12 Sonatas 1

Tommaso Albinoni was born in Venice in 1671 and died in this town in 1751. In his earlier years, he called himself dilettante, and later on, musico di violino. Where he received his training as a violinist, singer and composer is unknown. He worked mostly in his home town, but never held a permanent post at any church or court institution. Evidence shows him to be working in Munich around 1720/1722.

Operas and instrumental pieces constitute the major part of his work. The ten series of instrumental works printed during Albinoni's lifetime were composed for various combinations of string instruments. In addition, further works have survived in hand-written form and without opus numbers. Amongst these are 12 four-part Sonatas or Balletti1 for two violins, viola and basso continuo, which were composed before 1728. They have been preserved in a complete part set held in the Austrian National Library in Vienna, and a part book for the first violin2 in the Music Library at the University of California in Berkeley. The sonatas for strings were subsequently adapted by an unknown arranger for three recorders and basso continuo. At some time before 1740, this version for recorders became part of the music collection of the Earl Rudolf Franz Erwein von Schönborn (1677–1754)3. More detailed information on the sources can be found on page 25.

Albinoni's sonatas were transposed up by the unknown arranger, some by a minor third, some by a fourth, and their tonal range was adapted to that available on a recorder. However, numerous writing and transposition errors in the version for recorders suggest that this manuscript was never actually played from. For the present edition, the musical score was corrected on the basis of the version for strings. A detailed revision summary can be found at: www.girolamo.de/audit-report-G12039.pdf

In some older bibliographies the version for wind instruments of the 12 sonatas is ascribed to flutes. However, the Flauto primo and Flauto secondo parts are clearly intended for treble recorders in f1. This follows from several details of the arrangement: In both of the upper parts, g-sharp1, f-sharp1 and tones below f1 are avoided, as was f3, which is difficult to play on many f1 recorders built in the period before 1720. The Flauto terzo part is intended for a c1 tenor recorder, but written a fourth higher than it is meant to sound, so that it could be played using the fingering of a treble recorder. This notation was common throughout Germany, England and France for all recorder sizes other than those in F.

Apart from the mentioned octave changes of the melodic line in the first recorder, the arranger used octave transpositions in the second and third parts, so that the parts would not fall below f1 or c1, respectively. This occasionally led to voice crossing with the first recorder and other problems with part-writing. Some of the arranger's modifications were reversed on the basis of the version for strings. Details can be found in the audit report.