Ex Sion Species

AMP 1120 - piano/vocal score ($2.40)
AMP 1120PS - instrumental score and parts ($50.00)

Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806) was an acclaimed and respected composer during his lifetime. Born in Rohrau, near the Austrian-Hungarian border, Haydn, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn, was a talented young singer who, like his older brother, sang in the famed Vienna Boys Choir. He was appointed Kapellmeister at the court of Grosswardein (now in present day Hungary) in 1757. Haydn served the Archbishop of Salzburg from 1763 until his death. A prolific composer, he wrote hundreds of compositions including a Requiem, which influenced the more famous setting by Mozart.

EX SION SPECIES (MH 443) was composed on August 28, 1787, in Salzburg, Austria (the trumpet parts were added in 1796). This edition is based upon the autograph score, preserved in the music archive of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich: Mus. mss. 336. The score is laid out over eight pages, eight staves per page. The first page of the autograph score reads: Graduale pro Dominica 2da Adventus. à 4 Voci in pieno, 2 Violini non obbligati, e l'Organo di G. Mich Haydn mpia .. This composition is scored for SATB choir, two trumpets in Bb, two violins, cello, bass and continuo. The Latin text, from Psalm 50:2-3, 5, serves as the Gradual for the second Sunday of Advent.

The present edition adheres closely to the above-mentioned source, noting editorial markings in parentheses. Voice parts, where notated in moveable clefs, were rewritten in treble clef; phrase markings in the voice parts were added where two or more notes occurred for a single syllable of text; textual underlay, given generally only in the soprano and tenor parts, was added to the alto and bass parts.

Martin Banner

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