{"id":959,"date":"2013-05-27T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T06:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.henle.de\/blog\/en\/?p=959"},"modified":"2015-06-18T08:13:43","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T06:13:43","slug":"correction-or-interpretation-%e2%80%93-johannes-and-clara-alter-robert%e2%80%99s-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2013\/05\/27\/correction-or-interpretation-%e2%80%93-johannes-and-clara-alter-robert%e2%80%99s-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Correction or interpretation? \u2013 Johannes and Clara alter Robert\u2019s music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone practicing Robert Schumann\u2019s <em>In der Nacht<\/em>, the fifth number in the <em>Fantasiest\u00fccke<\/em>,<em> <\/em>Op. 12, from the Henle edition (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.henle.de\/en\/detail\/index.html?Title=Fantasy+Pieces+op.+12+%28with+appendix%3A+nachgelassenes+St%C3%BCck%29_91\" target=\"_blank\">HN 91<\/a> or the anthology <a href=\"http:\/\/www.henle.de\/en\/detail\/index.html?Title=S%C3%A4mtliche+Klavierwerke%2C+Band+II_922\" target=\"_blank\">HN 922<\/a>), will come across footnotes to two passages in the music text that refer to comments in the critical report. <!--more-->In both cases the music text is reproduced from the first edition supervised by Schumann himself (Breitkopf &amp; H\u00e4rtel, 1838); but in the comments attention is drawn to the fact that here Clara Schumann \u2013 following suggestions by Johannes Brahms \u2013 altered the music text for the editions of her husband\u2019s works published under her editorship. One of these editions published by Breitkopf &amp; H\u00e4rtel in Leipzig is the \u2018old complete edition\u2019: <a href=\"http:\/\/daten.digitale-sammlungen.de\/~db\/0003\/bsb00033406\/images\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Robert Schumann\u2019s Werke<\/em>, series VII, no. 50<\/a>, 1879, the other is the so-called instructive edition: <em>Klavier-Werke von Robert Schumann. <\/em><em>Erste mit Fingersatz und Vortragsbezeichnung versehene Instructive Ausgabe<\/em> [\u2018Piano Works by Robert Schumann. First Instructive Edition with Fingerings and Performance Markings\u2019] vol. II, no. 12, 1886).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In question in the first passage is the <em>c<\/em> or <em>c sharp<\/em> in measure 105:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-961\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"601\" height=\"211\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_1-300x106.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_1-1024x362.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In analogy with the neighbouring measures the idea of a forgotten accidental does indeed stand to reason. Nevertheless, the \u266e before the <em>c<\/em> does not hark back to the editor of the Henle edition, but is to be found in all known sources: in the first edition, in the copyist\u2019s manuscript used as engraver\u2019s model and even in the autograph where evidently Schumann initially notated a \u266f analogous to measure 81, but explicitly changed it subsequently to a \u266e):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-962\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"605\" height=\"161\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_2.jpg 892w, https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_2-300x80.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That said, the intervention by Brahms and Clara Schumann \u2013 the alteration of the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> and 5<sup>th<\/sup> semiquavers to <em>c sharp<\/em> \u2013 does not appear as an obvious correction, but rather as a stylistic interpretation. So far as the sound goes both variants are possible, that with <em>c<\/em> has the advantage harmonically of better and more decisively preparing the g minor in measure 106 \u2013 which may possibly have been Schumann\u2019s point. Though, mind you, when the first works of the representative complete edition were being prepared in 1878, the manuscript sources for Op. 12 were not available to either of the trustees of Robert\u2019s musical estate; so they must have had to rely on their own sense. Brahms, who as a matter of principle really had to struggle with alterations in the face of the first edition revised relatively thoroughly by Schumann, must have felt the mentioned analogy to measure 81 (albeit with differing harmony) as weightier than the explicit \u266e before the <em>c<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The second passage (measures 142\u2013143) at the end of the retransition to the recapitulation looks at first glance even more obviously like a mistake:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_31.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-969\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_31.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"288\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The switch in the order of the repeated left-hand semiquavers from the middle of measure 142 (<em>c-a flat-c-a flat<\/em> instead of <em>a flat-c-a flat-c<\/em>) is not only surprising, but even appears downright nonsensical in comparison to the analogous measures 140\u2013141. Consequently, in his personal copy Brahms indicated an alteration to the continuation of the chain <em>a flat-c-a flat-c<\/em>, which Clara adopted for her editions:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_41.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-970\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/files\/2013\/05\/Brahms-Schumann_41.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"624\" height=\"275\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Schumann notated the passage in the autograph this way, just as it appears so in the first edition, and he thoroughly went through the copyist\u2019s manuscript serving as engraver\u2019s model, as shown by the added dynamic markings and pedalling. If it were a mistake, Schumann would thus have had to overlook his error at least twice (in the engraver\u2019s model as well as also in the galley proofs) \u2013 not to mention the absence of a correction in Schumann\u2019s extant personal copy of the print in his estate.<\/p>\n<p>Could there still not have been a reason for an intentional switch? Such as perhaps the emphasis resulting from the reorientation of the dominant tone <em>c<\/em> as preparation for the return of the beginning?<\/p>\n<p>Clara Schumann was at that time naturally viewed as the authority in all questions concerning the music of her late husband \u2013 who could know better than she how the definitive music text sounded and how it was to be played? Not for nothing did the subtitle of her practical edition read: <em>Nach den Handschriften und pers\u00f6nlicher Ueberlieferung herausgegeben von Clara Schumann<\/em>. [\u2018Edited by Clara Schumann from the manuscripts and personal communication\u2019.] With the \u2018personal communication\u2019 she had a surety of which she could make the most. With that, her direct closeness to the composer, as a decisive factor she was way ahead of all other editions \u2013 dumped in great numbers on the market after 1886 (expiry of the then 30-year term of copyright). So it is understandable that the editors of competing editions basically followed the music text edited by Clara. For that matter, this also applies to the Henle publishing house with the first issues of the <em>Fantasiest\u00fccke<\/em> for which Otto von Irmer was responsible; only with the change of editorship to Wolfgang Boetticher (as of issue D in 1975) were the readings of the first edition incorporated into the main text, with, in addition, ever since Ernst Herttrich\u2019s revision (as of issue N in 2004), the important explanatory remarks on the changes by Johannes Brahms and their adoption by Clara Schumann.<\/p>\n<p>Over and above the \u2018Schumann\u2019 case, the example shows that for the edition it is indeed essential to factor in posthumous sources, no longer authorised by the composer himself, provided that they demonstrate such \u2018personal communications\u2019 from spouses, children, friends or pupils. Whether we ultimately adopt in the music text certain readings of these secondary sources is, on the other hand, another question entirely\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone practicing Robert Schumann\u2019s In der Nacht, the fifth number &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2013\/05\/27\/correction-or-interpretation-%e2%80%93-johannes-and-clara-alter-robert%e2%80%99s-music\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289,437,3,322,288,287,320],"tags":[63,118,59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959"}],"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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}