Dussek, Franz Xaver (1731-1799)

The present work, like the majority of Dussek's symphonies, cannot be dated with any certainty and survives in a single source, in this case, a set of MS parts formerly belonging to Count Clam-Gallas and now in the possession of the Narodn Muzeum in Prague (shelfmark Clam-Gallas XLII E 356). The wrapper reads : "Sinfonia in A / a / Violini 2 / Oboe 2 / Corni 2 /Alto Viola / e /Basso / Del Sig: Francesco Duschek". In the absence of the autograph score and an authentic set of parts the edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in this source. The style and notation of articulation and dynamic markings have been standardised throughout, and, where missing from the source, markings reconstructed from parallel passages. These are indicated by the use of dotted slurs or brackets. Like most eighteenth-century sources, the present manuscript is very 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