Klarinet Archive - Posting 000131.txt from 2005/02

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] RE: A bassethorn riddle
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 09:51:28 -0500


Tony Pay writes about his performance on clarinets of the work
that basset horn parts:

[snip]

"But there is a copyists error, three semiquaver pitches
mistranscribed, in
both first clarinet and first bassethorn parts. This error in
the bassethorn
part is left uncorrected, whilst the clarinet part has the
correct pitches
reinstated in another hand, most likely that of the player
concerned. Had it
ever been played on the bassethorn, *that* part would have been
corrected
too."

This statemement is absolute gold. You could take this to the
bank and is almost certainly authoritative enough to get life
insurance!!

There is exactly that case with the original manuscript of K.
361. In the slow movement, there is a transposition error in the
manuscript for the second basset horn (I think -- it could be the
first basset, but it's there). The result, if one were to play
that half measure as Mozart wrote it in the autograph is a clash.

At the first performance on Mar. 23, 1784, only four movements
were performed. How can it be established in exactly the logic
that Tony describes above to prove that the slow movement was NOT
played as one of the four movements?

Here's how: The autograph went to Johann Anton Andre in 1799 and
was not seen again publicly until 1911. When the first edition of
361 was made, the issuing publishing house (Arts and Industry in
Vienna) used the performance parts from the 1784 performance.
That first edition has exactly the same error in the basset horn
part of the slow movement that exists in the autograph (and can
still be seen there to this day).

Conclusion: if they had played the slow movement in 1784, they
would have corrected the basset horn part and that correction
would appear in the first edition. The fact that it does not
strongly suggests that they were all stupid not to have played
that gorgeous movement.

Dan Leeson
dnleeson@-----.net

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Fri Feb 4 09:21:11 EST 2005 - 127 dononrs, 113 to go |
| The 2005 Woodwind.Org Donation Drive is Underway. |
| Please visit http://secure.donax-us.com/donation for more |
| information. Help Keep the List Going! |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org
Sat Jan 29 11:56:46 EST 2005