Concerto In C Minor for Oboe Strings and Basso Continuo composed by Matthäus Nikolaus Stulick [or Georg Friedrich Händel or Johann David Heinichen]. Piano reduction. There are three versions of this concerto with different assignments: Source A: In the library Schwerin [D-SWl] as „de Sing. Stulick' [Mus.5337]. Source B: In the collection Rheda [D-RH] as „Del Sing. Heinichen' [Ms 389]. Source C: In the univesity library Upsala [S-Uu]als „Dell Sing. Hendell' [i hs. 19:28]. The distribution of a baroque composition under various composers names was not uncommon and usually meant that it was aworthy work of high compositional quality. This Concerto for Oboe Strings and Basso continuo can serve in any case as evidence for this thesis. The question which of the three composers mentioned was the creator of the concert can not be answered conclusively. Two arguments suggest however that Matthäus Nikolaus Stulick (c.1700-1732) is the most likely of the three candidates: - The Schwerin manuscript [Source A] that names Stulick as the composer is the best by far; it contains far fewer errors and inconsistencies than the other two. - The designation of a work by a foreign composer name makes only sense if an unknown composer publishes under a name of a much more prominent composer not vice versa. Why should a work of Handel or at his time well-known Heinichen be played under the name of someone less known? We do not know much about the life of Matthäus Nikolaus Stulick. He was born around 1700 in Bohemia and worked in the 1730s as concertmaster at the court in Mainz where he died in 1732. Besides two Oboe concertos he composed a concerti à 4 for three wind instruments and BC.

This title is taken from Dvorak. However. The models from which the songs are derived are clearly identifiable as are the composers from whose language they have been derived. The piece appears to be in one movement though it is in fact two with a coda. The first is French in style a sort of Waltz. It is quick and harks upon the likes of Françaix and where its idiom becomes more advanced Messaien. The other is Germanic a slow movement with echoes of German expressionism - perhaps Richard Strauss perhaps Mahler. The two movements are partly complete; the cod reconciles their differences and completes them. I see the piece as my own version of En blanc et noir.