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From:
David Pickett <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Harpsichords and Related Topics <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 5 Jan 2016 08:01:09 +0100
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At 02:19 05-01-16, Bruce Jacobs wrote:

 >From the perspective of an amateur lover of Froberger, and one who has
 >purchased six of the volumes.

 >It is rather perplexing reading the Bahrenreiter website trying to
 >make sense out of this.

A foretaste of the similar problems in store for 
the reader of the actual scores.

 > Early editions say “to be released in five
 > volumes. Later editions say "to be released in eleven volumes"
 > or something like that.

I started off naively buying all the volumes as 
they were issued.  And the project just grew like 
Topsy.  In retrospect I realized that there was 
no overall vision of what was involved before 
Vol. I was published.  The volumes were (and are) 
very expensive and by the time that Vol. IV was 
divided into a and b, one felt the victim of a 
marketing ploy.  The format with its glossy blue 
covers is not convenient to handle and several 
together are hard to hold vertical on the shelf.

 >The enormity of it is due to two factors, aside from minimal duplication.
 >- pages of analysis equal to the pages of music in some of the volumes

This is an age in which lengthy writings are 
wrongly assumed to be correspondingly valuable.

 >- in some pieces, large areas above each system to contain all the variants.

The variants are more often than not a big 
distraction, attempting to seduce the player by 
inviting him or her to step aside and to pick and 
choose, mix and match, among them.  They give the 
false impression of comprehensive authority, but 
should have been relegated to the editor's 
report.  I admit that my biassed viewpoint 
suggests that these works are primarily meant to 
be played, not analysed or catalogued.  But when 
faced with, for example, Vol.III, pp.64-5 
(Partita FBWV616) it is almost impossible to read 
between the variants and find the editor's 
preferred text.  The edition is here based on no 
less than four conflicting sources and playing 
from this score is like trying to drive down a 
road with more potholes than original surface.

I have pointed out here before simple errors in 
the text accompanying the Blancrocher Tombeau on 
p.22/23 of Vol. IV.1 (See 28 April 2014: 
Baerenreiter Bach Violin Sonatas).  If mistakes 
are made in deciphering the Latin text from the 
vey clear original, one wonders about the music 
itself.  I am sure that there are other doubtful transcriptions.

The Adler edition (DTÖ) may be out of date in 
some details and is incomplete; but it is 
beautifully printed, out of copyright, available 
at IMSLP, and some of it has been republished by 
Dover at a fair price -- that is, fair in the 
USA; in Europe prices of Dover scores are often 
inflated to match the prices of European 
editions.  I have only seen the Howard Scott 
edition in libraries.  It is in four manageable 
and well-printed volumes, thankfully without the 
distraction of variants on every page and, unlike 
the Baerenreiter, in portrait format.

There are interesting essays here:

http://sscm-jscm.org/v13/no1/schulenberg.html

http://www.sscm-jscm.org/jscm/v13/no1/vanasperen.html

But dont let these keep you away from the instrument!

I just Googled barenreiter froberger and the 
second listing was entitled "Bärenreiter Verlag - 
German Musid [sic] Edition Prize - Best Edition"!  'Nuff said...

David

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