Kraus, Josef Martin: Sinfonia F-Dur

Although the work is not dated, it is almost certain that the Sinfonia in F represents one of the several works in this genre that were written during 1775-1776, the year that Kraus was forced to stay at home in Buchen while awaiting the outcome of his father’s indictment. The scoring of two horns and strings is consistent with the plethora of church works written for the Buchen Musik-Chor during this time, and the style represents an advance on two earlier works, the Sinfonias in A and F “Buffa.” The sole source of this work is a copy in the Universitetsbibliotek at Uppsala University found in the Silverstolpe collection. The work was copied for Kraus’s biographer Fredrik Samuel Silverstolpe in Vienna in 1802 from a score that was lent to him by Kraus’s sister Marianne Lämmerhirt. The autograph, once found in the Buchen Stadtpfarrkirche library (B 103), was the source for Frau Lmmerhirt’s score and was lent to her by the composer’s first teacher, Rector Georg Pfister. This source has since been lost, as have all of the other Buchen symphonies by Kraus. This edition presents as faithfully as possible the intentions of the composer as transmitted in Silverstolpe’s score. 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 where appropriate. Like most eighteenth century sources, the present manuscript is at times 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.

Bertil van Boer Allan Badley