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Dear Moderator,

The Boccherini Works list on IMSLP Wiki contains errors (such as: basso continuo instead of basso [i.e. bass instrument], since no figured bass is given in either the manuscripts or any editions).

Since I happen to have a copy of Gérard's Catalogue and I produce my own Urtext edition of mainly Boccherini's works for the cello (from manuscript into modern print), my knowledge on this issue could help improve the mentioned page.

I have been trying to change the page, but the system did not allow me to. Is there a need for my input on this matter? Please let me know how to proceed.

Best regards (and thanks for the many available downloads, yummy!),

Frank Wakelkamp
professional cellist, music engraver

Did you set up an account on the wiki? It is not possible to edit the wiki pages without logging in.

Most, if not all, the works lists contain errors of some sort. That's the nature of them, unless you do heavy research, which most people who made these lists (seemingly mostly culled from Wikipedia) haven't done. Most are pretty much either copied from Grove, or from websites, or both. Often they only show the Opus numbers with a smalll few extra non-Opused ones...

That said....perhaps you can answer the question I've had about Haydn's. In various places I've seen the "basso" indication, mostly for his divertimenti. There's infortunetly no scores by him here with the instrumentation though, so I can't check what it says -- does this mean as you say "a bass instrument" (though I imagine they wouldn't have used say, a bassoon most of the time), a double bass, or possibly even a violone? Maybe even it really DOES mean cello, which would make the most sense coupled with two violins....this has been bothering me for a while.

@Melodia,

Basso is a generic name for a bass instrument, coming from / coexisting with the instrumental basso continuo practice.

[Basso in singing is evidently just the lowest vocal part, diving under the previously "upholding" Tenor part (i.e. during the early Renaissance period)].

The instrumentation is less fixed in early music than from, say, 1800 onward. So any instrument could play the Basso part, e.g. harp, keyboard instruments, plucked instruments like the lute/guitar, double bass, trombone, bassoon, cello - even a combination of those can be nice. Since no figures are presented in most Basso parts after about 1765, the keyboard player must have been comfortable inventing them by himself. Playing from a score, this would not have been too hard for people that only play their own contemporary music! In the (pre-)classical period the chord patterns were simpler than during the baroque era. However, the changing habit also shows a decline of the use of (amateur players of) chord instruments at the time.

In Boccherini's cello sonatas the Basso part sometimes (also) needs to be played an octave lower than written (e.g. by a double bass), because otherwise wrong inversions are created during final cadences...

So please stop bothering and start being as creative and happy as you can Just don't use a Steinway!

@Leonard
I will try to modify the page after logging in... Since I managed to post my remarks here, that should not be too much of a problem