Klarinet Archive - Posting 000077.txt from 2006/06
From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] K361 again - pp. 53 & 54
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 11:57:53 -0400
Laurence Beckhardt asks about two issues related to the
physicality of the manuscript of K. 361. First he inquires about
"a dozen drops of liquid" (meaning ink) on both pages,
specifically surfaces 53 and 54.
Those ink drops are easy to explain. Quill pens were notoriously
unstable and they could fling ink with little effort. A quill pen
with too much ink on the tip could make droplets on the page with
no effort at all. I come from a time when children learned to
write with a straight pen. It had a metal nib, which was inserted
in to a wooden holder. They were a bitch to use and kids my age
without ink blotches on their hands were shown to be lazy
students. In fact, this explanation is made more difficult by the
fact that the majority of people reading it never used a straight
pen and don't know that, like quill pens, they flung ink in all
directions.
All of those ink spots were originally ink drops of varying
sizes. Had they been allowed to dry by leaving the music sheets
open at that point, they would appear as dried ink blotches
today. But they were not allowed to dry. Instead, Mozart
himself blotted each of the larger drops with blotting paper,
making circles of dried ink of varying width with some about 1/4
inch wide. (Do you know what I mean by blotting paper, or
blotters?) And he left the pages open at that point for the
blotted but still wet ink to dry. That is easily discerned by
the fact that if the pages were closed while the ink was still
wet, those blotches would have been placed in mirror image form
on each of the two facing pages. That did not happen, and the
only conclusion that one can reach from the fact that it did not
happen, is that the pages were allowed to dry before being put
together.
Now take a look at pages 59 and 60. On the bottom of page 59 by
the final measure, Mozart wrote a measure count of "63." AND THEN
WHILE THE INK WAS WET, HE CLOSED THE PAGES. Notice how the "63"
has been placed on page 60 in reverse image form in precisely the
same mirror location as the "63" on page 59. I think that Mozart
put the "63" on the bottom of page 59, AFTER page 60 and the
verso on page 61 were written and then allowed to dry, because
nothing else got transferred from p. 59 to p. 60 when the leaves
were put together.
Beckhardt's question, as well as his inquiry about blank pages,
are both related to the matter of how Mozart bought paper. What
was the physical form that he bought?
A book of 8 surfaces constituted the minimum purchase quantity.
Here is a little image of what that folded up book look like:
"<<". This form of two < symbols inside of one another is called
a bifolium or a sheet. That is how Mozart bought it. "I'll need 5
bifolia today please," is what he would have said to a clerk at
the paper store.
I ask you to make a bifolium yoursef: take a full, uncut sheet of
newspaper and put it out on the table. It should be about 36"
wide and 24" high. That is the way mold made paper looked like
when it came out of the mold in which it was made.
Now fold that paper in half TOP TO BOTTOM. You will have
something that is 36" wide and 12" high.
With a scissors, cut off 1/4 inch at the top (or folded part) of
the paper. That gives you two separated and individual pieces of
paper, each 36" long and 11-3/4" high (because you cut off 1/4"
at the fold -- the piece you cut off was 1/2" high, or 1/4" from
each of the two pieces).
Now fold those two pieces of paper together in half, LEFT TO
RIGHT. You will have produced a bifolium of 8 surfaces,
consisting of an inner folium of 4 surfaces and an outer folium
of 4 surfaces. If you number the surfaces 1 through 8, surfaces
1, 2, 7, and 8 will be on the outer folium, and surface 3, 4, 5,
and 6 will be on the inner folium.
That's is how Mozart bought paper. So, no more talk of page
numbers. We need to talk about the bifolium and which surface
within the bifolium. And that leads me directly to Beckhardt's
question about blank pages. There are a total of 11 bifolia, 2
folia, and one leaf that make up the manuscript of K. 361. There
is a picture of the distribution on p. 89 of the the 1976/77
Mozart Jahrbuch.
They are arranged the following way:
Movement 1 of K. 361 consists of exactly three bofolia (of 8
surfaces each) for a total of 24 surfaces.
Movement 2 is the fourth full bifolium and the first surface of
the fifth.
Movement 3 begins on the second surface of the fifth bifolium,
uses the next 7 surfaces of it, and then adds a 4-surfaced
folium, the last surface of which is blank. (Remember: bifolium =
8 surfaces; folium = 4 surfaces; << is a bifolium; < is a folium.
OK? So far 5 bifolia have been used up and 1 folium, the last
surface of which is blank.)
Movement 4 uses the entire 6th bifolium.
Movement 5 uses the entire 7th bifolium plus one 2-sided leaf ON
WHICH THE CODA IS WRITTEN.
Movement 6 uses 2 entire bifolia (the 8-th and 9th) plus the
first 4 surfaces of the next (or 10th) bifolium, leaving the last
four surfaces blank.
Movement 7 uses an entire bifolium (the 11th) plus one folium
(the 2nd one used in the entire composition) the last surface of
which is blank.
What Beckhardt wants to know is why are there four consecutive
surfaces blank? And the most probable reason is that he sent out
movements 1-6 to be copied out into parts as he composed the 7th
movement. The other two blank surfaces are not really an issue.
He tried to use paper economically by going from one bifolium to
another, even across movements of the composition. But he tried,
where possible, to start each movement on a fresh bifolium (or
folium).
Paper was expensive and he did not like to waste it.
Now it took longer to explain this situation than for Beckhardt
to ask his question. If you don't read this response carefully
enough (including making your own bifolium from a sheet of
newspaper), the sublties of this answer will be not clear.
Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Laurence Beckhardt [mailto:lbeckhardt@-----.net]
Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2006 6:06 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] K361 again - pp. 53 & 54
I'm looking at pages 53 and 54 of the Library of
Congress Facsimile of the "Gran Partita, K.361." The
famous measure 111 with its almost certainly ambiguous
and smudged prima volta marking appears on p. 54.
I notice that there are over a dozen drops of liquid
on these two pages, and similar drops do not appear
anywhere else in the autograph, as far as I can tell.
Does anyone know what caused these drops? Are they
ink? Are they water? Are they tears? Saliva? And
why here and not anywhere else?
And one more: why are there so many blank pages (4)
before the Finale? Is it possible that Mozart planned
another variation, or perhaps another movement
altogether?
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