A Critical Edition and Trumpet Ensemble and Keyboard Reduction of Philipp Jakob Rittler's Sonata à 17 and Sonata à 18
Justin Bland · Digital Scholarship - UNLV (University of Nevada Reno) · 2020
While modern editions of a few of Philipp Jakob Rittler's works such as the Ciaccona à 7 exist, the Sonata à 18 (before 1670) and the Sonata à 17 (1676) have remained unpublished. The present study yields critical editions of these two sonatas based on copies of the manuscript parts from the Krom??í Music Archive (CZ-KRa). In creating the editions, the researcher has corrected obvious errors of notation, and has modernized clefs and barring to make performance easier; the researcher reports all the editorial decisions made during the process of creating the editions. In addition, the researcher created reductions of the sonatas for six trumpets and keyboard to make performance of both compositions more practical. The analysis of Sonata à 18 and Sonata à 17 reveals that, like compositions of Rittler's contemporaries, including violinist Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, violinist/cornettist Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, and trumpeter Pavel Josef Vejvanovský, these pieces are influenced by Italian style. Additionally, a greater understanding of these works reveals the way in which the trumpet was incorporated into mixed ensembles of strings, continuo, and other brass; in particular, that Rittler used an expanded version of the five-part trumpet ensemble from the Renaissance as inspiration for these sonatas.