early harpsichord

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Early Music for Harpsichord-1 Author(s): Howard Schott Source: Early Music, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 27-30 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3126020  . Accessed: 31/05/2011 13:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at  . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at  . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup . . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to  Early Music. http://www.jstor.org

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Page 1: Early Harpsichord

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Early Music for Harpsichord-1Author(s): Howard SchottSource: Early Music, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 27-30Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3126020 .

Accessed: 31/05/2011 13:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of 

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Early Music.

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  a r l y m u s i c o r

harpsichord i

HOWARD SCHOTTI

Keyboardf Two-manualtransposingarpsichord,uckers, 638,RussellCollection,dinburgh

Like so much being written today, this article is in a sense a

product of our inflationary age. Along with virtually everyother commodity, books not least of all, printed music has

increasedgreatly

inprice during

thepast

fewyears.

I

shudder to think what it would cost today to replace the

entire collection of keyboard music which hasbeen accumu-

lated so painstakingly, lovingly, and above all, luckily since

my first purchases while still a schoolboy. Although each

new publication of importance in the early keyboard music

field will surelybe reviewedin thisjournal and perhapselse-

where, there is hardly any general consumer information

available to the reader who is in the process of assembling a

basic libraryof music. Those fortunateenough to live in the

vicinity of a well-stocked music shop or public library are

able to make actual on-the-spot comparisons between one

edition and another. But all too many will simply have to

take their chances and order music sight unseen. The

present article is the first in a series of collective, retrospec-tive reviews of what is currently available. We shall beginwith an examination of the most familiar repertoire of

music for harpsichord, the works of the five greatest 18th-

centurykeyboard composers. Further instalments will deal

with earlierperiods.In contemplating the imaginary horror of a total loss of

my own keyboard music collection, the first constructive,

happy thought which comes to mind is that it would not all

have to be replaced. Bad editions left over from earlier dayswould certainly not be reacquired. The works of manyminor masters could well be omitted from any scheme of re-

stocking, so I shall limit my discussion in these articlesto the

major ones. This will exclude some ratherbig names, com-

posers of high rank whose works for keyboard, other than

the organ, are not on the same level of importance as their

music taken as a whole. Buxtehude is an obvious example.Those

composerswhose works have been

publishedin a

great variety of editions, Bach most of all, will have to

receivefuller attention than those whose music exists only in

a single usable edition, such as Orlando Gibbons. Exceptfor the FitzwilliamVirginal Book which is a unique collec-

tion, I shall not concern myselfwithanthologies as such.

Before getting down to specific cases, it would be well to

restate briefly the general principles, as I understand them,of what constitutes a good edition of early music. It will be

textually accurate and typographically clear. It will offer

some commentary, albeit very brief, on the music and how

it was edited from what sources. Anything added by the

editor will be clearly distinguishable as such. All but the

most trivial textual changes will be noted. Any explanatorymatter by way of suggested realizations or interpretations,whether of ornaments, conventional rhythmicalterationsor

whateverit may be, will be given on supplementarystavesor

in footnotes, but never merely incorporated in the main

text. This may all sound very obvious, but there are still

many editions in print, mainly older ones, which are far

from meeting these commonly accepted standards. Some of

these will be mentioned in passingby wayof warning.

FrancoisCouperinFrancoisCouperinwasabout 15yearsolder than the genera-tion of Rameau, Bach, Handel and Scarlatti,so let us beginwith him. The four books of Pilcesde Clavecin re

currentlyavailable in no less than six complete editions. One of these,that made by Louis Dimmerand published by Durand, can

be dismissed immediately from serious consideration. It is

heavilyover-edited with all ornamentswrittenout, often in-

correctly. The old Brahms-Chrysanderedition, originally

engraved almost a centuryago for the DenkmiilrderTonkunst

series, is still available from Galliard, the successors to

Augener who later brought out a trade edition of the pub-lication. The text is unaltered but replete with errors and

decidedly difficult to decipher because of the small format

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BAROQUE F L U T S

in satinwood

blackwood

rosewood

and ivory

STANLEYTOULSON Co.

133 HIGH STREET, FARNBOROUGH

ORPINGTON, KENT BR6 7AZ

TEL. FARNBOROUGH 57770

and muddy printing. Admirable for its day though it was,the Brahms-Chrysander Couperin has outlived its

usefulness.

The edition byJ6zsef Git, published by Editio Musica of

Budapest, is textually acceptable but marginally less

accurate than the other two Urtexteditions more readilyavailable in westerncountries, those published by Heugel in

its Le Pupitreseries, and by Les Editions de l'Oiseau-Lyre.

