Klarinet Archive - Posting 001130.txt from 2003/04

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Spelling/pronunciation/Haydn
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:47:46 -0400

On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 08:08:18 +0000, acb@-----.is said:

> First of all, I am not a linguist. But I suggest that verbal
> expression is most often the "driver" here.

[snip of excellent example]

Yes, that's what I would have thought, too. But Roger Shilcock seemed
to be suggesting in another thread that the opposite may be true in some
circumstances, and hasn't as yet fully explained what he meant.

> What would be the result if we took such liberty with our expression
> of written music? Or do we perhaps already do so? I haven't given it
> much thought, actually ...

There certainly seems to be the notion amongst some people that it's our
job to do something different from what's written; and some people even
think that our job is to *change* what's written, either by producing an
edition or by pencilling in our own markings.

I don't think it's our job to do either of these things, as I've posted
here very often.

We do know, though, that such changes occurred much more often a couple
of centuries ago. I ran across a rather startling example of that a few
days ago, when I played a performance of Haydn's 'Seven Last Words',
which has a history that I never knew about.

Apparently, it was written to a Spanish commission, and originally
consisted of 7 orchestral 'sonatas' to be played between recitations of
Christ's last words from the cross, plus sermons on those texts. The
work ended with a representation of the earthquake that reportedly
followed the crucifixion.

All of the sonatas are slow, and Haydn said they were a great challenge
to compose, even though he was very satisfied with the result. Some
evidence of his satisfaction is that he very shortly afterwards produced
a string quartet version of the piece.

But then, some nine years later, travelling back from England, he
happened to stop at Passau, where he heard a version of his work in
which the orchestral sonatas were overlaid by a choral setting of a
rather second-rate German poem about the crucifixion, and the readings
and sermons replaced by recitativo settings.

And this to me is the startling thing: far from being angry with the
local choirmaster responsible, he was taken with the idea, if not the
execution; and, obtaining a score, went home to produce his own version.
"I think we can improve on some of the harmonies," he is reported to
have said to the choirmaster.

He got help with recasting some parts of the poem from the librettist
who later produced the text for the Seasons and the Creation, threw out
the recitatives in favour of a simple four-part choral setting of
Christ's words, and improved the harmonies as he had promised.

Now, although you might say that all of that bears testimony to Haydn's
generosity of spirit -- and it surely does -- I think it is also
evidence of the much more casual attitude of the eighteenth century to
both text and authorship.

There is an interesting book by Lydia Goehr, daughter of the composer
Alexander Goehr, called "The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works", which
discusses the whole matter in some detail.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
tel/fax 01865 553339

... I haven't lost my mind; it's backed up on tape somewhere!

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