Klarinet Archive - Posting 000493.txt from 2003/06

From: Dan Leeson <leeson0@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Period basset horns (was: Purchase of Orchestral parts)
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 09:36:34 -0400

Joseph Wakeling wrote:
>
> Nice coincidence that you should mention that now---I just bought
> Norrington's period instrument recording of the Requiem, which I realised on
> reading the liner notes uses Druce's edition. It is very beautiful version
> and the basset horn parts sound well worth playing. There is a part of me
> that is rather uncomfortable with this idea of "revising" the
> Requiem---after all, Sussmayr was the one delegated by Mozart to do the
> work, was in contact with Mozart right up until his death, etc. etc. etc.,
> so my feeling is his work has some authority even if it does contain what
> some scholars consider "mistakes".

Joe, the story of Süssmayr's involvement with the Requiem is a very much
confused one. The part that you refer to (i.e., Mozart delegating him to
make a completion following his death) is the most confusing, unclear,
and occasionally contradictory part. And in any case, the part that both
you and I find most interesting for basset horn in the Druce completion
is that of the Benedictus, and Mozart had absolutely nothing to do with
this section, even in the Süssmayr completion of this movement. It's a
long, complicated, and very soft story, and you should feel no
discomfort in making or participating in any changes beginning with the
Sanctus and continuing to and through the Agnus Dei. Those are the parts
composed entirely by Süssmayr during his work on the Requiem completion.

When Bob Levin and I published a paper on the clarinet and basset horn
writing of Mozart, we both came to the conclusion (and said so in
print), that Süssmayr did not know that a basset horn was a woodwind
instrument. He may have thought that it was a member of the French horn
family and had no idea of how to write for it. And he found difficulty
in transposing for the instrument. This is shown in his basset horn
writing in the Kyrie fugue of the Requiem where he made more than a
dozen transpositional errors in the basset horn parts.

Dan

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