The Heugel volumes, admirablyedited by Kenneth Gilbert,offer a modern engraving of the music which closely follows

the original. The introductions by the distinguishedCanadian harpsichordist are most informative, especiallythe lengthydetailed prefaceto the first volume. The Oiseau-

Lyre edition is a reprinting of the pieces as they were

originally published in the complete works of Couperin in

an edition by Maurice Cauchie, now very slightlyrevised byThurston Dart. The engraving dates from the early 1930sand is particularlyelegant, with much more 'white space'than was allowed by Heugel for their somewhat crowded

pages. But, alas, certain of Couperin's notational peculiari-ties were not retained by Cauchie and could not be restored

by Dart. For instance, the lines drawn between two notes toindicate legato were replaced by two-note slurs which could

possibly have other implications. Cauchie-Dartwrite out all

rondeau efrainsin full so that, given the generous lay-out of

the pages, the player spends much time turning them over,more than is needed whenusing the Gilbertedition.

There is also an excellent comprehensive selection from

Couperin's four books in a volume edited by SylviaMarloweand published by G. Schirmer. It includes four of

the 27 ordres in complete form and generous samples of the

best pieces from the others. The introduction by this leadingAmerican performer and teacher provides sound guidanceto

interpretingthe music. The

engravingof the musical text

is quite large and generously spaced, a considerablehelp to

the inexperienced player who can so easily be confused bythe multiplicityof ornamentsigns and the use of short note-

values in Couperin'smusic.

His treatise, L'Artde Touchere Clavecin,s currentlyto be

had in two modern editions. The newer one by MargeryHalford, published by Alfred/Boosey Hawkes and

reviewed elsewhere in this issue, is preferable because of a

more legible and accurate musical text. However, the

editor's English rendering of Couperin's less than limpid

prose cannot always be relied upon. The 1933 edition byAnne Linde, published by Breitkopf Hirtel, offers both

Germanand English translations of serviceablequality. Thesmall format of the musical text is rather difficult to play

firom, and contains numerous changes and inaccuracieswhich have never been corrected. The Fuller-Maitland

edition (Chester)of the eight preludes and little allemande

without the rest of Couperin's treatise is over-edited with

incorrect written-out ornamentsso as to be quite unusable.

Handsome facsimiles of the original 18th-century printsof the Pilcesde Clavecin nd L'Artde Touchere Clavecinhave

been issued by Broude BrothersLimited. Those trulyable to

cope with the language and the notation of the period may

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wish to consider these as alternatives to the recommended

modern editions.

Domenico ScarlattiDomenico Scarlatti's 555 sonata movements are currently

being issued by Heugel in a series of 11 Le Pupitrevolumes

edited by Kenneth Gilbert. The engraving is clear and the

text quite pure, sometimes almost too much so, for Gilbert

has avoided imposing consistency in many passages wherean editor could not be criticized for doing so. This will

probably be the complete Scarlatti to own. However, the

house of Ricordi are planning a new Scarlatti-in-full in an

edition by Emilia Fadini. Their previous pioneering edition

by Alessandro Longo, dating from the turn of the century,is

still in print but the editing is so pianistic and subjectiveas

to put it out of court on everycount.

Among the many volumes of selected sonatas issued byvarious publishers, the outstanding one remains the 60

sonatas edited by Ralph Kirkpatrickand published by G.

Schirmer. The extensive introduction alone is worth the

price for it incorporates much of the teaching of this

eminent virtuoso and scholar whose full-length study of the

composer and his works has established itself as a classic.

Unfortunately a fair number of errors in the musical text,

mainly missing accidentals, remain uncorrected after 22

years.This anthology was the first to put into practice Kirk-

patrick's discovery that most of the sonata movements were

intended to be performedin pairs, occasionallyin threes.

The pairwise arrangement is not respected in the three

volumes of 150 sonatas revised by Hermann Keller and

Wilhelm Weissmann for Peters. The text is pure, with onlyoccasional suggested pianistic nuances in small print and

'standard'fingerings to muddy the page. Neither are the 37

sonatas editedby

ArnoldGoldsborough

for the Associated

Board of the Royal Schools of Music grouped in pairs. This

is similar in form to the Keller-Weissmann edition and, as

the sonata movements are given in order of increasing tech-

nical difficulty,can be used to introduce Scarlattiat an early

stage. Other older anthologies, such as those revised byBuonamici (Schirmer),Sauer (Peters)and Barth (Universal)

should be shunned as textually inaccurate and highly over-

edited. The facsimile edition of the complete sonatas

published in 18volumes byJohnson Reprintswith introduc-

tion and notes by Ralph Kirkpatrick, s very expensive. It is

so clear that one can play from it easily. The facsimile of the

30 Essercizipublished by Gregg from a copy of the

sumptuous 1739original engraving is, alas, out of print.

