On 5 Nov 2010 at 23:57, Raymond Horton wrote: > Third, of _course_ the PD editions do not reflect the latest in > research, but to say that "This doesn't really mean anything about > what Mahler originally wrote" is really going off the deep end with > this. Even the worst, bowdlerized 19th century publications reflect > _something_ about what the composer wrote! Or, if you meant "This > doesn't really mean anything about what Mahler originally wrote > [concerning horn keys]" I would still have to say that, for our > purposes on this list, this evidence stands until other evidence is > brought forward.
These are not (necessarily) authoritative editions, so you can't use them as evidence for what Mahler originally wrote. You only know what was published. I don't know the history of Mahler editions, so it could very well be that the early editions accurately reflected his intentions. But we certainly know that some composers like Bruckner had their works drastically bowdlerized in their first publications. I'm not implying the same kind of interference in Mahler's publications as was the case from the brothers Schalk in Bruckner's case, but the point is you can't use evidence about which you don't know the origins or reliability in a case about what the composer would have intended. All you can say is what the scores have in them. -- 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
