136 trios for two melody instruments and basso continuo have been handed down under the name ‘Graun’. The impressive number of these works, their widespread circulation and, not least, their artistic quality attest to the significant role that the genre played in the oeuvre of the brothers Carl Heinrich and Johann Gottlieb Graun. The late flowering of the trio sonata in northern Germany – a genre significantly influenced by Arcangelo Corelli’s classical works – was helped along by their compositions.
Graun’s Trio in D major, WV B:XV:55, has been preserved in five copies of the full score and a total of eleven sets of parts of various origins. What is remarkable is not only the large number of surviving sources, but also the fact that the work was evidently already in circulation in Berlin as early as the mid-18th century, in various instrumentations, both at court and amongst music lovers. The piece is most commonly preserved in the version for two flutes and basso continuo, followed by the versions for obbligato harpsichord and flute. However, a copy for two violins and basso continuo has also survived. The work’s former popularity is further evidenced by the fact that Johann Joachim Quantz quotes various passages from it in his Solfeggi Pour La Flute Traversiere.
The primary aim of this edition was to produce a version for solo voice and obbligato harpsichord, an instrumentation that was extremely popular in Berlin in the mid-18th century. Nevertheless, the parts for both solo instruments (and bass) included with this edition should make it possible to perform the piece in the other surviving instrumentations as well.
