Klarinet Archive - Posting 000066.txt from 2004/11

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Looking for an early printed edition of the Mozart
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 18:27:59 -0500

Please don't attribute to me your incorrect understanding and
misinterpretation of my detailed words about the first edition of
622. You will find not a single suggestion that allows anyone to
conclude that I reject the 1803 edition, though your
poorly-chosen remarks give the impression that I said or implied
that. I did not.

I simply tried to get you to think about the realism of the
situation, to be thoughtful about it, and to stop treating the
edition as a holy grail simply because it was the first edition.
And I was being neither harsh nor complimentary about it.
Describing the problems with that edition is simply a matter of
an application of Occam's Razor based on experience with
scholarly editions many of which do not have a reliable source.

I said, and say again, the first edition of 622 is one of unknown
and uncertain authority, and its history implies that it probably
has a variety of corruptions that are both unknown and
unknowable, which means that these problems cannot even be
identified much less fixed.

And you seem to think that some useful purpose is served by
taking this edition and doing things to it to produce a better
one. I just don't see how you can come to this conclusion based
on the situation to hand. That you can produce an edition from it
is obvious, but it will never have real authority since the thing
on which it is based is flawed.

Unless you see an avenue of approach that is singularly
insightful, leave well enough alone. Perhaps making an edition
for your personal use only might be useful, because you would be
doing the piece as you wish it to be done, rather than suggest to
anyone else that your approach is the way for all to do it.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Cookson [mailto:markcookson@-----.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 2:30 PM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Looking for an early printed edition of the
Mozart

Fernando Silveira wrote:
>>Hi Mark.
>>If you are starting with music edition, you should
read >>something about that. There is a great book on
the >>subject from James Grier: The critical editing
of >>music. You should know!

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I have read this
book way back when I took a class in music sources and
editions, so I'll see if I can find a copy again.

>>Maybe you can find some information there to change
>>your mind that the early edition is the best for
your >>target: maybe not...
>>Just to you know that you can make your own edition
>>of Mozart concerto, since the music is already on
>>public domain. You can use any edition for your
>>purpose and, as a tip, you should use all these
>>sources to build up yours edition.

Well, the editorial changes can still be subject to
copyright (I suspect Barenreiter would object very
loudly if you were to copy their modern edition
exactly...)
I still think Dan is being a little harsh on the 1803
edition, despite all its flaws. If we were to reject
it as a source, then we wouldn't have a performable
version of the Concerto at all - just a fragment for
basset horn in G - and that would be a terrible loss.

Mark

http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------
----
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc.
http://www.woodwind.org

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org