3 ms·

When I was taking music classes in university, I had a professor who opened my eyes to the importance of careful editing and scholarship in regards to music pub

When I was taking music classes in university, I had a professor who opened my eyes to the importance of careful editing and scholarship in regards to music publishing. He was a Bach researcher and harpsichordist, and he had been the editor of a $30 printed edition of the Well-Tempered Klavier. To explain why this edition was worth the money when there were so many free versions out there, he went through each piece and pointed out how many different versions there were (which to pick?), how the originals got mangled over the centuries as each editor added their own "corrections", how there were occasional ambiguities in the score, and so forth. I learned that there was no "the" Well-Tempered Klavier at all; it was history, and as such, required a trained historian to piece together in the most authentic way possible. Unfortunately, most people aren't aware of this. It would be a shame to lose some of the nuances of the composer's original intent because of, essentially, propagation error. I wonder how this edition fares? (I don't have my physical score to compare, sadly.)

robertDouglass 12y ago
Great insight, and very true. This edition is opinionated. The editor, Olivier Miquel, had some very clear "design goals" in mind. Not like "rewrite Bach", or anything like that, but he wanted it to be "playable" to people who may otherwise find the notation quirks of Bach off-putting. Some people will take issue with these decisions, but it's like you said - there is no one true WTC.
markvdb 12y ago
Authenticity is one of the possible criteria to judge an edition or a recording, and certainly very valuable, but not the only one. Just one example stares at you from the Wohltemperiertes Klavier itself: physical evolution of the capabilities of musical instruments. This work itself was in part a demonstration of a new tuning theory. It would have been impossible to play in all these keys just a few years earlier. So the question can also be framed as a kind of exegesis: Bach might have wanted the Wohltemperiertes Klavier to sound in an entirely different way given a different context. And while propagation error is certainly a risk with lesser known composers, in the case of Bach, don't be too afraid of it. At all.

robertDouglass 12y ago

Great insight, and very true. This edition is opinionated. The editor, Olivier Miquel, had some very clear "design goals" in mind. Not like "rewrite Bach", or anything like that, but he wanted it to be "playable" to people who may otherwise find the notation quirks of Bach off-putting. Some people will take issue with these decisions, but it's like you said - there is no one true WTC.

markvdb 12y ago

Authenticity is one of the possible criteria to judge an edition or a recording, and certainly very valuable, but not the only one. Just one example stares at you from the Wohltemperiertes Klavier itself: physical evolution of the capabilities of musical instruments. This work itself was in part a demonstration of a new tuning theory. It would have been impossible to play in all these keys just a few years earlier. So the question can also be framed as a kind of exegesis: Bach might have wanted the Wohltemperiertes Klavier to sound in an entirely different way given a different context. And while propagation error is certainly a risk with lesser known composers, in the case of Bach, don't be too afraid of it. At all.