A peek through the keyhole – Bartók’s “Allegro barbaro” as forerunner of the complete edition

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Annette Oppermann

With Béla Bartók, we have added a new composer to our 2016 catalogue – always a special event for an Urtext publisher, and even a double pleasure in this case: The first is that we’re starting this year a huge, 48-volume complete critical edition of this composer’s works; The second is that (initially) his piano works are to appear in the blue Urtext editions for the practicing musician.

Continue reading →

Posted in Allegro barbaro BB 63 (Bartók), autograph, Bartók, Béla, Composers, Monday Postings, piano solo, variant reading | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Trill of Doom – The pianist András Schiff’s revelatory study of Schubert’s final sonata

Posted on April 4, 2016 by publisher

By guest author Alex Ross[1]

“What other work is so full of silence?” (András Schiff)

The other day, I sat with Sir András Schiff, the Hungarian-born, British-based pianist, in a practice room at Walt Disney Concert Hall, in Los Angeles, contemplating a great musical mystery: the trill in the eighth measure of Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B-Flat, D. 960. Continue reading →

Posted in András Schiff, articulation, Composers, Monday Postings, piano solo, Piano Sonata B-Flat D 960 (Schubert), Schubert, Franz | Leave a comment

Confusion about ties in Chopin’s Scherzo in b minor

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Norbert Müllemann

That Chopin variants can be exasperating to an editor – who has to do everything possible to provide the musician with one valid text – is well enough known. The idea that we are not alone in our exasperation can, however, be comforting. This in any case happened to me when I began to prepare a revised edition (HN 1334) of the 1st Scherzo in b minor. I came across a document by the famous Chopin pupil and editor Karol Mikuli that shows considerable perplexity. Continue reading →

Posted in articulation, Auguste Franchomme, autograph, Chopin, Frédéric, Composers, Ferdinand Hiller, first edition, letter, Monday Postings, piano solo, Scherzo in b minor op. 20 (Chopin) | 1 Comment

Henry Vieuxtemps’s 5th Violin Concerto newly outfitted – Interview with Marie Cornaz and Ray Iwazumi

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Peter Jost

Among the just about one hundred compositions that the violin virtuoso Henry Vieuxtemps left to posterity, the 5th Violin Concerto in a minor op. 37 is certainly regarded as his by far best-known and best-loved work. It owes its popularity not only to its brilliant violin part, but also to its original form in three movements passing seamlessly without pause from one to the other. Continue reading →

Posted in 5. Violin Concerto in a minor op. 37 (Vieuxtemps), autograph, Monday Postings, piano + violin, sketches, Urtext, Vieuxtemps, Henry, violin + orchestra, Ysaÿe, Eugène | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Henle Library app. Behind the scenes – part 1.

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Norbert Gertsch

So when did the penny finally drop at the publishing house that Henle editions can be more than just print editions? In my case this happened in March 2011 when I gave a talk about what Urtext means at the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conference in Milwaukee. And all anyone wanted to talk to me about was the iPad! Continue reading →

Posted in Android, App, Cloud, Digital, Henle Library, iOS, Monday Postings, Tablet | Tagged | 3 Comments

Carnival Quiz

Posted on February 8, 2016 by publisher

Carnival, Mardi Gras, Fasching: Today, Carnival Monday (“Rosenmontag” in German) is also being celebrated in Munich – although somewhat less exuberantly than in Cologne or Mainz.

So, just for fun in today’s blog posting we are zooming in on our Urtext catalogue since you’ll find several “silly” compositions stashed away even there. You want to know which ones? Continue reading →

Posted in General, Monday Postings | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Henle Library” app. Redefining sheet music.

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

As of today we can put all rumours to rest. It’s true: Henle Urtext has gone digital. The global launch of the “Henle Library” app, in German, English and Chinese, for Apple’s iPad, is 3 February 2016 (for Android tablets it’s May 2016). Our app will be a valuable tool for musicians when practising, rehearsing and performing.

Here’s a brief overview, an “appetizer”, exclusively for our blog readers:

Right from the start it was clear to us at Henle Publishers that it wasn’t enough just to offer our Urtext editions in digital form for PDF readers. Continue reading →

Posted in Android, App, Cloud, Digital, Henle Library, iOS, Monday Postings, Tablet | 82 Comments

The “parallel passage” – handle with care…

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Dominik Rahmer

If the ideal goal of a critical Urtext edition may be said to be finding out and representing what the composer “actually intended”, then consulting all the relevant sources for the work, comparing them and evaluating their differences is above all its fundamental task.

Yet this alone is as a rule not enough. For a composer to have a slip of the pen or to forget a sign by mistake (accidentals, typically) is not unusual, and then all subsequent sources such as copies and first prints may take this mistake over blindly. Such errors throughout cannot be detected, though, by merely comparing all the sources with each other. So it is always necessary in addition to check the music text for consistency in itself, regardless of what the sources show. (The edition must also be to a certain extent “critical” towards the composer.)
Continue reading →

Posted in articulation, autograph, first edition, Grieg, Edvard, Monday Postings, piano solo, variant reading | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Christmas Blog

Posted on December 21, 2015 by publisher

Dear Reader,

we most warmly thank you for your interest in the Henle Blog. We also look forward to your visits in the coming year and promise interesting postings on musical questions concerning music texts. Continue reading →

Posted in Monday Postings, Saint-Saëns, Camille | Tagged , | Leave a comment

From zero to a hundred in seven years: Beethoven’s wind chamber music at Henle publishers

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Annette Oppermann

The fact that the winds first found their way into our catalogue in 1972 after a delay of two and half decades was already once before a topic of our blog. Typically enough, this happened with Beethoven’s Opus 16 (HN 222) – that odd hybrid work that’s come down to us as both a piano quartet with three strings and a piano quintet with four winds (as you can see from the cover of the first edition). Continue reading →

Posted in Beethoven, Ludwig van, clarinet, Flute Duo WoO 26 (Beethoven), G. Henle Publishers, horn, Marsch WoO 29 (Beethoven), Monday Postings, oboe, Quintet E flat major op. 16 (Beethoven), Sextet op. 81b (Beethoven), Three Duos WoO 27 for Clarinet and Bassoon (Beethoven), Three Equali for four Trombones WoO 30 (Beethoven), Urtext, winds | Tagged , | 1 Comment