Klarinet Archive - Posting 000898.txt from 2003/04

From: Robert Howe <arehow@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Gran Partita or Gran Partitta
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:43:54 -0400

Hi All,

The score to the Mozart work in Bb for 13 players (winds/contrabass) is
published by the library of Congress. My copy, which describes Dan Leeson'=
s
then-forthcoming paper, shows that it is labelled:

N. 23 gran Partitta Del Sig. Wolfgang Mozart
figus
Grand Partita
1780

The first title has a lowercase "G". The first line is in one hand, the
second and third and fourth in another. One the instrumentation, M. writes
for "clarinetti" not "klarinetten", ie, Italian not German.

Alfred Eisenstein's introduction points out that the title may have been
added by another hand, although I am not entirely convinced by his argument=
.
He does argue, I think reasonably, that the scale of the work makes it more
than a serenade (but this is his argument, not Mozart's). He also presumes=
,
as Dan implies, that the term "partita" was not known to have been used in
Mozart's circles in the sense of a collection of dances. Can we know this?

So what of it? The MS is labelled twice, possibly by Mozart, possibly not;
both spellings are present; one is in line with current usage, one is a
mispelling. These are the ONLY titles written on the work. The word
"serenade" does not appear, although the "N. 23" may imply the term.

The question of current usage rears its head. When I write about oboes, th=
e
name "Triebert" comes up all the time. That is the 1840 spelling, used on
every original document and stamped on every origian instrument. Current
usage is "Tri=E9bert", with the accent (some of you may get gibberish here,
but the first "e" is intended to have a grave accent). Editors, including
those of French journals, insist on the use of this spelling. That is what
the word is today.

The Libary of Congress Cataloguing data call the Mozart work

Gran partita, K. 361 =3D commonly known as Serenade for 13 wind instruments,
K. 361.

This of course is also wrong, as the 13th instrument is a string bass. So =
I
vote we use current spelling and call it the "Gran Partita" unless referrin=
g
to the orthography of the original MS. But if you wanna be a purist, "Gran
Partitta" is correct, too. And I'm going to put on a recording of it as I
bake sugar cookies with my daughters this morning.

Happy Easter!

Robert Howe

1780 4/19/03 4:15 PM, klarinet-digest-help@-----.org at
klarinet-digest-help@-----.org wrote:

> 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.)
>=20
> 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=
.
>=20
> 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?
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> But even in the face of such hubris, it is still GRAN PARTITTA.
>=20
> 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.
>=20
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
> GRAN PARTITTA
>=20
> 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.
> --=20
> ***************************
> **Dan Leeson **
> **leeson0@-----.net **
> ***************************
>=20
> ------------------------------
>=20
> Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 10:07:55 -0400
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
> Subject: RE: [kl] Gran Partita or Gran Partitta
> Message-id: <NGBBJONLHKPEJHCPFHBBKEFIDBAA.karlkrelove@-----.net>
>=20
> Dan,
>=20
> In as un-snotty a tone as I can muster:
>=20
> 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 gr=
ave
> until he/she is tired of it and goes back to rest. Unless, of course, it =
was
> Beethoven.
>=20
> B) - Why waste your energy railing against contemporary non-compliance wi=
th
> 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)?
>=20
> Just wondering. :-)
>=20
> Karl
>=20

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