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Subject:
From:
Davitt MORONEY <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Harpsichords and Related Topics <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 4 Jan 2016 12:30:02 -0800
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I should have added a further comment concerning Froberger editions.

The Vienna manuscripts remain absolutely central to any study of
Froberger's music. For many years I resisted accepting them as being
autographs, in the absence of clear proof. But I have now accepted them as
autograph, following the evidence of the new 2006 autograph source.
Obviously, his autograph sources must carry a very special authority. But,
as with Bach's or anyone else, such authority is not absolute when
composers are known to have subsequently changed or revised their works.
(The second volume of JSB's WTC is an obvious case, where the autograph MS
is not at all the "final text".) The old Denkmäler edition of Froberger was
based primarily on the Vienna MSS, but was quite deficient in several ways,
notably wrong notes.

For a basic modern text based doggedly on the Vienna sources -- but leaving
aside all considerations of important information from the other sources --
the *Le Pupitre* (Heugel) edition by Howard Schott (1979-92), remains
pretty reliable. It is beautifully engraved and printed, and is readily
available. The *Le Pupitre *volumes usually give us a reliable modern text
of what Froberger himself carefully wrote down in formal presentation
manuscripts, and therefore of what he presumably wanted at the moment he
copied those MSS. (But that leaves completely aside the question of how he
might have changed the texts himself during his lifetime, according to
different circumstances.)

Playing -- or at least studying -- Froberger from the Vienna MSS -- also
reminds us of a fundamental feature that is destroyed in all the modern
editions: the fact that Froberger clearly categorized the three different
styles he had learned from Frescobaldi, and that had been categorized by
Athanasius Kircher in his *Musurgia universalis *of 1650. Kircher's
*Musurgia* is the volume in which the only keyboard work by Froberger that
was printed in his lifetime was published (the Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La
fantasia). Froberger perhaps met Kircher when he was in Rome  in 1637,
studying with Frescobaldi, or (more likely) in 1645, on his second trip
(after Frescobaldi's death), when he almost certainly studied with
Carissimi.

Kircher codifies the three main styles of keyboard music as the strict
polyphonic styles derived from old-style counterpoint, the newer dance
styles, and the free-wheeling improvisatory toccatas of the "fantastic
style". Frescobaldi's various publications exemplify all three styles, and
use different notational conventions for them. Froberger's manuscripts
adopt this standard Italian approach, using a different notation for each
of these three styles: open score in four parts for the contrapuntal works
(Ricercars, Fantasias, Capriccios); a pair of five-line staves for the
dance suites (Allemandes, Courantes, Sarabandes, Gigues); and the
Frescobaldian notation of eight-line staves for the right hand and six-line
staves for the left hand for all the Toccatas. The notation is thus
intimately linked to the style, an important aspect that is whitewashed out
of the picture in all modern editions.

Incidentally, let's also not forget that Froberger's two surviving works
that are not for keyboard are a clear product of his second Roman trip and
of his probable contacts with Carissimi. These are "*Alleluia Absorpta est
mors*" and "*Apparuerunt apostolis*", his two excellent motets in the
Carissimian style, written for three voices (SSB), two violins, and
continuo.  They were edited by Yves Ruggeri and published by Editions de
l'Oiseau-Lyre in 1990 (with performing parts). Both are wonderful short
pieces and should be performed and recorded much more often today. They are
still available (like all Oiseau-Lyre editions), directly from the
University of Melbourne:
http://ecommerce.lyrebirdpress.unimelb.edu.au/product.asp?pID=112&cID=13&c=52054

Best wishes,
DM





*Davitt MoroneyProfessor of Music; University OrganistDirector, University
Baroque Ensemble*

On Mon, Jan 4, 2016 at 11:37 AM, Norbert Fronczak <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Thank you Mr. Moroney for this valuable insight to these numerous
> editions/sources.
>
> Not being a "professional" full time performer but one that still enjoys
> studying the pieces, I've been hesitant on investing in any one of the
> "newer" editions of Froberger, although I have bought a couple of volumes
> of the old "Denkmaler Der Tokunst in Osterreich" series as a starting point.
>
> Essentially, I guess what we've all been looking for is that definitive
> collection that would've had all the pieces from all the sources in one
> final edition but not to be, apparently.
>
> Thanks you again very much for your providing the info needed. It is very
> much appreciated!
>
> Norbert Fronczak - "Musician-composer to be heard of someday" in Michigan.
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Davitt MORONEY" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Sunday, January 3, 2016 11:06:25 PM
> Subject: Re: Froberger Baerenreiter edition
>
> It all depends on how personally invested you are in Froberger's music. If
> he's "one of your guys" then go for it, because you'll want all modern
> editions -- and will actually need them side by side, along with some other
> sources such as Roberday, Bauyn III, and the Hintze MS, etc... None of the
> modern editions is adequate because they all take different approaches.
>
> The major problem is the emergence in recent years of several really
> important new Froberger sources.
> -- The traditional sources (the Vienna MSS and the earliest printed
> editions) were published by Garland many years ago; they are available in
> most university libraries and are mostly online also.
> -- Other new sources are also now available in facsimile. And others are on
> IMSLP.
> -- But the newest source (sold at auction in London in 2006) is an
> autograph MS that contains many otherwise unknown pieces that are still
> unpublished in either modern edition or facsimile. The MS is kept strictly
> in private ownership (currently in Paris) . A good summary of it was made
> by Bob van Asperen:
> http://sscm-jscm.org/jscm/v13/no1/vanasperen.html
>
> No single modern edition can really be satisfying until everything is
> available. But even then, Froberger (even more so than Chambonnières) may
> well be a classic case of a composer for whom no single standard scholarly
> edition will ever be satisfactory, given all the variables and all the
> variants in different sources that have compelling but different validity.
> In my opinion, the Bärenreiter edition, while trying to be a "variorum"
> edition that gives variants, tended to fall short of even that limited
> target -- and that was before the recent discovery of the additional
> sources. But of course, anyone really interested in Froberger must have it.
> And the prefaces about Froberger himself are essential reading.
>
> Best wishes,
> DM
>
>
>
> *Davitt MoroneyProfessor of Music; University OrganistDirector, University
> Baroque Ensemble*
>
> On Sun, Jan 3, 2016 at 7:21 PM, David Cates <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > I was looking at the Rampe edition of Froberger, wondering whether I
> > should take the plunge; there are 8 volumes in total, quite a challenge
> for
> > the bookshelf.
> > To anyone familiar with this edition, is there any significant overlap
> > among the volumes, or do you really "need" to spring for the whole set??
> > Thanks
> > David
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versity of Iowa.  For a brief  summary of list  commands, send mail to
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