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<\/a><\/p>\nWhat intrigued me especially about this opening was discovering, upon closer examination, the word \u2018kleine\u2019 (for \u2018kleine Noten\u2019 \u2013 in English, \u2018small notes\u2019: an indication that the notes in question should be set in smaller type than the others) written in ink above the treble stave, with a lighter (perhaps pencilled?) line linking the word specifically to the notes of the right hand (see third system). This off-beat crotchet\/quaver figure, though providing a lilting energy that is essential to the work\u2019s effect, is, of course, melodically subservient to the theme that enters in the third bar. It therefore seems that Elgar wished to draw the performer\u2019s attention, visually, to the position of this rhythmic figure within the layers of voicing and, thereby, to suggest a particular manner of execution \u2013 quieter, perhaps, and with a more veiled tone-colour than that used for the melodic line.\u00a0 Moreover, this visual differentiation was clearly, for Elgar, a vital feature of the work\u2019s appearance: these smaller note-heads are printed in the published editions; and it is entirely probable that Elgar insisted on this.<\/p>\n
It is rather fitting that such a notational idiosyncrasy should be evident both in one of Elgar\u2019s earliest pieces and in one of his latest.\u00a0 In the closing pages of his Sonata for Violin and Piano, op.82, completed in 1919, he quotes from his \u2018Enigma Variations\u2019 of some twenty years earlier.\u00a0 The quotation is important \u2013 Elgar was, at the time of the Sonata\u2019s composition, deeply grieved and disorientated by the loss of some of his closest friends, as well as by the irrevocable dissolution of the society in which he had been brought up and which hosted some of his greatest professional successes; and the citation of a work that is concerned with \u2018my friends pictured within\u2019, and which had heralded his fame and success, has a poignant significance.\u00a0 Just how vital that reference is to Elgar\u2019s narrative may be deduced from the fact that, in the Novello edition, prepared under Elgar\u2019s supervision, the notes in the piano part that form the quotation are printed at standard size, the surrounding notes being printed in smaller type.<\/p>\n As an executant musician, one often encounters notes printed in small type in published editions; and, usually, these refer to some alternative version, or to a way of notating a passage in order to make it easier for the brain \u2013 and the fingers \u2013 to assimilate.\u00a0 In these two cases, though, there is no question of the notes in small print representing an alternative version: in both \u2018Salut d\u2019Amour\u2019 and the Sonata, all the notes given are to be played.\u00a0 They are, however, to be played in a different manner to the notes printed in full-size type: they may be played more quietly, with a lighter touch, or with a more shadowed tone.\u00a0 Like figures in a crowd in a painting, they add depth and energy to the musical picture; however, they are not the principal focus: that focus is reserved for the beauty of a singing melodic line, or for a motif that carries heart-rending significance.<\/p>\n This article has been written by Rupert Marshall Luck<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Preparing a new edition of a work that has been … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n