Klarinet Archive - Posting 000183.txt from 2000/06

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Tony Pay's note on K. 622
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 15:07:43 -0400

Tony hits the nail on the head when he infers that an editor has a most serious
and awesome responsibility. Editors of little experience presume that their
function is to create the piece as they like to hear it or to play it, this
under the assumption that their taste is irreproachable.

And after 100 or so years, these editions take on a patina of authority that
cannot be argued with, no matter how weak and uncharacteristic they are of the
style that they are supposed to be representing. You have no idea how many
times very good musicians have told me that my edition of the Gran Partitta
(which contains almost nothing that is not from Mozart's manuscript) is all
wrong simply because they don't like what was done.

The very same thing would happen if the autograph of K. 622 were found
tomorrow. A ton of clarinet players would say that this or that is all wrong
because their perception of the work has already been formed and new evidence
rarely changes a perception based on taste.

Dan Leeson

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