Rameau

The case of Rameau is relatively simple. There are two

editions, one a modern Urtextby ErwinR.Jacobi, published

by Biirenreiter, he other an 1895 revision by Camille Saint-

Saens, issued by Durand and recently reprinted byInternational Music Publishers as well. The Jacobi edition

wins hands down. It is beautifully engraved and faithful to

the last significant details. It prints Rameau's importantintroductions to his books of pieces, including that invalu-

able treatise in miniature on harpsichord technique, De la

Michaniquedes Doigts sur le Clavessin(1724). Successive

printings of Jacobi's edition, first published in 1958, have

been corrected and supplemented in various small ways.All

in all it remains exemplary.While Saint-Satns' revision was

no doubt well meant, there is no justifying the bowdleriza-

tion of the musical text, tamperingwith the ornamentation

and ruthless elimination of Rameau's own introductory

matter. Facsimiles of two of the component volumes, thePikces e Clavecin1724)and the Nouvelles uites (c.1728)have

also been issued by Broude,but they obviously will not take

the place of a complete modern edition.

HandelThe publishing history of Handel's harpsichord music,

starting with the eight suites issued in 1720, is a complextale, possibly not yet fully elucidated. Three more or less

complete editions are currentlyin print. Of these the most

recommendable is that still in progress based on the new

complete Handel (HallischeHindel-Ausgabe),published byBarenreiter (Kassel) and Deutscher Verlag fiir Musik

(Leipzig).The great eight suites were issued about 20 years

ago in a revision by Rudolph Steglich with extensive notes

and introductory matter, printed only in German. Exceptfor a few passages where the editor's suggestions are

indicated in smaller, lighter print rather than on separatestaves, the text is very good. (One hopes that future

printings may correct this fault.) The second collection of

suites and pieces, originally issued in 1733, appears in a

volume edited by Peter Northwaywhile the third volume, a

miscellany of suites, pieces and the six Grand Fugues, is

edited by Terence Best. Both contain brief prefaces and

editorial notes in English and Germar. A fourth volume of

works in variousmanuscripts

isplanned

and isexpected

to

include a new revision of the so-called 'Aylesford Pieces'

friom four manuscript volumes now in the King's Music

Libraryat the British Library.(The original 1928 edition of

these by BarclaySquireand Fuller-Maitlandhas been out of

print for some years,but a selection of 20 of them, edited by

Willy Rehberg is still available. Both are Schott publica-tions.)

The other Urtext Handel is a series of five volumes

published by Peters, edited by Walter Serauky and C. F.

Glasenapp,containing, in addition to the principalworks, a

number of further pieces, some of doubtful authenticity,

especially in the 5th volume (Klavierbuchus derJugendzeit).

The editorial standard is generally acceptable, but there aresome unaccountable deviations, especially in the text of the

eight great suites of 1720, from the original. Petershave also

continued to keep in print the older, pianisticallyconceived

edition by Adolph Ruthardtin four volumes. Textually it is

based on the old complete Handel edited by Chrysander.If

one disregardsthe editorial markingsand is able to restore

some deleted ornaments, the edition is not unusable.

Bach

Pure text editions of Bach tend to multiply these days. It is

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very interesting to note that the earliest 19th-centuryprintsof' his music, although insufficiently researched from a

textual point of view, were much less disfigured than later

issues of the keyboard music after Czerny set his bad

example in an edition of the '48' which first appeared in

1837 and is still in print in many publishers' stocks. Peters,which had enjoyed such a successwith his highly subjectiveand textually inaccuraterevision, brought out an excellent

pure text of the '48' in 1862edited by FranzKroll,who laterprovided the WellTempered lavieror the Bach Gesellschaft.

But it was not until 1933 that another such Urtext ollowed

when Petersbrought out LudwigLandshoff'smodel edition

of' the Inventions and Sinfonias. The same firm has since

issued the balance of Bach'sharpsichordmusic in a seriesof

volumes edited by KurtSoldan, Alfred Kreutzand Hermann

Keller. These are all quite acceptable.Most have been newly

engraved but a few have merely had their 19th-centuryaccretionserased. The prospective purchasermust be on his

guard, however, because Peters continue to market the

older Czerny-typeeditions along with the newer Urtexts.

