Klarinet Archive - Posting 000081.txt from 2008/08

From: "Keith" <bowenk@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Poulenc Sonata
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:25:05 -0400

Hi Tony,

As a parallel, Schumann's Fourth symphony is performed in both the 1841
original and 1851 revised versions. The latter represents his final (known)
thoughts (of course, many more than four notes were changed); the former,
his thoughts at the time of original composition, at that time bound up with
his thoughts about Clara. There's surely a case for performing either, each
one being a particular historical snapshot. Were a composer's final thoughts
necessarily 'better' ? They are different, and, as you said in a different
context, you have to approach it differently to make it work musically. But
I absolutely agree, you cannot claim divine prerogative for either approach.
Right and wrong are not the words to use (unless the changed notes were
copyists' or printers' errors, which I believe is not the issue here).

There are of course cases in which the composer made a mistake and wrote on
the autograph a note that was not the one he intended. Those would be
'wrong' ... but awfully difficult to prove.

Keith Bowen

-----Original Message-----
From: klarinet-return-93959-bowenk=compuserve.com@-----.org
[mailto:klarinet-return-93959-bowenk=compuserve.com@-----.org] On Behalf
Of Tony Pay
Sent: 28 August 2008 12:10
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] Poulenc Sonata

On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 6:29 PM, Glenn Kantor <klarinet@-----.net>
wrote:

>> Again, referring to (the late) Jerry Pierce's opinions on the Poulenc
Sonata, he wrote that it was Georgina Dobree who was researching the Poulenc
and came across the various drafts that he had made for the work. Anyway,
she decided that some of the notes were "wrong" and convinced Chester to
reprint the work with the changes.>>

>> Chester followed through with what Georgina claimed were the final wishes
in the final drafts of Poulenc. The (4 note) changes are really quite minor,
but Chester probably saw an opportunity to gain a few more sales in a later
(different) edition.

True? Not true?>>

If that's what Jerry Pierce said, it fits with what I know. (I
obtained the photocopy of the MS from (the late) Thea King, who had it
from (the late) Georgina.) The earliest version I have is 1963,
though someone said that there is a 1962 version that contains what
the French players seem to want. Can we confirm that?

So as I said, you can play what you like. But what you can't do is
insist that what you play is RIGHT -- even though if you play what's
in the MS (and both the 1963 and current editions) you CAN claim that
you're playing Poulenc's final thoughts on the matter. (I take it
that no-one is suggesting that the MS was changed by anyone other than
Poulenc.)

What you can claim in the other case isn't quite clear to me.

Tony
--

________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd
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mobile +44(0)7790 532980 tony.p@-----.org

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