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is, however, unlikely, given the removal of the bulk of that famous orchestra
(Toeschi included) to Munich at the end of 1778.
Stamitz is only known to have composed two works specifically for the viola
da gamba. Like much of the music under discussion, both are in the three
movements characteristic of the contemporary sonata rather than the four
(with a minuet and trio) that came to be established for the classical quartet at
that time. The quartet in D for viola da gamba (not, as stated in various
sources, viola d'amore!), violin, viola and cello lies very much in the classical
tradition of chamber music that substitutes another instrument for the first
violin of the normal string quartet, and the sextet in Eb is scored for the
same grouping with the addition of two horns. Horns are not infrequently
encountered in combination with the viola da gamba in classical works,
though only C. F. D. Schubart, reflecting in 1806 on the viola da gamba's
'gracefulness and tenderness', specifically recommended them, alongside a
violin and a bassoon, for its accompaniment:
this instrument of its nature calls for much feeling, and only a
few people can play it in the manner in which, according to its
nature, it must be handled. It suffers no heavy accompaniment,
since it mostly accompanies itself. A violin, [38] two horns and a
bassoon are here the best accompaniment. 8
Schubart must have been writing from practical experience: the natural horn
of that time was not as dynamically powerful as the modern valved horn and
should therefore not have created the problems of balance likely to result from
the use of modern French horns alongside a traditionally-strung viola da
gamba. The bassoon, however, has not been encountered by the present writer
in connection with any of the extant repertoire, where a cello or second gamba
is named or implied as the string bass. It is not known when and for whom St'
Amitz composed his two works: the only known contemporary source
connects them with Ludwigslust, a court with which Stamitz had some
involvement between 1790 and 1792, but the bassoonist and composer Franz
Anton Pfeiffer (1752-87) had already arranged and transposed the outer
movements of Stamitz's gamba quartet for bassoon and string trio in F at
Ludwigslust some time between Hammer's arrival there in 1785 and his own
death in 1787. 9 Stamitz had much stronger links with the court of Friedrich
Wilhelm II of Prussia, who may therefore have been the works' intended
recipient, although their musical style places them no earlier than the early
1780s, by which time the King is stated to have given up playing (but not
listening to) the instrument (see below).
8 C. Schubart, Ideen zu einer Asthetik der Tonkunst (Vienna, 1806), 232. Schubart actually
wrote 'Diskantvioline' in the final sentence, meaning 'treble' violin, presumably to distinguish it
from the 'tenor' violin or viola, which might have been used by that time for music originally
composed for the viola da gamba.
9 See D. Rhodes, 'Carl Stamitz and Ludwigslust: An Appraisal of his Correspondence with
the Mecklenburg-Schwerin Court and of selective Compositions of his at Schwerin', in K.
Heller, H. MSller anc} A. Waczkat, eds, Musik in Mecklenburg (Hildesheim, 2000), 489-510. A
second reported source of Stamitz's gamba works at D-Bsb was in fact compiled from the one
now at D-SWI in 1903. The present author's critical editions of Stamitz's gamba quartet and
sextet are to be published by Corda Music and Peacock Press respectively.