ABSTRACT

The choice of organisation of the Playford pieces was presumably made with the intention of producing a parallel with the sequences by Beck in the collection. While a careful selection process is often evident, there remain other times when Johann Hector Beck's choice of movement from his Playford sources is curious. In addition, it seems that Beck sometimes selected pieces with a similar melodic outline in order to give an impression of movement linking. The suggestion of functional dance music and even dramatic-stage origins tells that none of these few movements are taken from Playford. Functional dance music origins for this sequence are also suggested by the French instrumentation: one violin, two violas and bass in contrast to the two violins, single viola and bass used almost without exception for the rest of the collection. The opening sequence, starting with a Ballet and few untitled movements was perhaps intended as an imitation of dance music for the dramatic stage.