John Loeillet Quintett h-moll - another misattribution

[maurice alan quinn]

The recent inclusion of the Quintett h-moll for two transverse flutes, two voice-flutes and unfigured-bass (and the deletion of a d minor Quintet from the "wish-list") and attributed to John Loeillet - has prompted me to respond by the uploading of emails between myself (Palmerston North New Zealand) and friend/mentor Jeanne Dolmetsch (Haslemer Surrey) after I had located my 1957 copy of the above work and studied the German Forward. The mention of source "Rostocker Bibliothek" set alarm bells ringing; the composer could not have been John Loeillet.
(15 Oct 2011 M. A. Q.) Assuming that your source was Bärenreiter “Hortus Musicus” #133 we have a most interesting “problem”; my knowledge of German is limited, Rolf Ermeler (Lübeck Feb 1955) in his Forward makes mention of the work coming from the Rostocker Bibliotheque. John Loeillet’s younger brother Jacques (1685!-1748) was known to have been active as a musician in Rostock, and it is exceedingly possible – given the confusion as to “which Loeillet” – that this little-known composer was responsible for this work. John Loeillet (of London) has no work in my repertoire, but the first-rate recorder sonatas of their cousin Loeillet de Gant (b. 1688) are very much loved; they were obviously highly regarded by musicians in England, and it comes as no surprise that – with the early demise of Loeillet de Gant – that he published these under his own name late in life. Even the editors of Schott’s six sonatas from Opera Terza (Scherber/Kutz) realized the discrepancy when earlier publications came to light.
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(Response from Jeanne Dolmetsch) I agree with you that there is a strong possibility that the Quintet in B minor for 2 transverse flutes and 2 voice flutes could be by Jacques Loeillet as the parts survive in the Rostock Library. The work could also be by Jean Baptiste Loeillet de Gant whose music was famous all over Europe and could have been taken there by travelling musicians or his cousin Jacques. The high quality of the music leads one to the conclusion that it is by J.B.L. de Gant. I am sure now that we were in error to suggest that John Loeillet of London was the composer in our edition for Chappell, where we transposed the work into D minor. We need an expert to examine the paper of the Rostock copies to see if they match the paper used by J.B. or Jacques. Certainly Jacques would have encountered ‘Flutes de voix’ during his period at Versailles (end of quote).
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Consideration of the high quality of the music and the similarity of many aspects of the flute sonatas of Loeillet de Gant I strongly support the possibility of the composer being Loeillet de Gant. However this may be a spurious work; there is no opus number etc. let alone a figured-bass.

[Eric]

By the way, I see there's now a recording of de Gant (same one?) recorder sonatas on Naxos...

[Notenschreiber]

If it is doubtful, if the composer of the quintet is Loeillet de Gant (as claimed in the Hortus Music Edition from 1954) or Jacques Loeillet, why
is the work still on the work page of John Loeillet?