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The first time I played the Quintet in Eb major of Franz Anton Rosetti (c.1750-1792) was back in 1966 at the University of Michigan, when I was the oboe player in the Doctoral Woodwind Quintet.  The mysterious Dalie (Taille) part in F was covered by horn, and, as I recall, there was much discomfort expressed by John Strobel, the horn player. Why? Because this voice was designed to be played on a Cor Anglais. But not just any Cor Anglais: this one had a range reaching from high D3 down to low Bb. To be sure, there are modern instruments which are equipped to play the low Bb, but in the Classic Era, low C was the bottom note in the tessitura of the Cor Anglais. Fortunately, there is only one low Bb within the entire work: it is found in the first movement at measure 95. Perhaps the composer did not want to disrupt the sequence of which it is a part, by raising it an octave. But I was not sure, so I ran a test.

With the wizardry of Finale, I transposed the Dalie part from F to Eb, the key of the actual movement, with the idea that perhaps the part was originally intended for horn in Eb. This operation netted several high E3's and a considerable amount of hand-horn technique. Maybe there was a player of unusual technical prowess at Schloss Wallerstein, from whence came my source parts.

I then posited that perhaps a basset horn in F was the answer; but one low Bb does not begin to take advantage of its low range extending down to F. So, just to be practical, I have decided to stick with cor anglais.

Now to the clarinet part: In the first movement one finds abbreviated terms for Chalumeau (Chal.) and Clarinette (Clar.). These are at measures 90, 104, and 182 for the former and 96, 108, and 190 for the latter. Strangely, the term Chalumeau is not placed where the clarinet line passes into the chaumeau register, but on two occasions, the term Clarinette is! I'll have to leave this problem for the clarinetists to solve.

My edition of Rosetti's Quintet joins the ranks of five others that have come and gone over the years. This work is almost as complex as any the 24 famous quintets composed by Antoine-Joseph Reicha's for Gustave Vogt's woodwind quintet in Paris during the early 19th century. Set in three movements, including two sonata forms and a rondo, Rosetti's work lacks a minuet. Also, it does not contain the extensive imitative counterpoint one associates with Antoine-Joseph's works. But since the young Reicha was present at the court of the Öttingen-Wallerstein's when Rosetti's Quintet was first performed (sometime around 1782), one can only surmise that this groundbreaking work had a lasting affect upon the young composer. In a word, its instrumentation is unique: a single flute sits on top of one instrument each extracted from a Harmonie-musik octet of the day containing pairs of oboes, clarinets, cors anglais, and bassoons.

In 1785, Antoine-Joseph Reicha left Wallerstein with his uncle, Joseph Reicha, for the court of the Elector of Cologne at Bonn. By 1789 Franz Anton Rosetti had moved on to the court of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin at Ludwigslust. No other quintets of this type by him have surfaced as yet.