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146:, 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. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many famous performing musicians provided interpretive editions, including
222:, 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.
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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
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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
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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
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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. Since first editions often include misprints, a particularly valuable
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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also easier to read than facsimiles. Thus, facsimile editions are intended mostly for use by scholars, along with performers who pursue scholarship as part of their preparation.
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William S. Newman suggests that in contemporary music teaching, urtext editions have become increasingly favored, though he expresses some ambivalence about this development:
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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
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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,
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A compromise between urtext and interpretive editing is an edition in which the editor's additions are typographically distinguished (usually with parentheses, size,
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or detailed in accompanying prose) from the composer's own markings. Such compromise editions are particularly useful for
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539:; Levy then gives his reply. Both scholars invoke their personal scholarly values concerning Urtext editions.
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Blog entry by Gerald
Klickstein. Compares the same work in facsimile, urtext, and interpretive editions.
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The Bülow–Lebert edition to which Newman refers is a well-known interpretive edition of the sonatas.
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source for urtext editions is a copy of the first edition that was hand-corrected by the composer.
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Haydn, Mozart, & Beethoven: Studies in the Music of the
Classical Period. Essays in Honour of
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The pianist's problems: a modern approach to efficient practice and musicianly performance
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Webster has suggested that many editions that are labeled "Urtext" do not really qualify:
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defends his Urtext edition of the
Beethoven symphonies from a hostile review by
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The
Critical Editing of Music: History, Method, and Practice
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Boorman, Stanley (2001). "Urtext (Ger.: 'original text')".
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For uses of the term not related to editions of music, see
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236:Category:Collected editions of classical composers
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564:Comments on fingerings added to urtext editions
477:. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
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282:Musical Autographs from Monteverdi to Hindemith
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276:Irvine, Demar B. (Spring 1956). "Review of
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328:For discussion see Webster (1997, 54–58)
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505:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08550
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287:Journal of Research in Music Education
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365:"The Heavenly Lengths in Schubert"
16:Type of edition of classical music
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430:. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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356:B flat major piano sonata
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42:(from German prefix
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554:by Patrice Connelly
185:Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
492:Grove Music Online
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383:Webster (1997, 63)
370:The New York Times
278:Emanuel Winternitz
247:Diplomatic edition
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121:The musicologist
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312:S2CID
304:JSTOR
208:BĂĽlow
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509:ISBN
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