On 15 Feb 2006 at 23:21, Johannes Gebauer wrote: > On 15.02.2006 David W. Fenton wrote: > >> Of course he can: I am working on a piece where the middle parts > >> are > >> > missing. They need to be recomposed. (Not by me though, but by > >> > the editor). > > > > Recomposed or reconstructed? > > Well, in this case, what is the difference? Since it is not there, > there isn't much you can reconstruct. All you can do is guess what it > looked like and recompose it.
It depends entirely on how much you have to go on. If you're reconstructing 2 parts of a 4-part texture, it's probably recomposition (unless it's a strictly contrapuntal style where the possibilities are highly circumscribed and clearly implied by the remaining two voices). If, on the other hand, you're supplying a viola part in a work with choral parts, basso continuo and two violin parts, then the reasonable possibilities for the viola are pretty narrow, and in that case, it would be reconstruction. My viol consort spent some time recently playing a 4-part piece with a reconstructed top part, but it was imitative and in a strict style contrapuntally, so my guess is that the added top part was probably 80% accurate or better (in terms of recreating what the original was). That would probably fall somewhere in between Sawkins's reconstructed viola part and the recomposed 2 parts of the 4-part piece. It also depends on which parts are missing. Inner parts are going to be more limited in the possibilities than the outer parts. And it also depends on how much doubling there is and what's typical of the style of the period and of the particular composer. I'm not at all discounting the possibility that an editor would contribute original material sufficient to reasonably assert co- authorship. I'm only arguing that in the Sawkins case, it wasn't even close, and that the evidence presented to the judge made this pretty clear to anyone who understands the process. It was obviously not clear to the judge, which is the criticism of the original decision that I've registered all along, that the final decision makes a hash of the editing process as practiced by musicologists, and as practiced in this case by Sawkins himself. -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
