Based on the works of Haydn.
Parts. 28+24 pp., $19.95, Presser Order number 494-02833 (EICM-12c)
The
Royal Conservatory in Brussels has the only known copy of the Haydn arrangements
for guitar duo by François de Fossa. The first of three volumes was published
earlier and the other two are in the current edition.There are nine duets in
total and each duet has four or five movements. Most of the music is taken from
Haydn’s early string quartets while a couple of movements are transcriptions
from keyboard works or symphonies. While de Fossa calls his collection
arrangements, the term transcription would be more accurate in English. Only one
movement, the Tema con variazione Hob. XVI:27, differs from the Haydn
original to the extent that it qualifies as an arrangement. De Fossa transposed
most pieces in guitar “unfriendly” keys to C, G, A, or E but more adventurous
keys such as A-flat occur also.The titles which François de Fossa provides do
not give away the Haydn origin. All but three movements of the seventh duo are
identified by the Hoboken index and authorship of four other movements cannot be
proven to be Haydn’s. Haydn had his works published in many countries and while
opus numbers were assigned by the printers, it is no wonder that the same work
is known by different numbers or that two different compositions have the same
opus number. Also, editors, knowingly or not knowingly, published works under
the name of Haydn, thus banking on his popularity, which explains that the
authenticity of some pieces remains questionable.The long life of Haydn, his
tremendous production and his adaptation to vogue meant that he passed through
various style periods. De Fossa had no problems mixing movements in these suites
which had their origin two decades apart. The life and works of François de
Fossa were documented in a biography by Matanya Ophee which contains a letter
from de Fossa to his sister written from Madrid in 1808. In this letter he
boasts to have been called the Haydn of the guitar. The sentence “[...] I would
have been feted much more yet, had I made them a present of my quartets”
suggests that he had at that time made guitar transcriptions of Haydn string
quartets and it is very well possible that publication had to wait twenty years
until his economic situation had improved and his popularity was established.
His first music was published in 1823 and it is entirely possible that many of
his works were written years before.Ophee also edited de Fossa’s Op. 13, four
divertissements extraits des oeuvres de J. Haydn [...], which is a potpourri of
movements from four symphonies, another indication that the composer was a great
admirer of Haydn. Since the publication in our times of works by the French
guitarist-composer De Fossa, more of his work has surfaced, among them Op. 16 in Liège, Belgium and Op. 10 in Toledo, Spain. A continuous demand for good music
from the classical period guarantees that guitarists will put François de Fossa
on their program, which is already evident from the current number of
recordings.
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