An urtext edition (from German prefix ur- original), of a work of classical music is a printed version intended to reproduce the original intention of the composer as exactly as possible, without any added or changed material. Other kinds of editions distinct from urtext are facsimile and interpretive editions, discussed below.
The sources for an urtext edition include the autograph (that is, the manuscript produced in the composer's hand), hand copies made by the composer's students and assistants, the first published edition, and other early editions. When the editor relies on a first edition, it is sometimes best to rely not on the earliest printed copies, but on later printings. This is because publishers sometimes kept the plates from the earliest printing, reusing them for later printings with corrections from the composer. [1] A particularly valuable source for urtext editions is a copy of the first edition that was hand-corrected by the composer. [2]
An urtext edition will often have a prologue stating which sources the editor used. The editor will provide the academic library or other repository where manuscripts or first editions that have become rare are stored.
Where the sources are few, or misprint-ridden, or conflicting, the task of the urtext editor becomes difficult. Cases where the composer had bad penmanship (for example, Beethoven) [3] or revised the work after publication, likewise create difficulties.
A fundamental problem in urtext editing is how to present variant readings. If the editor includes too few variants, this restricts the freedom of the performer to choose. Yet including unlikely variants from patently unreliable sources likewise serves the performer badly. Where the editor must go farthest out on a limb is in identifying misprints or scribal errors. The great danger—not at all hypothetical—is that an eccentric or even inspired choice on the composer's part will be obliterated by an overzealous editor.
One other source of difficulty arises from the fact that works of music usually involve passages that are repeated (either identically or similarly) in more than one location; this occurs, for instance, in the recapitulation section of a work in sonata form or in the main theme of a rondo. Often the dynamic markings or other marks of expression found in one location in the source material are missing in analogous locations. The strictest possible practice is to render all markings literally, but an urtext editor may also want to point out the markings found in parallel passages. [4]
One common response of editors for all of these difficulties is to provide written documentation of the decisions that were made, either in footnotes or in a separate section of commentary.
Urtext editions differ from facsimile editions, which simply present a photographic reproduction of one of the original sources for a work of music. The urtext edition adds value to what the performer could get from a facsimile by integrating evidence from multiple sources and exercising informed scholarly judgment. Urtext editions are often easier to read than facsimiles, due to poor penmanship or damage to the manuscript in the original document. Thus, facsimile editions are intended mostly for use by scholars, along with performers who pursue scholarship as part of their preparation.
In modern times, digital scans of the composer's manuscript or the first edition are increasingly posted on line, by institutions such as the International Music Score Library Project [5] or the Beethoven House in Bonn. [6] Such postings are similar to a facsimile edition but usually lack editorial commentary.
The musicologist James Webster, basing his remarks on his study of two leading urtext editions of Haydn's E flat Piano Sonata, H. XVI:49, suggests that players interested in historically informed performance ought to play from a facsimile. The reason is that some markings made by the composer simply cannot be rendered faithfully in a printed edition. For Haydn, these include marks that are intermediate in length between a dot and a stroke (which evidently have different meanings for this composer), or phrase arcs that end high above the notes, leaving it ambiguous where a phrase begins or ends. In such cases, printed editions are forced to make a choice; only a facsimile can provide an unaltered expression of the composer's intent. [7]
Urtext editions also differ from interpretive editions, which offer the editor's personal opinion on how to perform the work. This is indicated by providing markings for dynamics and other forms of musical expression, which supplement or replace those of the composer. In extreme cases, interpretive editions have deliberately altered the composer's notes or even deleted entire passages. [8] In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many famous performing musicians provided interpretive editions, including Harold Bauer, Artur Schnabel, and Ignacy Jan Paderewski. In the days before recorded music, such editions were often the only way that students could obtain inspiration from the performing practice of leading artists, and even today they retain value for this purpose.
A compromise between urtext and interpretive editing is an edition in which the editor's additions are typographically distinguished (usually with parentheses, size, greyscale or detailed in accompanying prose) from the composer's own markings. Such compromise editions are particularly useful for early music, where the interpretation of the musical notation of long ago often poses difficulties.
Webster has suggested that many editions that are labeled "Urtext" do not really qualify:
The great majority of editions labelled 'Urtext' make many more changes than their editors admit. Publishers are partly to blame; they are afraid of doing anything that might seem unfamiliar or off-putting to any potential market. Indeed they want to have the best of both worlds; for example, the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe claims to offer 'an unexceptionable text from the scholarly viewpoint, which at the same time takes the needs of musical practice into account.' Whether this is a pious hope or frankly based on self-interest, the fact remains that one can't serve two masters. [9]
William S. Newman suggested (in 1986) that in music teaching, urtext editions have become increasingly favored, though he expressed some ambivalence about this development:
The pronounced swing towards Urtext editions ... is a healthy sign. However, that swing may have gone too far from the student's standpoint. For example, I would almost rather entrust my students to the old Bülow–Lebert edition of Beethoven's [piano] sonatas than to the Urtext, in which Beethoven's inconsistencies, especially in the matter of staccatos, slurs, and dynamic signs, can produce no end of confusion—almost, rather, that is, because the Bülow–Lebert edition ... went too far the other way, not only inserting numerous unidentified changes but also making various details consistent that were never meant to be. [10]
The Bülow–Lebert edition to which Newman refers is a well-known interpretive edition of the sonatas.
