Klarinet Archive - Posting 000813.txt from 2003/04

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Gran Partita or Gran Partitta
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:42:29 -0400

Karl Krelove wrote:
> Dan,
>
> In as un-snotty a tone as I can muster:
>
> A) - If it wasn't Mozart's subtitle, and we don't know who added it, why
> should we care about preserving the subtitler's misspelling of a word in
> another language? Let him/her (whoever he/she is) turn over in his/her grave
> until he/she is tired of it and goes back to rest. Unless, of course, it was
> Beethoven.

Wrong question: the right one is "Why are we using this subtitle in any
spelling whatsoever?" The issue is the subtitle and the reason for using
it is based on the fact that it appears on the manuscript. It should,
therefore, be presented in its original form or not used at all. If
someone had decided to spell it, "GRAN HOOTCHIE KOOTCHIE" I would be in
exactly the same position. Whatever putz changed it from its original
form (and incorrect in any case) deserves an ugly stare. Not me.

>
> B) - Why waste your energy railing against contemporary non-compliance with
> some mystery person's (not Mozart's) misspelling instead of being a
> pain-in-the-ass toward the goal of dropping the subtitle altogether and
> using MOZART's title (we all can probably spell Serenade)?

Everyone is allowed 5 holy wars in his or her lifetime. This one is
mine. The fact is that it is a term in common use even though it is
worthless, and when I submitted the new edition manuscript to
Bärenreiter in 1976 (and that was published in 1979), I explicitly
requested that the term NOT be used. But they were the pains in the ass
and decided to use it (in the wrong form) despite my wise
recommendation. So now, through the international pain-in-the-ass
transfer protocol as established by the global pain-in-the-ass society
of Basle, Switzerland, I rail against the common spelling. It is a
privelege granted when one takes on a holy war.

And your un-snotty tone was well managed. I congratulate you.

Dan

>
> Just wondering. :-)
>
> Karl
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Dan Leeson [mailto:leeson0@-----.net]
>>Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2003 9:37 AM
>>To: klarinet@-----.org
>>Subject: [kl] Gran Partita or Gran Partitta
>>
>>
>>The great serenade in B-flat for 12 winds and string bass by Mozart, K.
>>361/370a, has been mentioned about 10-15 times in the last couple of
>>weeks. It comes up whenever the basset horn is under discussion.
>>(Incidentally, I'm playing the work in Modesto, CA on June 14 and in
>>Santa Fe, NM in somewhere between July 1 and July 9.)
>>
>>It is common for everyone to call the work by its alternate title and
>>whenever it does I make a stink about the spelling. I figure that if I
>>make enough of a stink for a long enough time, maybe it will have some
>>impact. And whenever I do make a stink, I'll get 42 snotty letters
>>telling me that I'm spelling it incorrectly. No I'm not. I'm spelling
>>it the way it should be spelled. Everyone else is spelling it incorrectly.
>>
>>The title is "GRAN PARTITTA." Now why is this the case instead of the
>>far more common "GRAN PARTITA" that you will find on every recording, as
>>if whoever put it there knows what s/he is talking about?
>>
>>This alternate title -- and it has nothing to do with Mozart -- was
>>never used before the mansucript of the work surfaced around 1900. Where
>>the document was and how it went underground is an interesting story but
>>not relevant to the point I am making. The fact is that, except for the
>>owner, hardly anyone saw the manuscript between 1803 and ca. 1900.
>>
>>I can find no reference to the work anywhere in the literature prior to
>>1906 that uses the title, and in every case after 1906 until around
>>1970, it is incorrectly spelled "GRAN PARTITA." In 1906, the first page
>>of the manuscript was published in an obscure German Music journal and
>>until that moment, no one (except the manuscript's owner) had ever seen
>>the original manuscript. But it is with the publicaiton of that 1906
>>scholarly article that the subtitle began to be used.
>>
>>It's a bad photograph and the reproduction is poor mostly because the
>>words are written in red crayon, not ink. It did not photograph well,
>>and not until I saw the original in the Library of Congress in 1960, did
>>I realize exactly what the words said.
>>
>>What the text on the manuscript says is "GRAN PARTITTA." Now that is bad
>>Italian. It is a misspelling. But that is what it says, and since the
>>title is used because it appears on the manuscript, then it should be
>>spelled the way it appears on the manuscript. Such subtitles are often
>>given by people other than the composer which is the case here. I don't
>>think the subtitle should be used at all because it has nothing to do
>>with the work and makes no historic or musical sense, but if it is going
>>to be used, then it should spelled in a way consistent with the origin
>>of the expression.
>>
>>In 1991, I wrote a paper now published in the 1991 Mozart Jahrbuch, and
>>which addresses to minor detail of the history of this great work. And
>>slowly, slowly, slowly, people are starting to use it.
>>
>>I know I'm being a pain in the ass, but whenever I see it spelled "GRAN
>>PARTITA" I invariably send off a note and most often get one back that
>>tells me to shove it high up where it is red.
>>
>>But even in the face of such hubris, it is still GRAN PARTITTA.
>>
>>All of this is evidence that once something incorrect gets into the
>>literature, it requires the strength of Hercules and the patience of Job
>>to get it out.
>>
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>GRAN PARTITTA
>>
>>Now, I am going to sleep. I'll bring this up again in a year because
>>once a pain in the ass, always a pain in the ass.
>>--
>>***************************
>>**Dan Leeson **
>>**leeson0@-----.net **
>>***************************
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>
>
>
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>

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

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