Johann Sebastian Bach
The Henle blogging community will, we hope, not be disappointed that my text today has, at first glance, nothing to do with the daily Henle editing routine. Normally, we report here about tricky editorial problems and offer solutions. But today – not a sign of solving anything. My posting is a question, almost a cry for help on a topic that has been bothering me for weeks. But let’s start with a domestic scene. Continue reading
Henle Verlag is a traditional publishing house and can look back on a proud publishing history: last year we celebrated our 70th birthday. But since the digital age has left its mark on us as well, we launched our very successful Henle Library a few years ago, putting almost all our Urtext catalog on iPad and Android tablets. We are also actively sharing Henle news with you on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Continue reading
Title page of the autograph of Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy.
To this day, the success of a new stage work crucially depends upon whether the individual scenes, ensembles or songs stick so strongly in the mind as catchy tunes that they become earworms. The persistent popularity of Georges Bizet’s Carmen undoubtedly owes a great deal to such of its easily-remembered numbers. Its première in the Paris Opéra-Comique on 3 March 1875 and the run immediately afterwards did not bring the great hoped-for success, but from the autumn of 1875 an unprecedented triumphal procession over European stages began – which, though, Bizet, who died three months after the première, was no longer alive to experience. Continue reading
Plastic waste and climate change, loss of biodiversity…. – It’s really time to do something about it! The G. Henle publishing house also wants to do its part, so under the slogan “Henle goes green”, we replaced plastic bags with paper bags and use for our Urtext editions only paper with the FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] seal of approval. For more information, see our Facebook posts from Jan. 23 and Feb. 15 2019 on this topic. Continue reading
Considering that specifically for 19th-century works the first edition is frequently the most important source for preparing the Urtext edition, we could pose the question of why we re-typeset our Urtexts at all – when the few errors there could often so easily be corrected by retouching the original print. But quite apart from the fact that in many cases the necessary corrections couldn’t sometimes even be realised at all within the original layout, the little word “modern” comes into play here, (also) to grace our Urtext editions. Continue reading
A few days ago a customer enquiry momentarily gave me pause: Whether our new edition of the Johannes Brahms Horn Trio in E-flat major op. 40 (HN 811) reproduced the first version of 1866 or the second version of 1891? But a later revision of a trio was done by Brahms for just the B-major Trio op. 8 – or has something else come up…? Continue reading
Many a Henle fan familiar with our catalog will know that some of our works are available in “duplicate”, that is, in both a single edition and within an anthology. As an Urtext publisher we are committed to transmitting the sources, therefore we normally issue works just as they left the hands of their composers. Continue reading
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
That Mozart, when writing carefully, graphically distinguishes between the dot and the stroke, ought to be beyond dispute to anyone knowing his handwriting. Though here we’re not going to argue about the performance-practice significance that this graphic distinction may or may not have. Today I want to present an extremely odd “stroke” notation of Mozart’s. Continue reading
The Nutcracker is as closely associated with the Christmas season as Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, the Christmas tree and gingerbread. A ballet visit is a fixed tradition for many classical music fans. Continue reading
Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766–1831)
There could not be a bigger difference: When you are preparing to edit a work of the Classical and Romantic greats, you can rely on an abundance of information from a sea of scholarly literature. When you turn to composers still long enshrined in the repertoire by only a few works or even a single work, you are often faced with – nothing! Rodolphe Kreutzer is nearly just such a case. Continue reading