Herschel, Jacob

Herschel, Jacob – The Periodical Overture in 8 parts No. 26 (new print)

Published by Robert Bremner at the Harp and Hautboy, opposite Somerset-House, in the Strand
Issued:  30 November–2 December 1769; price 2 shillings
Source: Henry Watson Music Library – Courtesy of Manchester Libraries,
Information and Archives, Manchester City Council: BR580Hn31
Instrumentation: 2 violins, viola, basso, 2 oboes, 2 horns [originally in C]
Editors: Barnaby Priest & Alyson McLamore

COMMENTARY
In the first twenty-five issues of the Periodical Overtures, publisher Robert Bremner (1725–1789) had issued a small handful of works by composers living in (or visiting) Great Britain. This direct contact had certainly been the case with the inaugural symphony by Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), and Bach—still resident in London—had been represented again (less happily) by Periodical Overture No. 15. Bremner’s personal acquaintance with Thomas Alexander Erskine (1732–1781), the sixth Earl of Kelly, clearly had led to the publication of Periodical Overtures Nos. 13, 17, and the most recent issue, No. 25, which appeared in June 1769. It seems quite possible that Bremner also had contracted in person for the right to publish the twenty-sixth symphony in the series, since its composer—Jacob Herschel (1734–1792)—is known to have spent various periods of time in London during a two-year stay in England; in fact, his sojourn in Great Britain did not end until late July 1769, while Bremner’s print was issued just four months later—and it seems to be the only symphonic music by Jacob Herschel to have been published during his lifetime. …

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