A manuscript conundrum – the autograph of Gabriel Fauré’s violin sonata, Op. 13

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Peter Jost

Autograph manuscripts of musical works have an aura all their own that is hard to resist: They fascinate, on the one hand, by portraying a composer’s characteristic handwriting (cf. fig. 1); on the other, they give us immediate access to the composer’s workshop so long as they’re not just fair copies, but working manuscripts with corrections, deletions and additions. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, Fauré, Gabriel, Monday Postings, piano + violin, Urtext, Violin Sonata op. 13 (Fauré) | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Piano Trio Question: Why really are pianists ‘allowed’ to play from the score, but not string players? And since when?

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

Notice: There’s a prize question at the end of this piece. You’re cordially invited to participate!

The music edition of a piano trio comprises in principle, as is generally known, a piano score with two solo parts (violin and cello) enclosed. It is only the pianist who plays from the score consisting of a grand stave for piano in large print with string parts placed above in small print, violin part on top, cello part below. That’s so far nothing new. But what many musicians don’t know is that this particular score format for today’s piano-trio music is an invention (and standardisation) of the 19th century. In the original tradition up to Beethoven’s time composers were neither acquainted with the piano score nor was there a single method of notation. Continue reading →

Posted in Monday Postings, notation, piano trio | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Setting, version, arrangement – how far may Urtext go?

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Dominik Rahmer

It is part and parcel of the idea of a musical Urtext that the original intentions of the composer be respected also on the level of the instrumental setting. So, coming from Henle publishers will not be any Bach inventions for guitar, Schumann lieder for viola and piano or Chopin’s funeral march for trombone quartet. Continue reading →

Posted in Adagio and Allegro op. 70 (Schumann), Arpeggione Sonata (Schubert), arrangement, Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Gamba Sonatas (Bach), Monday Postings, Schubert, Franz, Urtext | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What’s the shelf life of Urtext? Revising at Henle publishers

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Annette Oppermann

When you look carefully at our recent publications you’ll also repeatedly notice among them works that we once published and are now putting out in new Urtext editions – indicated explicitly as “revised”. But what is actually meant by revision and why is it necessary? Come to think of it, the old edition was and is after all already supposed to contain the Urtext – or do Urtext editions have an expiry date? Continue reading →

Posted in Ballades (Chopin), Beethoven, Ludwig van, Brahms, Johannes, Chopin, Frédéric, G. Henle Publishers, Grand Fugue op. 134 (Beethoven), Monday Postings, Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, new source, revision, Schumann, Robert, Toccata op. 7 (Schumann), Urtext | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Too much access! – Isaac Albéniz revises his Iberia cycle

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Norbert Gertsch

Editors of sheet music are not alone in suffering from the problem of bringing a project to an end at some point – composers, too, were and are regularly confronted with it. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, for instance, is notorious for having still continued composing in the galley proofs of the engraving plates during publication of his works. Continue reading →

Posted in Albéniz, Isaac, autograph, first edition, Iberia (Albéniz), Monday Postings, piano solo, reprint, revision | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Scriabin plays Scriabin – Is the finale of the 3rd piano sonata too difficult?

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Norbert Müllemann

Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915) was not only one of the outstanding composers in Russia around 1900. Time and again he also appeared publicly as pianist – especially as interpreter of his own works. His compositions are at present among the standard items in the concert repertoire, but today we can also still get an idea of his piano playing. Continue reading →

Posted in Monday Postings, piano solo, Piano Sonata Nr. 3 op. 23 (Scriabin), Scriabin, Alexander | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

The crux of sharp or flat: Just enough cautionary accidentals? or are extras o.k., too?

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Peter Jost

Our editorial department is always receiving queries from users requesting information on certain passages in the sources: ‘Is it really that way in the autograph?’ or: ‘Is it actually the same in the first edition?’ Continue reading →

Posted in Bourrée fantasque (Chabrier), Gnossienne (Satie), Monday Postings, notation, Piano Concerto K. 503 (W.A. Mozart), Piano Sonatina (Ravel), Violin Sonata op. 13 (Fauré) | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Will versus Caprice. On the the closing measures of Robert Schumann’s C-major Fantasy op. 17

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Wolf-Dieter Seiffert

What you can see here is the last page of Robert Schumann’s C-major Fantasy op. 17 is in the handwriting of the copyist Carl Brückner of Leipzig. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, Fantasy op. 17 (Schumann), Monday Postings, piano solo, Schumann, Robert, variant reading | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

‘Play it again’ – is a repeat sign missing in Brahms’ Paganini Variations?

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Dominik Rahmer

Some time ago we received an interesting query from a pianist who had come across something formally odd in Johannes Brahms’ Variationen über ein Thema von Paganini op. 35. As we know, Brahms too was inspired by Nicolò Paganini’s 24 Capricci op. 1 for violin solo, as were already earlier Schumann and Liszt. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, Brahms, Johannes, first edition, Monday Postings, notation, Paganini Variations op. 35 (Brahms), piano solo | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Rock” or “stone”? Schumann’s text changes in “Liederkreis” op. 39 on poems by Joseph von Eichendorff

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Annette Oppermann

You know the Lorelei? You know that from the high cliff at St. Goar she peered into the depths of the Rhine (disastrously for many) … But not for Henle in our edition of the Liederkreis op. 39 (HN 550): following a Schumann text revision in Waldesgespräch, Lorelei’s castle is said to be on a “Fels” [rock] – lost, of course, is the Eichendorff “Stein” [stone] rhyming with “Rhein”, but the conciseness of the expression is enormously enhanced. Whether such deviations from a song text model are permissible, rational or as errors to be corrected where possible in a reliable edition, is a much-discussed question that faces any editor of a lieder edition. Continue reading →

Posted in autograph, first edition, Liederkreis op. 39 (Schumann), Monday Postings, piano + voice, Schumann, Robert | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment