On 30 Dec 2004 at 10:03, Raymond Horton wrote: > I had always read that Mozart wrote the bass, first violin, and > _second_ violin parts out on the first pass. Is this incorrect?
Yes, it's incorrect, so far as my experience with Mozart's autographs goes. I can't recall a single example of 2nd being written out in the first layer, except occasionally for nice details he might have thought of while making the first pass. And that also happens in the inner parts, too. Of course, in passages where 1st violin is not playing, another part gets put in during the first pass, depending on what it might be in the context, and what part has the "lead" voice. The same can be said for the bass line -- it's not 100% the contrabass/cello part, but whichever part has the bass line. And, of course, some autographs show evidence of substantial composition during the writing process (as opposed to simply writing down what's already planned out). The most famous examples are the Haydn quartets, which were clearly *not* written out in Mozart's typical method. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
