Klarinet Archive - Posting 000397.txt from 2001/03

From: Daniel Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Handel/Mozart Judas Macabeus
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 15:32:46 -0500

With respect to the posting here about the Judas Maccabeus discovery in
the UK, it is, of course, very exciting. But there are anomolies that
don't, for the moment, add up right. Let me metion what they are in a
second, but first, I know nothing of the suggested references to a fifth
Handel transcription of which Cowgill speaks. I presume this to be my
ignorance, not his mistake, but I never heard of any such reference.
However, if Cowgill is correct we are going to have two terrific
clarinet parts, as are the ones in the four Mozart arrangements of other
Handel oratorios.

Now the anomolies. I believe that autographs for the four known
transcriptions exist. All four are referenced in Mozart's catalog of
his own compositions. Performance parts prepared in Vienna exist as do
early editions of all four works.

So if someone discovered a manuscript score of any of these four and
claimed it to be a Mozart transcription, this could be confirmed by the
presence of lots of data even in the absence of an autograph score.
However, in the case of Judas Maccabeus, there does not seem to be an
autograph, the transcription is not mentioned in Mozart's catalog, there
is no early edition of the work, and no performance parts exist. It is
just hanging out there in the wind.

Even in the face of these strange things, I still eagerly hope that some
tie in to Mozart can be confirmed, and since Judas Maccabeus is one of
my favorite Handel oratorios (and also since I have played the Messiah
arrangement and find it wackily brilliant and a spectacular
transcription) I certainly hope that this one is authentic.

--
***************************
** Dan Leeson **
** leeson0@-----.net **
***************************

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe from Klarinet, e-mail: klarinet-unsubscribe@-----.org
Subscribe to the Digest: klarinet-digest-subscribe@-----.org
Additional commands: klarinet-help@-----.org
Other problems: klarinet-owner@-----.org