers regret the too-short life of its composer.

Alyson McLamore

[1] Jenny Burchell, Polite or Commercial Concerts?: Concert Management and Orchestral Repertoire in Edinburgh, Bath, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle, 1730–1799, Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities, ed. by John Caldwell (New York: Garland Publishing, 1996), 309, 311, 315, 323, 333, 336, 342, 346, 372.

[2] O. G. Sonneck, Early Concert-Life in America (1731–1800) (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1907), 170–171.

[3] Jan LaRue, “Significant and Coincidental Resemblance between Classical Themes,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 14, no. 2 (Summer 1961): 229.