Up until today nobody has found reliable biographical information about Giuseppe Giuliano's (or Giuliani's) life, as far as I know. However, people think that he has composed musical works for mandolin only, and these were brought to people's notice in the past by famous musicologists and researchers such as Eugenio De' Guarinoni, Georges Saint-Foix e Ake Davidsson: sonatas, duets, trios and concertos, which at present can be found in various libraries and music collections in Milan, Paris, Stockholm and Uppsala. For the features of his musical works he doubtless belongs to the Scuola Napoletana of the 18th century.
In the Italian music background there are many composers whose name is Giuliano (or Giuliani), and some of them have composed musical works for mandolin, too. This might give rise to confusion; therefore, it is better to spend a word to clear up this curious aspect of frequent coincidence of names! Besides Giuseppe Giuliano, composer of the wonderful concerto (symphony) presented here, there are Antonio Maria Giuliani (Ravenna, 17-VIII-1739 - Modena, 21-II-1831) and Giovanni Francesco Giuliani (Livorno, about 1760 - Firenze, after 1818), both composers of musical works for mandolin, who will be included in this anthology; Francesco Giuliani, called "Il Cerato" (Arzignano, near Vicenza, 17th century) and the well-known Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani, concerto player and composer of immortal pages for guitar (Bisceglie, near Bari, 27-VII-1781 - Napoli, 8-V-1829).
The manuscript of the concerto presented here, kept in Sweden in the University Library in Uppsala (Gimo collection), has the following title:

"Sinfoni per Mannolino
con Più Istromenti
del Sig. Giuseppe Giuliano"

It consists of the four following parts: mandolin, violin I ,violin II and the bass instrument ("violongello" in the manuscript). The continuo figuring is missing completely. For the publication of this edition it has been necessary to decipher the original manuscript, to correct evident notation mistakes, to elaborate the parts of the "strings" in order to enrich both the harmonic framework (in this concerto, as well as in other concertos for mandolin of these so-called "minor composers" of the 18th century there is often beside the remarkable solo part for mandolin, a rather poor and inaccurate orchestration) and the "dialogue" with the mandolin (which, when it starts to play, is accompanied by only one violin I and one violin II, one cello and by the harpsichord; this clashes with the sound effect produced by all the instruments when the whole Orchestra, except the mandolin, plays), to introduce a part for violas (never used in the concertos for mandolin and strings of these composers) and double basses, to harmonise the bass part (realisation of the harpsichord) and to introduce the dynamic marks. In order to simplify, these marks have not been explicitly marked as additions but should, however, always be considered as suggestions of the editor. For practical reasons bar numbers have been added. Of this concerto, as well as for all the others, the music is available with the general musical sheet, the separate single instruments and the arrangement for mandolin and piano.

Pasquale Totaro
(translated by Wilde Paradiso)