[Trombone-l] Origin of the so-called Weber Romanza?

[Robert Holland]

Philip Brink wrote:

> I have recently played the above piece and several of my students are
> working on it [cause and effect? Maybe...], and this has given rise to
> questions from students which I cannot answer. Is this by Weber, or by
> someone posing as him for more sales? Whether it is by Weber or by  
> someone
> else, is it originally for trombone? Internal evidence suggests that  
> it may
> be for bassoon or cello but I don't know enough about Weber's output  
> to
> judge this, and Thailand is not the best place to begin such a search.
>
> Anyone who knows more about this piece and its origins, please let  
> me [and
> the list] know about the Romanza [Romance, Romanza Appassionata]...
> inquiring minds want to know!

I also looked into this, and as far as I know, it's never been  
resolved. This and the Frescobaldi Toccata for 8 trombones are two  
pieces in the trombone literature of most questionable origin and are  
almost certainly not by with composer with whom they are usually  
associated. Neither is in the style of those composers, and as Howard  
Weiner points out, the tunes don't appear in the thematic catalogs.

The misattributions were most likely done intentionally, as the  
history of deceptive publishing practice extends back into the  
Baroque. The most famous example in the 19th century was probably  
Fritz Kreisler publishing under a pseudonym, but he eventually claimed  
authorship of his tunes. Brahms also published under pseudonym at the  
beginning of his career if I remember correctly.

I remember a brief article from some journal that discussed the  
Frescobaldi, which I provided to John Marcellus but didn't keep for  
myself. I doubt it's even possible to establish authoritatively who  
wrote the Romanza and the Toccata.

Robert Holland, Publisher
Briar Music Press
publisher at briarmusic.com
http://www.briarmusic.com