Sinfonia à due Trombe

Sinfonia à due Trombe Recently, through the indefatigable research of Robert Minter (Oxford), the present sinfonia for two trumpets and continuo came to light. Although, according to the title page, it can be performed on either two trumpets or two violins, the melodic lines conform to the harmonic series and were obviously meant to be played on trumpets. The continuo parts are marked «Organo» and «Violine».The sinfonia is preserved in the collection known as the Estensische Musikalien the music collection of the Este family in the Austrian National Library, Vienna. It dates from the period c. 1675-1730, when this part of the collection was gathered together by the Obizzi family, who resided in Catajo castle near Padua. When the last Obizzi passed away in 1803, the music devolved to the Este family and thence to the Vienna library. (See Robert Haas, Die Estensischen Musikalen [Regensburg 1927].) The present work, although entitled «sinfonia», is actually a sonata, a full-fledged sonata da chiesa in four movements. It is practically the only work of its kind, for trumpets and continuo without strings. (To be sure, Pezel and Löwe wrote pieces for two trumpets and continuo, and another sonata of this type survives in Vienna. However, Pezel’s and Löwe’s works are not sonatas, and the upper parts of the latter work, while also conforming to the harmonic series, seem with their lack of rests to be more idiomatic for violins.) As far as a possible attribution is concerned, Venice and Bologna seem to be the most likely possibilities. Padua, where the piece first came from before becoming incorporated into the Vienna library, is very close to Venice indeed, many of the Venetian first families had their summer residences in or near there and Venetian opera composers such as Sartorio and Pallavicino sometimes employed one or two trumpets in their operas in the 1670’s and 1680’s. On the other hand and as opposed to the Venetians, the composers of Torelli’s circle in Bologna had more exprerience in sonata-writing involving trumpets. It is, then, on the basis of the Bolognese trumpet tradition from c. 1665 and especially after Torelli’s arrival there in 1686 until his death in 1709, that we have decided, albeit with some reserve, to assign the present work to the Torelli school. The florid trumpet writing shows that the players for whom the unknown composer wrote already possessed considerable exprerience in solo playing. In venetian opera it was not at all common for the trumpet parts to ascend the 13th partial to the 16th, as they do here. Some errors in the part-writing, resulting in open fifths or octaves, seem to be due to a copyist’s mistakes, because most of them can be and were corrected by merely exchanging the trumpet parts. For these and other corrections, please consult the list of revisions. Edward H. Tarr