Sonata in G minor for Viola and String Orchestra, Vol. I, No, 11, Chamber Music - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1905671

Henry Eccles: Sonata in G minor, Vol. I, No. 11 (1720)
arranged for viola solo and string orchestra by Joel Jacklich

I hope that this orchestration of an old "war horse" will allow many more high school principal violists to be the featured soloists at their high school spring concerts in coming years.

In this orchestration of the adaptaion of the original violin sonata, I have re-structured the sonata as a typical binary baroque sonata (AABB in each of the four movements), adding repeat signs, or writing out the (added) repeats with embellishments or octave transpositions to add some variety in the solo line on the second playback of the original (and adapted) material. Writing of the "original" material, there are numerous versions that also vary considerably in melodic and harmonic content: Salmon/Crowell, Paul Klengel, Paul Doctor, Milton Katims, etc. This version takes a number of melodic, harmonic, and structural liberties and is certainly not any type of "authoritative" version, but merely a challenging piece that will allow the violist to be featured as a soloist with string orchestra, rather than in typical recital format with piano where this piece is usually heard. The two bar intro is based on the freely-arranged version by Paul Klengel (1854-1935) from his 1930 publication (now in the public domain).

English composer Henry Eccles is from a family of musicians that lived in that second "golden age" of English composition just before, during, and after the greatest of native English composer--Henry Purcell (the first "golden age", of course, being the Renaissance with the likes of Byrd, Taverner, et al.) Henry's older brother John (sometimes referred to as John Eagles) was a well-known composer of music for the theater sometimes collaborating with Jeremiah Clarke. Another brother, Thomas, although a talented violinist, was a drunkard and was reduced to playing in inns and taverns. (cf., Joel Quarrington)

(From Wkikipedia) "As a violinist, Henry Eccles became part of the entourage of the Duke d'Aumont, French ambassador to Britain, with whom he returned to France around 1713. In 1720 he published, in Paris, Twelve Solos for the Violin dedicated to the Chevalier Joseph Gage - an English gentleman much involved in Parisian financial speculation at the time.

"Infamously, this book of sonatas contains borrowings from Giuseppe Valentini's op. 8, which were used to assemble sonatas 1, 4, 8, and 9 (with single movements by Valentini incorporated into sonatas 3 and 10). The most well known sonata from this volume, number 11 in G minor, appears to have been largely the work of Eccles himself, though he excerpted the second movement (the Corrente) from Francesco Bonporti's Opus 10.[2] In 1723, Eccles produced a further volume of Sonatas for Violin and Figured Bass with an additional two sonatas for flute.".