The composer I suggested is Gotthelf Heinrich Kummer, not Kaspar Kummer.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stewart McCoy" <lu...@tiscali.co.uk>
To: "Lute Net" <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 5:09 PM
Subject: [LUTE] MORE Re: Crotchet rests
Thanks very much for your help, Arthur. Following your lead I have
located the music by Kummer at the ISMLP site. I'll pass on the web
address to the chap who asked about the music. Hopefully it will match
what he has. If not, I hope to get a scan of what he has.
All the best,
Stewart.
-----Original Message-----
From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On
Behalf Of A. J. Ness
Sent: 13 March 2011 20:03
To: A. J. Ness; Stewart McCoy; Lute Net
Subject: [LUTE] MORE Re: Crotchet rests
I downloaded the ISMLP copy, Stewart. I have trouble sending *.PDF
files,
so if you can download it yourself, that would be best. If I send it,
I'd
have to split it into several files. But will do so if you wish.
----- Original Message -----
From: "A. J. Ness" <arthurjn...@verizon.net>
To: "Stewart McCoy" <lu...@tiscali.co.uk>; "Lute Net"
<lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 3:51 PM
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Crotchet rests
For some reason I have never been able to remember English terminology
for
musical notes. But that's my problem, not yours, Stewart.
You asked about an undated, anonymous Premier Divertissement--sic
(Divertissement is masculine,
but maybe the publisher misspelled it), most likely the work by
Kummer***:
In the 18th century a crotchet [quarter-note, hereafter Q] rest
looked like a mirror image [hereafter mE=Q] of a
quaver [eighth-note, hereafter E] rest. We don't write them
like that way any more. When is it the
modern crotchet rest replaced the old one?
I don't think the shape of Q and E rests could be used as a reliable
indicator of the date of a given piece of music. The mE=Q rest
originates
in
the earliest mensural notation. Yet, in the Clavier Übung
(1739) engraved by JSB
himself the modern Q rest is clearly used. Also in the 18th (and
earlier?)
century
the
Q rest was sometimes shaped like a lowercase Z. When I played
professionally, often from ancient orchestral parts at
outdoor ballet and opera concerts in San Francisco's Stern Grove, I
encountered printed parts, invariably from France as late as the
1940s which used the mE=Q rest (e.g., Les Sylphides [1940!!!!] and
Carmen) . You would expect that while in such long use someone would
have
taken a
pencil
and marked the mE=Q rests as Q rests. But the parts I read from were
always clean. It's
surprisingly very easy to sight read music that uses E and mE=Q rests.
Literally sight read. Those afternoon concerts had 2 hours of music
prepared
in a single one-hour morning rehearsal.
***It's probably Kaspar Kummer, [Trois] Divertissement[s], Op. 92,
first
publ. in
Offenbach aM, by André ca. 1872; plate no. 6268. There's a copy in
the
ISMLP.
The first divertissement is in C major, Allegretto scherzando. But
you
probably have another edition.
AJN
==============================
This is the message I received:
Hope I'm not being a nuisance but thought you might have a quick
answer
on a rather abstruse point about the dating of crotchet rests.
Someone
here has just given me the printed parts for a 'Premiere
Divertissement
pour flute, violon et guitarre'. There's no title page and no
composer's name. The donor is the wife of a flute playing retired
GP
who has had to give up his music because of failing mental
capacity. He
remembers the German colleague who gave him the music but he has no
further recollection of the music or idea who its composer might
be.
The music is, I think, early 19th century but I have failed to
identify
it. (If I sent you a photocopy do you think you (or Philip) could
look
at it to see if you had any ideas ?). The music is not, I further
suspect, of any great significance but it is pleasant enough. The
parts
are engraved and printed on laid (i.e.hand-made) rag paper - which
is
something of a pointer to an early(ish) date. I have, though, not
been
able to spot any identifying water marks. The crotchet rests are
like
reversed quaver rests (i.e. not the kind that have two curved lines
one
above the other). How far would this be a clue to the date ? When
did
the more modern type of crotchet rest come into normal use ? Please
don't waste time on this but I wondered whether you knew when the
change in the normal form of the rest happened and could give a
quick
answer.
Can anyone offer any thoughts?
Stewart McCoy.
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