New (Old) Music for Harpsichord
First Facsimiles
New from the French publisher J. M. Fuzeau is a two-volume set of facsimiles enclosed in a folder-like cover [Premiers Fac-Similés: Clavecin]. De-signed to introduce harpsichordists to the art of playing from original notation, this selection (by Laure Morabito and Aline Zylberajch) is the first of a projected series for use by players of various historic instruments.
Clean printing and no awkward page turns make this a very attractive publication. Notational problems are introduced in an orderly way, but the volumes will be utilized best with the help of a teacher. There are no written guides or explanations of earlier notational conventions or of ornamentation. Unlike most of Fuzeau's previous publications, there is no help for the French-challenged here: a one-page introduction appears only in French.
A look through some of the fifteen short pieces in Volume One will indicate some benefits to be gained from playing through this collection. Clear and easily read, the first four pieces (by Dandrieu, F. Couperin, and Duphly) present no notational problems. Potential questions appear first in Duphly's La Felix: an accidental—a missing B-natural in the penultimate measure of the last score, and an extra ledger line engraved in measure five of the second score indicate that one must begin at once to trust ears and not rely only on the score, even if it is a reprinting of the original engraving.
In the wonderfully bizarre Preludio by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (from Fughe e Capricci, Berlin, c. 1777) should one really play the engraved C-sharp in the soprano against a C-natural in the bass [second score, second measure] or did the engraver simply jump the gun to set up the measure one score beneath, where an F-sharp works perfectly well above the D in the bass? A student might well question, as well, the meaning of the printed directions "Con Discrezione" and "Arpeg: ad libit." Finally to confound one even further, this single-page example concludes not on the tonic, but in the dominant, requiring for its resolution a [non-included] Caprice which followed the Preludio in the 18th-century source.
The first example of an "abnormal" clef comes in the next piece, Dandrieu's L'Empressée, where the bass part contains 12 measures written in the alto clef. There is much more use of this clef in the following piece by Dandrieu (La Sensible), and the soprano clef is used in the next (L'Afectueuse), which introduces, additionally, the use of a flat rather than the modern natural for canceling a sharp.
In Balbastre's La d'Hericourt one encounters the 18th-century conventions for notation of first and second endings, as well as the composer's preferred notes for this piece (compared with several wrong ones in the modern reprinting of Alan Curtis's edition for Le Pupitre). Also preferable in the facsimile is the [original] layout, which requires no awkward page turning.
More clef practice is required in two F. Couperin pieces and in the Courante of the Suite in D minor by L-C Daquin. Both the Allemande and Courante from this Suite end with a Petite Reprise, requiring the player to figure out the proper "road map" for negotiating the works.
In the second volume one encounters fourteen more pieces, including several slightly unmeasured preludes (by Mar-chand and Rameau), a Menuet by Elizabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, and later works by Gottlieb Muffat, J. C. Bach, Graupner, Eckard, and Cherubini.
I intend to use these volumes for expanding the horizons of my harpsichord students, and I recommend them highly. Fuzeau's order number for the set is Ref. 7075; they are reasonably priced at 12,14 Euros, and may be ordered via the Web at
www.fuzeau.com or from Editions J. M. Fuzeau, B.P.6, 79440 Courlay, France.
A Toccata and Two Transcriptions
From the opposite side of the world come three publications issued by Saraband Music, 10 Hawkins Street, Artarmon NSW 2064 Australia (Web: www.saraband.com.au;
e-mail <[email protected]>). Editor Rosalind Halton has ascertained that a Toccata for Harpsichord from the musical manuscripts of the Santini Collection in the Diözesan Bibliothek, Münster, is the work of Alessandro Scarlatti. This is a fine work, surely the most interesting keyboard work thus far from a composer much better known for his vocal works and operas. The bulk of the piece (96 measures) consists of an opening chordal section [perhaps to be played "adagio and arpeggiando"?], an allegro, adagio, allegro, and a lengthy, spirited imitative section which would make a fine conclusion. Strangely, there follows a somewhat inconsequential page in 3/8 meter (a Minuet, perhaps?) in which, for the only time in this edition, I would question the accidentals as they are printed: in bar 101, surely the F in the descending bass scale should be a natural (not indicated); and, in bar 107, the ascending B at the end of the measure should be a natural. The order number for this appealing work is SM24 (priced at A$10).
The two transcriptions, both by Pastor de Lasala, are Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto in G minor, RV531, his only known Concerto for Two Cellos and Orchestra, and a keyboard reworking of Gluck's Dance of the Furies (originally composed for the ballet Don Juan, later inserted into a Paris production of Orfeo ed Euridice in 1774). (Vivaldi: SM35, A$15; Gluck: SM 37, A$12).
The Vivaldi is a pleasant three-movement work that suffers, to my ears, from a lack of variety in its tessitura. I experimented with transposing some of the passages down an octave to take advantage of a more resonant register of the harpsichord, and also to suggest more closely the timbre of the two original solo instruments. So, my suggestion is that the performer should join in the fun of transcribing this one. Quite successful, however, is the Gluck "toccata," a welcome addition to the repertoire from a composer who has left no known keyboard music. The nobility and simplicity of Gluck's Classic idiom is most appealing in this keyboard adaptation, and the piece, familiar to many, will add interest and a welcome variety to a harpsichord solo program. The idea of such a transcription has a valid and distinguished historical precedent, too: Gluck's Ouverture to Iphigénie en Aulide may be found in keyboard guise in Martha Jefferson Randolph's Manuscript Music Book (now housed in the Jefferson family music collection at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville).
Sarabande publications are available in the U. S. through the Boulder Early Music Shop, 1822 Powell Street, Erie, CO 80516 or at P. O. Box 428, Lafay-ette, CO 80026 (e-mail: [email protected]; website: http://www.bems.com).