The Henle edition, a post-1946 series of superbly

engraved pure texts of Bach and the late 18th- and 19th-

century classics, is completely trustworthy. (One minor

reservation is noted below.) The Henle publication of

Bach'sharpsichord music is now almost complete. The brief

editorial reports are printed in three languages including

English. As successive volumes of the new complete Bach

edition (NeueBach-Ausgabe)ppear, trade editions based on

them are also published by Barenreiter.Thus far only three

books of harpsichord music have come out, the two

Clavierbiichleinor Anna Magdalena, the one for Wilhelm

Friedmann and the Inventions and Sinfonias. These are

handsomely produced and impeccably edited. Finally, the

Vienna UrtextEdition, jointly published by

Universal and

Schott, is generally similar in scope to the Henle series. To

,date the only solo keyboard music of Bach's issued has been

the Little Preludes and Fugues and the Inventions and

Sinfonias. Typographically and editorially these two

volumes are of a high standard.Commentaries,including a

very detailed one for the Inventions volume, available with

or without this lengthy appendix, are printed in English as

well as German.

A rathermuddy reprintin reduced format of the old Bach

Gesellschaft editions of the six English Suites, six French

Suites, six Partitas,Goldberg Variations, 15 Inventions and

15 Sinfonias, issued a few years ago by Dover Publications

certainly offer a lot of Bach at a low price. Unfortunatelythe French and English Suites are reprinted from an earlyBach Gesellschaft volume which was later found to be so

inaccurate that it was necessary to republish their text in

another volume decades later. The other works printed are

also textuallydeficient. Kalmusin the USA has reprintedthe

famous Bach edition of Hans Bischoff originally issued by

SteingrAibern the 1880s. While not typographicallydistin-

guished, these volumes do presenta scholarlytext with onlya modest amount of editorial disfigurementof the original,

fortunately printed in lighter type.

It was Bischoff's edition of the suites which showed how

deficient the first Bach Gesellschaft version of them had

been. They are still the most problematical works for key-board textually. Never published by Bach, as were the

Partitas,and constantlyrevised by the composer, they have

come down to us through a number of manuscriptsources,some friomthe Bach h6usehold, others from the hands of

pupils and disciples. The Bischoff editions are still textually

as reliable as any, but there are some good modernredactions as well. The English Suites in the edition of

Alfred Kreutz (Peters) and in that by Rudolph Steglich(Henle) are clearly and accurately presented but with

miniscule editorial reports, considering the difficulty of

preparing the text. The French Suites in Steglich's edition

(Henle) only reflect the late versions which is regrettable.The differencesbetween certainpassagescan be exploited bythe player in varying the repeats of the dance movements.

The principal variant readings are shown in Hermann

Keller's edition (Peters)but, although this is labelled as an

Urtext, n fact there are articulation signs printed in normal

engraving stylewhich are not original. Still, it is quite usable

as it stands.It is impossible to discuss all the many editions of single

works which do not form part of an entire complete edition

of Bach's keyboard music. A number of individual works

were well edited by Alfred Kreutzfor Schott. Outstandingeditions in a class by themselves are Ralph Kirkpatrick'sof

the Goldberg Variationsand Donald FrancisTovey's of the

'48'. Kirkpatrick ffers a clearlyprinted Urtextn large type,with explanatory matter engraved on small staves, and his

extensive commentary on the interpretation of the music,

covering such matters as tempo, phrasing and ornamenta-

tion, provides a most useful general guide to Bach playingon the

harpsichord. Tovey's wittyand erudite notes on the

Well-Temperedlavier are helpful in dispelling the notion

that the work is intellectual, arid and of purely pedagogicalvalue. The text is well presented: not quite pure because

certain ornament signs are slightly changed. The edition

dates from 1924, when the modern piano reigned unchal-

lenged as the medium of performing Bach's keyboardmusic, but the fingerings by the great Bach pianist of the

time, Harold Samuel, are more useful on the whole,

especially for larger hands, than the usual sort of published

fingerings,Facsimiles of the Inventions and Sinfonias have been

issued by Peters(in some printingswith a foreword by Kirk-

patrick)and by Dover, which added the Bach Gesellschaftedition plus notes by Eric Simon. Neither these nor the

reproduction of the autograph manuscriptof the first book

of the '48' published as Volume 5 of the facsimile series of

the Leipzig Bach Archive, are intended for practical use.

However, some of the Alfred Masterwork Edition volumes

of Bach (Fantasias n C minor [BWV906], Partita in B flat,

Italian Concerto)include facsimiles of the principal sources

of each, along with commentaries by Willard A. Palmer,

together with his highly edited texts, printed in densest

black fbr Bachand pale greyfor Palmer.

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