Klarinet Archive - Posting 000026.txt from 2004/11
From: Mark Cookson <markcookson@-----.com>
Subj: [kl] Looking for an early printed edition of the Mozart
Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 18:49:22 -0500
Dear Dan,
Wow, my thanks for writing such a detailed account of
K. 622's journey from manuscript to first publication.
I fully agree with you that without Mozart's
manuscript, we are always going to be relying on less
than ideal sources, and that there were numerous
opportunities for corruption of Mozart's text on the
way to publication.
Nevertheless, I would make the following points in
defence of my project (and your comments on all of the
following would be most welcome)
1. As far as I'm aware, we have only three sources for
K.622. We have Mozart's Winterthur fragment, we have
the AMZ review with its small number of music
quotations, and we have the first published edition.
Of these three, only the first published edition give
us anything approaching the full work.
As you say, there is not a single published edition
that is not, in one way or another, descended from the
1803 edition. Now I fully agree that the 1803 edition
is unlikely to represent exactly what Mozart wrote
(even allowing for the transposition of the basset
passages). However, it seems to me that as the main
source for all subsequent editions, it must be of
interest to us, for want of anything better. I can't
imagine that subsequent nineteenth century editions
are somehow less corrupted :-) Given the absence of a
complete manuscript, is the first published edition
not the least bad source available to us?
2. I haven't yet seen the 1803 edition, but I seem to
remember Tony Pay posting that the solo part of this
edition differs very little (apart from the basset
notes) from the Winterthur fragement. This does
suggest to me that whoever edited the 1803 edition may
have done so with a reasonably light touch (or just
been too lazy to go changing articulations...)
3. The nice thing about making K.622 available in
Lilypond format is that anyone can download the source
and create a version suited to their own needs. If (as
has happened to me before) I have a student with poor
eyesight, I can change one line of the source file and
create a version with extra large notes. If (God
forbid!) I get a student bringing some horrible
over-edited International edition along to a lesson, I
can give them a copy with almost all of the
articulations removed and discuss with them why and
where we might want to add some slurs. We could even
draw on the considerable collective wisdom of the
Klarinet list readers to assemble a performing
edition. Now, none of these versions is going to be
definitive, any more than the 1803 edition is
definitive, but I don't think that has to mean that
they are worthless.
Well, my reply is going to be approaching the length
of yours soon, so I think I'll sign off with a final
question, to which I'd very much like to know the
answer:
I've seen plenty of negative comments about Pamela
Weston's edition based on a nineteenth century
arrangement, but did that arrangement shed any new
light on what the basset notes were, or was it once
again based on the 1803 edition?
Thanks again for your detailed reply Dan - I look
forward to your response.
Regards
Mark Cookson (who'd still like to hear from anyone
able to send me a copy of the 1803 edition, even if
just the solo part)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org
