{"id":3776,"date":"2016-07-11T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T05:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.henle.de\/blog\/en\/?p=3776"},"modified":"2016-07-11T14:52:33","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T12:52:33","slug":"france-sets-the-tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2016\/07\/11\/france-sets-the-tone\/","title":{"rendered":"France sets the tone \u2013 new Urtext editions in the \u201cblue jersey\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It isn\u2019t only with the European Football Championship 2016 that France is the focus of attention (alas, it wasn\u2019t quite enough last night to win the title) \u2013 numerous new Urtext editions of French composers are just about to come out in the Henle publishing house.<\/p>\n

\"\"Among them are, for example, Gabriel Faur\u00e9\u2019s delightful \u201cDolly\u201d suite for four-hand piano (HN 1278<\/a>), the two string sonatas by Maurice Ravel (HN 1271<\/a>) and Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns (HN 1280<\/a>) as well as \u2013 a real insider tip \u2013 Ernest Chausson\u2019s piano trio in g minor (HN 1277<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Wind players for whom French music is well known to offer so much of beauty are also not being neglected: hornists must be looking forward to the forthcoming new edition of the concerto literature\u2019s \u201cwar horse\u201d, namely Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 Morceau de Concert<\/em> in f minor op. 94 (HN 1284<\/a>).<\/p>\n

As so often, examining the Morceau de Concerto<\/em>\u2019s <\/em>autograph sources and comparing its two original versions (i.e., with piano or orchestra accompaniment) reveal interesting details. Here, this doesn\u2019t in fact overthrow the traditional music texts of over a century, but besides clarifying numerous articulation markings, two differing notes in the solo part could nevertheless be detected.<\/p>\n

Example 1:<\/em><\/p>\n

In measure 34 the final note in the orchestra version is f<\/em> (sounding pitch):
\n\"\"
\n\u2026instead of g<\/em> as in the piano version:
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Example 2:<\/em><\/p>\n

In measure 58 the final note in the orchestra version is a flat<\/em>:
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026instead of f<\/em> as in the piano version:
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say here which is \u201cwrong\u201d or \u201cright\u201d. From a musical standpoint both solutions are possible, though the a flat<\/em> of the second example better matches the theme \u2013 cf., for instance, the final note in measure 6:
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Also on philological grounds priority can\u2019t clearly be given to the effect of one or the other version. Basically, Saint-Sa\u00ebns composed the two versions of the Morceau de Concert<\/em> simultaneously: the autograph of the piano score bears the date October 1887, and in his manuscript of the orchestra version Saint-Sa\u00ebns recorded 2 November 1887 as its completion. Perhaps in writing down the orchestra score he notated the horn part \u201cfrom memory\u201d, instead of copying it 1:1 from the already existing piano score. If he deliberately changed the two notes in the score, then he would certainly have corrected them later in the piano version (this actually happened in other cases).<\/p>\n

Several years later with the appearance of the first editions of both versions, these divergences were also not eliminated by the composer, the prints reproducing exactly the versions of the respective manuscripts. Even reprints in Saint-Sa\u00ebns\u2019 lifetime were not utilized to standardize or correct this.<\/p>\n

So, we\u2019ve chosen the following solution in our edition: we\u2019re giving the music text of the piano version (certainly the variant better known among hornists), but immediately noting in a footnote the alternative solution from the orchestra version:<\/p>\n

(click to enlarge image)<\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We also, incidentally, refer in similar form to other small variants, for instance, the accents in mm. 5\/6 found only in the orchestra version. This way, with our single part, hornists are well prepared for all eventualities and can play their part with orchestra accompaniment without having to worry about discussing it with conductors (\u201cbut my part is different from yours\u2026.\u201d).<\/p>\n

And if you find reasons for or against one of the versions mentioned \u2013 then please write a comment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It isn\u2019t only with the European Football Championship 2016 that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,541,281,144,3,540,332,282,504,320],"tags":[653,539,655,82,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}