Bach, Johann Christian

Bach, Johann Christian – The Periodical Overture in 8 parts No. 15 

Published by Robert Bremner at the Harp and Hautboy, opposite Somerset-House, in the Strand
Issued: 1 July 1766; price 2 shillings
Source: Henry Watson Music Library – Courtesy of Manchester Libraries,
Information and Archives, Manchester City Council: BR580Ba751
Instrumentation: 2 violins, 2 violas, basso, 2 flutes [Mvt. 2], 2 oboes [Mvts. 1 & 3],
2 horns [originally in D]
Editors: Barnaby Priest & Alyson McLamore / new print

A symphony by Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) had launched the Periodical Overtures in 1763, and Robert Bremner (c.1713–1789) turned to Bach a second time in 1766, when the series had been restarted after a two-year hiatus. As had been true for Bach’s first contribution, Periodical Overture No. 15 had originally been composed to serve as an actual opera overture, since Bach—unlike his famous father or any of his siblings—had embraced the genre of opera early on. He had been only fifteen years old when his father died, so he moved from Leipzig to Berlin to live and study with his half-brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach for the next five years. Before he had turned twenty, however, Johann Christian shocked his Lutheran family by traveling to Italy, where he was soon surrounded by opera. In fact, Charles Burney later published his regret that neither of the older Bachs “had been fortunately employed to compose for the stage and the public of great capitals” since he believed that this employment would have led them to write “in a style more popular, and generally intelligible and pleasing.” …

read more (German preface not available) … > HERE