Václav Vodička (c.1712–1774)

Sonatas for Violin and Basso Continuo, op. 2

Sonatas for Flute and Basso Continuo, op. 2

 

“I had frequently been told, that the Bohemians
were the most musical people of Germany, or,
perhaps, of all Europe; and an eminent German
composer, now in London, had declared to me,
that if they enjoyed the same advantages as the
Italians, they would excel them.”

Dr. Charles Burney

 

The Present State of Music in Germany,

The Netherlands, and United Provinces, 1775, p. 3.

 

Some Czech emigrants, such as Jan Václav Stamic, František Benda or Josef Mysliveček, come to well-deserved fame, but others await a return to modern appreciation. This is surely the case when we consider the life and work of Václav Vodička / Wenceslao Wodiczka (c.1712–1774), concertmaster of higher strings in the Munich court orchestra, composer, teacher and friend of Leopold Mozart. His output includes symphonies, violin or flute concertos and sonatas. 

 

For the release of the Eight Sonatas for Violin or Flute and Basso Continuo, op. 2 by Václav Vodička were two sources used, as the original autograph manuscripts no longer remain extant.

 

After 1742, Vodička received royal privilege to print and make public the second volume of his sonatas named “Huit Sonates pour le violon et la basse dont il y en a quatre pour la flute Traversiere ... oeuvre second“, which he dedicated to the former empress and Bavarian elector, Maria Amalia of Austria. An undated Parisian print issued by Madame Boivin and Sieur Le Clerc is now stored in the music department of the Bayrische Staas-Bibliothek in Munich under the signature 2 Mus.pr. 151. This print became the primary source of the current edition.

 

As a second comparative source, a copy from the music collection[1] currently stored in the Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library, University of California, Berkeley was used. It is titled “Sonata Violino e Basso Del Sigri: Vincislao Vodischa”, and placed under the signature US-Italian BEm MS 972–979. Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) states the provenance of this source, noting the Stecchini family from the Italian city of Bassano del Grappa as the previous owners of this collection.[2] Duckles also presents a hypothesis that this music collection could have been later owned by an amateur musician, and Tartini’s admirer, Antonio Bonaventura Sberti.[3] The copyist is mentioned as being one ‘A. Brown’.[4]

 

Our edition offers two options for the accompanist: the version with the figured bass and another one with an additional realization for the right hand. Keyboard players able to read basso continuo are advised to use the former one and develop from it their own ideas and sound concept. For the ones lacking that skill the written-out version offers a possibility of accompaniment based on the precepts of this performance practice. 

 

 

[1] In addition to these sonatas the collection also contains 1,020 other titles, among them also Vodička‘s three violin concertos (two in A major, and one in D Major) and other works by Czech composers as František Benda‘s, Leopold Koželuh‘s, Josef Mysliveček‘s a Jan Křtitel Vaňhal‘s.

[2] DUCKLES, Vincent, Elmer Minnie and Pierluigi Petrobelli. Thematic Catalogue of a Manuscript Collection of Eighteenth-century Italian Instrumental Music in the University of California, Berkeley Music Library. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles: 1963, p. 4.

[3] Ibid, p. 3.

[4] Ibid, p. 10.

 

 

Opus 2 is published as 24th volume of historical series Thesuarus Antiquae Musicae and includes these sonatas: 

 

Sonata No. 1 in C Major for Violin and Basso Continuo
Sonata No. 2 in G  Major for Violin and Basso Continuo
Sonata No. 3 in A  Major for Violin and Basso Continuo
Sonata No. 4 in D  Major for Violin and Basso Continuo
Sonata No. 5 in F Major for Flute and Basso Continuo
Sonata No. 6 in G Major for Flute and Basso Continuo
Sonata No. 7 in E minor for Flute and Basso Continuo
Sonata No. 8 in D Major for Flute and Basso Continuo 

 

To buy: Český rozhlas