WoO 83 – Six Ecossaises in E-flat major for piano, composed circa 1806, published in the supplement to the Gesamtausgabe (G.A.) in 1888 by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. G.A. number 302 (Series 25/39) – Bruers 310, KH (WoO) 83 – Thayer 136 – Biamonti 437.

The original manuscript is unknown. The edition printed in the G.A. is based on a copy by Nottebohm, which itself was modeled on a copy by L. von Sonnleithner. KH also refers to a Viennese edition by Traeg from 1807, now presumed lost. It is possible that this refers to a piano reduction of six Ecossaises belonging to a set of twelve, as referenced in No. 54 of the Addenda in the Biamonti Catalogue.

The authenticity of these works has not been definitively established. The editor Eusebius Mandyczewski notes only his source in the Allgemeine Gesamtausgabe (AGA) as: “Copy by Nottebohm, from L. v. Sonnleithner” (AGA Series 25, Editorial Report, p. VII). The pieces are dated “around 1823” without further justification.

The earlier hypothesis—that the Six Ecossaises WoO 83 were piano reductions of the Twelve Ecossaises for orchestra WoO 16 (lost until 1983) and published by Traeg in the Wiener Zeitung on 21 March 1807 (including KH’s assertion)—has since been refuted. The two series of Ecossaises surfaced independently of one another (see WoO 16a).

The Twelve Ecossaises indicated by Traeg (in editions for parts and piano) can easily be identified as Werckmeister’s editions of the WoO 16 series. There is no reason to assume that Traeg intended to publish another set of Twelve Ecossaises from his own publishing house, of which the Six Ecossaises WoO 83 would have been a part.