Robert Estrin, a piano teacher, favors the use of Urtext editions but notes that their use can be problematic for beginning and intermediate students:
If you’re a serious player, you really want to know what the composer wrote and what the editor added. Otherwise, you might not be faithful to the intentions of the composer. However, Bach, for example, rarely wrote any phrasing or dynamics in his keyboard music. But that doesn’t mean it should be played devoid of expression or phrasing. So having some suggestions from the editor can be a godsend. Even Mozart doesn’t have a lot of expression marks. Sometimes having those markings can be incredibly helpful if you’re a beginner or intermediate student. [11]
Estrin advocates the type of urtext edition described above, in which the editor's markings intended to help performers are given with grey or otherwise distinct typography. He also advocates editions that offering fingerings for keyboard and string players.
The Classical Period was an era of classical music between roughly 1750 and 1820.
Franz Joseph Haydn was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led him to be called "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String quartet".
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire and span the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic era in classical music. His early period, during which he forged his craft, is typically considered to have lasted until 1802. From 1802 to around 1812, his middle period showed an individual development from the styles of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and is sometimes characterised as heroic. During this time, Beethoven began to grow increasingly deaf. In his late period, from 1812 to 1827, he extended his innovations in musical form and expression.
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning common today: a work usually consisting of multiple distinct sections or movements, often four, with the first movement in sonata form. Symphonies are almost always scored for an orchestra consisting of a string section, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments which altogether number about 30 to 100 musicians. Symphonies are notated in a musical score, which contains all the instrument parts. Orchestral musicians play from parts which contain just the notated music for their own instrument. Some symphonies also contain vocal parts.
In music, a sonata literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata, a piece sung. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until the Classical era, when it took on increasing importance. Sonata is a vague term, with varying meanings depending on the context and time period. By the early 19th century, it came to represent a principle of composing large-scale works. It was applied to most instrumental genres and regarded—alongside the fugue—as one of two fundamental methods of organizing, interpreting and analyzing concert music. Though the musical style of sonatas has changed since the Classical era, most 20th- and 21st-century sonatas still maintain the same structure.
The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists, a violist, and a cellist. The double bass is almost never used in the ensemble mainly because it would sound too loud and heavy.
The sonata form is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th century.
Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow was a German conductor, pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Alongside Carl Tausig, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor Franz Liszt; he gave the first public performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minor, Op. 90 was written in the summer of 1814—Beethoven's late Middle period—and dedicated to Prince Moritz von Lichnowsky, a friend and benefactor who was also the dedicatee of the Eroica Variations.
The Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minor, Op. 49, No. 1, and Piano Sonata No. 20 in G major, Op. 49, No. 2, are short sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, published in 1805. Both works are approximately eight minutes in length, and are split into two movements. These sonatas are referred to as the Leichte Sonaten to be given to his friends and students.
The modern form of the piano, which emerged in the late 19th century, is a very different instrument from the pianos for which earlier classical piano literature was originally composed. The modern piano has a heavy metal frame, thick strings made of top-grade steel, and a sturdy action with a substantial touch weight. These changes have created a piano with a powerful tone that carries well in large halls, and which produces notes with a very long sustain time. The contrast with earlier instruments, particularly those of the 18th century is very noticeable. These changes have given rise to interpretive questions and controversies about performing earlier literature on modern pianos, particularly since recent decades have seen the revival of historical instruments for concert use.
The Neue Mozart-Ausgabe is the second complete works edition of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A longer and more formal title for the edition is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): New Edition of the Complete Works].
G. Henle Verlag is a German music publishing house specialising in Urtext editions of classical music. The catalogue includes works by composers from different epochs periods, in particular composers from the Baroque to the early twentieth century whose works are no longer subject to copyright. In addition to sheet music, G. Henle Publishers also produces scholarly complete editions, books, reference works, and journals. Since 1995, Henle the range also includes pocket scores. In 2016 Henle began offering the Urtext editions in digital format in an app for iOS and Android tablets.
Historical editions form part of a category of printed music, which generally consists of classical music and opera from a past repertory, where the term can apply to several different types of published music. However, it is principally applied to one of three types of music of this sort:
James Webster is a musicologist, specializing in the music of Joseph Haydn and other composers of the classical era. His professional position is as the Goldwin Smith Professor of Music at Cornell University.
The Rondo in A minor, K. 511, is a work for solo piano by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 32 mature piano sonatas between 1795 and 1822. Although originally not intended to be a meaningful whole, as a set they comprise one of the most important collections of works in the history of music. Hans von Bülow called them "The New Testament" of piano literature.
Immanuel Gottlob Friedrich Faisst was a German composer and co-founder of the Stuttgart Music School, whose director he was, until his death. His compositions include works for organ, and some exercises on double fugue for piano, lieders, choruses, motets, cantatas, etc. Finally, along with Sigmund Lebert and Hans von Bülow, he published in 1881 the famous Cotta edition of the Beethoven Sonatas.
SigmundLebert, born Samuel Levi on 12 December 1821 in Ludwigsburg and died on 8 December 1884 in Stuttgart, was a German pianist and music teacher.
The Piano Sonata in F major, Hob. XVI/9, L.3, also called a divertimento, was written before 1766 by Joseph Haydn. The 1st and 3rd movements are used as the 1st and 5th movements respectively of the Piano Trio in F major, Hob. XV/39. The Minuet of the 2nd movement is also used as the Minuet of the 4th movement of Hob. XV/39.
Web sites of publishers who issue urtext editions: