Pichl, Wenzel (1741-1805)

The present work was composed in 1769 and is listed in both Breitkopf (1775) and the Quartbuch. Like the symphonies named after the Muses Diana is not at all pictorial in conception. Far from employing such crudely obvious devices as prominent horn calls and hunting movements Pichl seems to have taken great care that the symphony remain as abstract as possible. It may be significant that whereas Breitkopf advertised by name the symphonies Terpsichore, Euterpe and Uranie, the present work is untitled and appears along with several other works by the composer including Melpomene and Calliope. This edition is based on a set of MS parts preserved in the Biblioteca Estense in Modena under the shelfmark D 329. The wrapper reads: Diana / In D / Sinfonia / a / 2 Violini / 2 Oboe / 2 Corni / Viola / e / Basso. / Del Sig: Wenceslao Pichl. 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 source. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardised throughout, and, where missing from the source, markings have been reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets. Like most eighteenth century sources, the present manuscript 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