Wagner Tristan piano-vocal arr by H v Bulow

[sbeckmesser]

Hans von Bulow was responsible for producing the first piano-vocal score of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (published by Breitkopf). It was notorious for being too difficult to play, though Bulow, a virtuoso pianist and conductor, would probably have had no problems with it. It would be nice to see how difficult it is compared to the other versions available at IMSLP and if there are any hints as to "authentic" interpretation that can be gleaned from Bulow's arrangement. A scan of the net shows that this score is pretty rare in the used-music marketplace (found only one for 65 Euros at zvab.de).

--Sixtus

[daphnis]

Indeed it would, fortunately it doesn't seem to be so rare in the collections of American libraries, and at a mere 260 pages it has to be one of the shorter Wagner vocal scores.

[pocoallegro]

It is available for perusal at the Harvard Digital Scores and Libretti website (http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/loebmu ... gital.html). Looks like a pretty busy accompaniment!

[sbeckmesser]

Thanks for the tip! I also managed to download a complete PDF of the score -- in full color! Don't know whether Harvard would get pissed if I posted it at IMSLP or not. Harvard is my alma mater, after all.

--Sixtus

PS: There's also a PV score of Pelleas that has on the front page "Version pour Tenor" that not only has red-inked performance indications (mainly for the role of Pelleas) but (presumably) Debussy's alterations to Pelleas' vocal line making it more suitable for a tenor. A fascinating and valuable document.

http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/loebmu ... gital.html

[Carolus]

That's a very nice collection indeed, with superb full-color scans. I've already posted the Debussy Nocturnes and Ives' Concord Sonata. The files are huge and it takes the Harvard site eons to generate the pdf. There are a few things there which are not PD in Canada. Stravinsky, the Schoenberg Erwartung (libretto not PD), Gershwin (text by Ira), etc. Otherwise, as long as the big items like opera vocal scores, etc. are broken into Acts or similar logical segments, there should be no problem.

[Lyle Neff]

Wouldn't it be possible to extract the images from the full-color PDFs, reprocess them in gray scale or black-and-white scores, then re-assemble and upload he PDF as a smaller-size alternative?

[sbeckmesser]

In the case of the Pelleas score I mentioned, removing the color would make the resulting monochrome image musically illegible for much of Pelleas' lines. and would be just as counterproductive as a B/W facsimile of Bach's St. Matthew Passion (which also is in colored ink and viewable either from the IMSLP files or via an on-disc CD-ROM bonus with Harnoncourt's latest recording of the work).

Besides, Harvard isn't going anywhere soon and interested users should go there directly to explore and download. The online collection is small enough, and easy enough to use (unlike MANY other library and archival collections) to thoroughly explore in an evening. More hits at their site would likely encourage Harvard to spend the time and money to post additional, even more extraordinary scores. For example, Harvard has in its hands (and I've held it in my hands) a score of Mahler's 3rd Symphony FILLED with inked in corrections, presumably originating from Mahler himself. Harvard also has an extremely valuable marked-up score of Tristan (see the listing below, from Harvard's rare-book library). To anybody interested in performance practice, it would be great if Harvard could post these and other musical treasures at their site. The point is getting everything online in the first place. But, everything doesn't have to be at IMSLP.

--Sixtus


Houghton f *Mus.W1253Tr.1859 [Score used by Peter Cornelius, disciple of Wagner and trainer of the singers for Tristan, with Cornelius’s autograph signature on the t.p. and his annotations (German script) in ink throughout the musical text.] [Notes (in ink) in Wagner’s hand on inside cover regarding preparations for the performance of Tristan in Vienna (1861 and 1863) that never took place; also annotations in Wagner’s hand in the score.] [Includes annotations in pencil by Hans von Bülow throughout score.] [Translations of some of the notes on 1 leaf, laid in.] [Bound in half green cloth and boards, lettered in gilt.] [In case, 36.5 cm.]