Klarinet Archive - Posting 000423.txt from 1999/11

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Mozart Concerto Edition?
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1999 13:36:51 -0500

On Thu, 11 Nov 1999 11:21:35 -0600, jhobby@-----.Net said:

> As a curiosity response to some of the messages about auditions and
> the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, I'd like to know what edition(s) are
> considered preferred, which are not, and for what reasons. I haven't
> played it in years (and couldn't find my copy when I went looking),
> but I have always assumed that all editions, except those that had the
> author's ideas of ornamentation added, were the same. I'm sure that I
> used the same copy from high school through university, and don't ever
> remember a comment about what edition I was using. (Actually, I did
> find one copy. It's the clar. part that came with a MMO cassette that
> someone gave me years ago. It doesn't give any edition attribution, at
> all.)
>
> Jim Hobby

As has been noted, there is a list of the editions of the Mozart on

http://www.clarinet.org/Research/Presentations/Koons98.html

Whether this helps you decide what editions 'are considered preferred'
is another matter.

The situation is that, apart from the basset notes, we can get quite
close to how Mozart left the score, probably, by looking at the first
edition, as is shown by comparing it with his manuscript sketch of the
version for bassethorn in G:

http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Music/ManuScripts/Winterthur

More or less, the Barenreiter NMA edition follows the first edition,
with suggestions as to where we reinstate the basset notes, drawn from
a contemporary reviewer who was acquainted with the origina.. The logic
of the suggestions for how the basset notes are transposed upwards -- in
other words, how we might *change* the first edition for the standard
clarinet in NMA, could be improved in my opinion, and you are quite
justified in following your own instincts in that regard.

All the other editions are defective in that they superimpose the
editor's phrasing and dynamic ideas on the music, often quite against
what we know of the style of the period and the logic of the
relationship between clarinet and orchestra. That it was considered
acceptable to do this even up to a few years ago is no excuse for our
accepting it now.

'Lack of a slur doesn't necessarily mean staccato', is one ruling
principle that covers most of the difficulties encountered by younger
students. For the rest, informed discussion between teacher and pupil
as to what would make dramatic sense of the music as it stands is worth
far more than the slavish following of any of the other editions,
regardless of the eminence and legendary status (or otherwise) of the
editors.

For support in this discussion, I consider a useful resource (well, I
would, wouldn't I?) to be my article, 'Phrasing in contention', Early
Music, May 1996.

There are many ways of making dramatic sense of this music, which is not
dynamic-governed in any case, being rather, 'phrasing-governed'. (By
this I mean that Mozart bothered to write the phrases, but not mostly
the dynamics.)

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... If a tree falls on a mime and no-one hears it, who cares?

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