Volume 15, June 2022
Different Strokes: Giambattista Cimador's chamber music arrangement of Mozart's Haffner (no. 35) and Paris (no. 31) Symphonies

by Mark Elliot Bergman

8. Future Research

Future research related to Symphony IV might begin with the other five arrangements in this set. What changes does Cimador make to the source material? Is his approach in the other reductions similar or different to this one? What do his choices reveal about changing musical tastes and techniques at the beginning of the 19th century?

We have good reasons to believe that the double bass virtuoso and composer Dragonetti performed these arrangements and that Cimador composed his one double bass concerto for Dragonetti. How did these two Italians who spent much of their life in England influence one another? In what ways are Cimador's symphonic reductions similar or different to Dragonetti's string quintets?

Symphonic double bass parts in Mozart's time usually doubled the cello part. By the end of the 19th century, symphonic double bass parts were usually independent. What role (if any) did early 19th-century symphonic reductions with independent double bass parts (like the ones created by Cimador) play in the development of independent double bass parts in later 19th-century symphonic music?