Anon – E flat Major Sonata for Violin alone (Schranck Dresden)

Comodo/Largo/Capriccio

Some of the greatest riches for a violinist, are to be found in the treasure trove of anonymous works that are to be found in every collection of manuscripts. The reasons for anonymity are legion-ranging from lost title pages, through lazy copyists, but most importantly of all, prior to the first glory days cheap printing (from the early 19th Century) , the essentially samizdat nature of the circulation of music. Read any account of a traveller interested in music in the 17th or 18th centuries, and you will find them borrowing music to copy, arguing about who has the copy of this or that piece of music, seeking out friends of recently deceased composers to borrow scores: it’s far from surprising that one of their legacies would be 1000’s of pages of unattributed scores!