Klarinet Archive - Posting 000330.txt from 2010/09

From: Gary Van Cott <gary@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Collaborative Urtext project
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2010 12:35:15 -0400

To me, these are all reasons why this should be done in a *for profit*
(or at least break even) mode.

Gary
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Joseph Wakeling wrote:
> On 09/11/2010 04:26 PM, Peter Gentry wrote:
>> Joseph, Such a collaboration is already in place. Why not just join Mutopia?
>
> Here's why, and it's for the same reason that -- while I immensely value
> and respect IMSLP -- I don't think they go far enough in what they are
> trying to do.
>
> Mutopia contributions _aren't_ carefully-created scholarly editions.
> They are reproductions (using Lilypond) of out-of-copyright scores, with
> no particular editorial processes to ensure that the resulting score is
> good or free of arbitrary impositions. There are also no meaningful
> controls on _what_ score is chosen -- e.g. if you look at their copy of
> the Mozart clarinet concerto, it's based on a Breitkopf score from the
> late 19th century.
>
> IMSLP has similar problems, except that (unlike Mutopia) they don't
> transcribe to Lilypond, they just take direct scans. That may explain
> why they are more successful -- it's technically easier to achieve and
> you get an exact copy of the score, engraved according to the
> professional standards of the time. (On the other hand it means that
> what you get isn't editable by others -- it's just a picture on a page.)
>
> IMSLP does provide important documents sometimes -- e.g. the Simrock
> first editions of Brahms' clarinet works, facsimiles of Bach manuscript
> copies -- but as often as not, the music provided is just whatever
> out-of-copyright scores or parts happened to be available, usually from
> the 19th century.
>
> So you have no meaningful editorial or scholarly process, no careful
> consideration of source material, no critical commentary or remarks on
> different readings in different sources ...
>
> I want to see if we can do things a bit differently, which is to prepare
> a high-quality scholarly edition in an open, collaborative, community
> environment. That means that we have to get appropriate source material
> (all the relevant manuscripts, proofs and editions, not just some random
> out-of-copyright score); it means carefully identifying the different
> readings, making appropriate editorial interventions where necessary,
> and surely many other things that I don't yet anticipate because I've
> never been through the process of creating a scholarly edition.
>
> Alongside this, I'm curious about whether we can use some interesting
> technical tools (Lilypond, version control, possibly others) to
> facilitate or extend certain aspects of the preparing-scholarly-edition
> process.
>
> I'll certainly be reaching out to Mutopia and IMSLP people as part of
> the project, but for the reasons given above I don't want to be bound to
> them -- and the kind of expertise needed here is perhaps best found in a
> community like this, which includes a number of musicological and
> scholarly experts, and which is brought together principally by interest
> in the _music_.
>
> Anyway, as a first step, there needs to be a piece for which there is
> adequate source material available. Can anyone provide such material,
> or suggest where it could be obtained? :-)
>
> Best wishes,
>
> -- Joe
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