Klarinet Archive - Posting 000210.txt from 2000/07

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Weber/Pamela Weston
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 16:09:52 -0400

On Wed, 5 Jul 2000 21:27:40 +0200, alf.horberg@-----.se said:

> I don't have much experience with sheet music published by Pamela
> Weston. If it is like Tony describes, the editions seem very
> unpractical to play from. It's a good thing however, that she encloses
> the unedited version at all and that should of cause be the separate
> part to play from.
>
> To balance out this discussion about Pamela, I just would like to give
> her all my admiration for her enormous research work to publish her
> trilogy about the Clarinet Virtuosi of the Past and Today. These are
> books that have given me both an enormous source of information as
> well as very entertaining reading.
>
> Many thanks Pamela for these books.

Yes.

Perhaps I should be clearer about all of this.

Michael Bryant has pointed out to me that Pamela Weston, in her
editions, makes a clear statement of her editorial intentions.

The crucial paragraph in all the editions, including the Gran Duo, which
is the one I have in front of me, reads:

> The score contains Weber's original plus an edited version. The
> separate clarinet part is edited. Apart from correcting obvious errors
> and completing Weber's intentions with regard to articulation and
> dynamics, editing has been kept to a minimum.

I regard what has been done by Pamela Weston in the name of 'completing
Weber's intentions with regard to articulation and dynamics' to be
almost without exception what I would *not* do myself. Mostly this is
because her markings go against structural principles. So the editions
I find unusable as teaching material, and they are a nuisance to read
from if I want to perform myself.

As I make plain in the article I wrote for Early Music, May 1996, which
is on the web at

http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Study/Phrasing.html

...the sort of thing that Pamela Weston thinks is obvious, is in fact
far from obvious.

She thinks, for example, that if Weber writes no dynamics, and some
expression is called for, then the only solution is to begin quietly and
do a crescendo. Turning that unjustified assumption into a printed
crescendo in the solo part is nothing short of criminal.

Pamela Weston is not Weber, and she's not a player either. She may be a
good biographer, but as far as I'm concerned that's where it stops.

I deeply resent her blocking the deeper understanding of these ideas by
way of what I regard as a spurious authority, derived from the acclaim
she has received for her biographical researches. It is an authority
cavalierly assumed, and I'm determined to argue against it.

In the days when it was difficult to hear performances by the best
players, producing editions that represented their personal opinions may
have served some purpose. Nowadays, when we can hear those performances
on radio and disc, the need has evaporated.

Pamela Weston's opinions are even more irrelevant.

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

... Wishful thinking on your part doesn't constitute reality on mine.

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