Klarinet Archive - Posting 000102.txt from 1994/07

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Gran Partitta
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 18:25:38 -0400

About three weeks ago, Noreen asked on this board for info regarding
the playing of the great Mozart serenade for 12 winds and string bass,
sometimes called the "Gran Partitta" though this title has nothing to
do with Mozart (and it is with two "t"s).

Well Bob Marcus, who is an endocrinologist at Stanford University
(who heals lame and halt endocrines) got inspired to do a reading
through of the work and he is getting all the players together to do
it at his house a week from Sunday. Isn't that an absolutely terrific
thing? And all because of Noreen's inquiry. She deserves a hand
from us because few of the players in the group have ever played that
work and are looking forward to their first time. It is not that they
do not know the work. They just have not played it.

I, however, am in a much better position than any of them. I have played
the work before, and many times, so I am even more anxious than they to
get the pleasure of yet another time through it. And this caused me to
think about the phenomenon of the first time one ever plays a work of
this caliber. I have come to the conclusion that I would rather be the
players who never played the piece because of the thrill of discovery
the first time through. I can think of, maybe, a half dozen pieces of
music that cause me to feel that way; Mahler 5 is such an example; the
Brahms quintet is another. But I have had such a long and intimate
friendship with the Gran Partitta, that it holds a special place for me.

I remember the first time I held the autograph of that work in my hands.
It was at the Library of Congress in Washington and I had to examine the
watermarks of the paper on which the GP was written to see if there was
some way to date the work based on the watermarks.

After identifying myself, I sat at a special table where rare material is
examined and waited for it to be brought to me. I was as nervous as a
cat in the dog pound. When they put this "thing" on the table, I was
afraid to move. I sat absolutely still for close to 30 minutes trying
to calm down. Finally, after putting on white cotton gloves (so that the
sweat and acid from my hands would not touch the manuscript paper), I
gently pulled the autograph close to me and opened the cover.

I was stunned by the neatness of the handwriting, the clarity of the layout
on the page. One could have conducted from this score. In fact, one could
play from this score, so neat is it (though it does get kind of rushed later
on in the work). There in the center of the top of the page, and in
red crayon or grease pencil were the words "GRAN PARTITTA" and from the
placement of these words, I immediately concluded that the paper on which
Mozart had written the work had to have been bigger by, perhaps 1/2 inch.
This is because those words are right at the very, very top of the page, with
almost no space whatsever from the top of the paper to the words GRAN PARTITTA.
In fact, a little bit of the words have been cut off, as if with a knife.

Since this is not a place where anyone would chose to write (we all have a
need for margins in our writing), and because of the fact that three sides
of the paper is gilded (more for protection than for adornment), I concluded
that the paper had to have been cut down so that it could be gilded, and the
party who cut it down did so right up to (and a trifle beyond) the words
GRAN PARTITTA.

I stared at that page for maybe an hour before I had had enough of it and went
on from there. But the memory of those hours sitting there with the autograph
in my hand (and I had someone take a picture of it for proof) will linger with
me my whole life.

Thank you Moreen for giving me another chance to enrich my life by playing
this marvellous work again. As Peter Shaffer said, "... It started
simply enough ..."

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Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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